A decade of institutional development, public leadership, and governance in Kenya: from a promising past into an uncertain future!

Understanding institutional development, public leadership, and governance aspects is crucial for evaluating a country like Kenya’s progress over the past decade. Doing so through a longitudinal analysis is more likely to generate a fairer evaluation of whether African states, which are still grappling with historical legacies, balancing conflicting donor interests and democratisation as part of state-building efforts, as well as developing challenges, are journeying into the future. This discussion delves into citizens’ perceptions of these three aspects, as captured by the Afrobarometer (AB) survey from 2011 to 2021. It examines the performance of the presidency, parliament, local governments, the judiciary, and corruption. The analysis of AB data is supplemented by insights from other secondary sources to put the discussion in more context. It is shown that Kenya remains a state that despises its own citizens, overseen by a rogue executive at the top and captured by opposition politics. This chapter highlights the significance of expanding social accountability in governance processes and emphasises the need for youth activism going into the future.