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Reparations and the politics of waiting in Kenya.

Mueller-Hirth, Natascha

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Abstract

This article examines transitional justice in Kenya, drawing on interviews and focus groups with survivors of the post-election violence of 2007–2008. Focusing particularly on the experiences of women and internally displaced persons (IDPs), it explores how survivors understood and negotiated waiting for reparations and analyses the effects of temporal uncertainty (around timing and scope) and of inequality (in relation to waiting times). Uncertainty and inequality contributed to survivors’ senses of passivity and exacerbated their feelings of marginalisation. To delay reparations for an uncertain time contributes to senses of continuity with the past, which transitional justice precisely seeks to disrupt. However, the study also demonstrates that waiting is not only endured, but at times actively resisted or rejected, which might be understood as a claim to ownership of local peace and exercise of peacebuilding agency but also as resistance against the dominant temporality of transitional justice. By framing survivors’ experiences with the scholarship on time and power and the “politics of waiting”, the research contributes to the literature on local experiences and understandings of transitional justice and to recent debates around its temporalities.

Citation

MUELLER-HIRTH, N. 2021. Reparations and the politics of waiting in Kenya. Journal of Eastern African studies [online], 15(3), pages 464-484. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1080/17531055.2021.1950749

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date May 27, 2021
Online Publication Date Jul 18, 2021
Publication Date Sep 30, 2021
Deposit Date Jul 26, 2021
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal Journal of Eastern African studies
Print ISSN 1753-1055
Electronic ISSN 1753-1063
Publisher Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 15
Issue 3
Pages 464-484
DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/17531055.2021.1950749
Keywords Reparations; Kenya; Time; Power; Waiting; Transitional justice
Public URL https://rgu-repository.worktribe.com/output/1375575

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