The Map Is Also a Ballot
5 published articles
Commentary · 2026-09-26
The Party Is Also a Map: Kenya’s 2027 Contest for Citizen Power
How parties, nominations and coalitions shape citizen power in Kenya’s 2027 election, across government-aligned formations, opposition organisations, emerging movements and citizens outside those camps.
Commentary · 2026-08-08
From Ethnic Geography to Convivial Democracy
We live convivially. Why do we vote territorially? Applying Paul Gilroy’s idea of convivial culture to Kenya’s constituencies, and asking whether representation should begin from the systems through which Kenyans already share a life.
Commentary · 2026-08-02
Of Crowdsourcing, Crowdfunding and the Linda Mwananchi Movement-Building Story
Linda Mwananchi is proving that citizens can finance and expand a political movement through small contributions and digital networks. Its deeper test is whether it can convert a crowd into a transparent, citizen-governed institution capable of restraining, and surviving, its most popular leaders.
Commentary · 2026-08-01
The Candidate Is Also a Map: Sifuna and the Test of a Civic Movement
Citizen TV’s The Explainer presented Edwin Sifuna as Kenya’s “man of the moment.” But the more important question is whether his political moment can become a civic movement, one capable of organising citizens around shared values and problems rather than merely rearranging Kenya’s familiar ethnic blocs.
Commentary · 2026-07-31
The Map Is Also a Ballot: Rethinking Kenya’s Constituencies to Defeat Negative Ethnicity
Kenya’s electoral boundaries do more than determine where citizens vote. They influence who politicians must persuade, who is treated as an outsider and whether elections reward civic coalitions or ethnic fortresses.