Neopatrimonialism, Traditional Authority, and Faith Institutions in Western Kenya: The Political Logic of the Luhya Council of Elders

Neopatrimonialism gives a good grid to scholars to analyse governance in Africa and was used as a description for state-society relations in Africa. This article takes the example of the Luhya Council of Elders in western Kenya and examines the council’s political survival and the significance of its institution. A neopatrimonial approach is used to explain the continued possible existence of councils of elders in spite of the constitutional reforming and electoral democratization processes in Kenya. Such councils have played an influential role in mobilizing political support to leaders, in aggregating ethnic constituencies and building moral legitimacy. The article offers a historical-institutional analysis based on secondary academic literature, media archives, policy documents and religious literature with an aim of explaining the ways in which the Luhya Council of Elders functions as a strategic intermediary in the neopatrimonialism order of Kenyan politics. Although the council lacks state support, it is run along Luhya cultural lines, and aided by the support of faith-based organizations. The article advances an analytical model consisting of three layers: cultural legitimacy, moral endorsement and patronage brokerage which explains how the layers are interrelated in terms of the role that the council plays within contemporary Kenyan governance. The research recognizes traditional authority as being composite and dynamic in nature and still in the process of reproduction in the contemporary context of politics. These findings add to growing debates over African political traditions, the consolidation of democratic regimes, and society-versus-institutional relationships.