Unravelling the facts and fiction about Kenya’s turbulent politics

Facts, in social sciences, are regarded as stubborn things: you cannot wish them away even if you wanted to. Quite often they are also seen as brutal: they can offend, annoy, shame, humble and “put someone in his or her place”. When isolated they may make little sense; but when put together in a certain way they help explain certain problems which face us or certain questions which puzzle us.

Regarding social phenomena or events which occur in history and our thirst to know why and how they occur, social scientists develop theories which seek to help us explain such things. Theories put facts together or relate them to each other in such a way that we can then explain why certain things happen, or why people behave in a certain way.