Uhuru dramatically changes with only his legacy on the agenda

In this year of our Lord 2018, we are at the end of the Mwai Kibaki regime, and are now entering the Uhuru Kenyatta regime. Let me explain. In political theory the word regime is not merely a description of a government in office. A regime and an administration are not synonymous. A regime is a pattern of actions and norms. It is the implicit and explicit standards, rules and intentions that inform decision-making. A regime displays a clear-cut order of interactions and actions consolidated into a discernable way of doing things. So in other words, the term regime is a reference to how the state is being run, not who is running the state. A regime therefore does not change with a new president; it is the president who changes the regime.

In Kenya, we have had four presidents so far, but we have only had three regimes: the Kenyatta/Moi regime was the first. The Jomo and Moi regimes were largely the same. They had similar political tactics, the same merry-go-round of politicians and administrators, and the same modus operandi.