Kenya: A Comparative East African Perspective

Abstract

This chapter compares the policy practice in the four East African countries—Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda—and examines how far mainstream theory helps explain these practices. It highlights how the countries have evolved different policy regimes drawing on precolonial legacies and their experience since independence. It places these regimes in a global perspective evaluating their position on governance and development indices. There are few outstanding cases although Rwanda’s position on facilitating business and maintaining public integrity are exceptions. Generally, however, the four countries fall at the lower half of these global indices, and in an African comparison, they are neither at the top nor at the bottom. The chapter ends with a discussion of the applicability of three policy development theories—gradualism, punctuated equilibrium, and critical juncture—suggesting that all three help explain parts of the policy process in the four East African countries but more research is needed to enhance knowledge about how public policy is made and carried out.