Uhuru Kenyatta's Rise To Power

The strategies employed by Uhuru Kenyatta in securing his second presidency of Kenya are distinctly tied to the axioms put forth by Niccolò Machiavelli in his treatise The Prince, specifically the destruction of opposition and making promises but not keeping them. Uhuru Kenyatta ran with a recently created political party called the Jubilee Party, which arose as a beneficial merger of around ten smaller parties. In order to achieve a greater amount of support in his election, he made a deal with the Kenya African National Union (another prominent party), promising their leaders that he would provide cabinet spots to their party once elected. At this point in time, only one of around fifty spots in his cabinet are filled by a member of this compatriot party, with the rest being members of Kenyatta’s own party (Kibor).

In keeping with this theme, Kenyatta also ran under the party platform of internal peace and accountable government; to project these promises publicly to gain kudos but not truly act on them is quintessentially Machiavellian. The most important trait that Kenyatta employed during his rise to power was his destruction and silencing of the opposition party in Kenya, the Orange Democratic Party.. The first election for the current presidency was deemed as “neither transparent nor verifiable”, and subsequently annulled by the Supreme Court of Kenya (“Kenya 's Raila Odinga 'inaugurates ' himself “). In retaliation, Kenyatta did not allow any reforms to be made before the second election, which he won with a 98% majority (despite only 39% of the voters turning