Ethnic Inequalities in Kenya

‘The time has come’, writes James S. Coleman, ‘to recognize the professional respectability as well as the practical essentiality of the ancient and honorable hybrid discipline of political economy.’ 1 Such an approach to the study of developing countries is as timely as it is prudent. This article attempts to apply the approach of political economy to the question of elite recruitment, the process by which individuals are selected and assigned to strategic, political, and administrative roles. 2 It seeks to examine recruitment as a conflict of interests facing decision- makers in Kenya. Such a task seems most meaningfully handled by enlarging the boundaries under examination to include recruitment of the élite who are to manage Kenya's economy as well as its political structure. This method of analysis leads almost inevitably, under Kenyan circumstances, to a discussion of the crucial issue of resource allocation, for the priorities established in expenditure patterns are of direct relevance to the opportunity for members of various ethnic groups to compete in the market place for political and economic positions.