Referee report for paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Referee report for paper - Essay Example Each group occupied different geographical locations in the country. Autocratic form of government did not change even under president Jomo Kenyatta, but transitions came after the second president, who turned it into democratic government. However, during the autocratic form of government, ethnic favouritism was highly practice by political leader. This is supported by the data on road building, found across various districts in Kenya during the period of 1963 to 2011. The data indicates that across the 1963-2011 periods, the co ethic districts with the president received more roads expenditure as compared to non co-ethnic group. However, the new democratic government changed these kinds of biases and brought a lot of changes in the country that led to economic growth (Schwartzberg, 1987). This paper has clearly revealed the importance of democracy in Kenya, a country which is vulnerable to ethnic favouritism. It has defined the term ethnic favouritism and examined the effects it ha s on the country’s economy. According to the paper, ethnic favouritism has being used in most developing countries by political leaders. However, the way this paper has examined the efforts of reintroducing democracy in order to tackle ethnic favouritism, is quite interesting. It has also provided evidence to illustrate how ethnic favouritism is practiced in developing countries. ... For instance, according to ethnic data it is reported that Kikuyu consist of 18.8%, Luhya 12.7%, Kalenjin 10.8%, and Luo 13.4% (Anderson, 1999). During the pre colonial period, these ethnic groups did not exist because the authority at the time was personal and local. However, after independence new rules and leaders emerged and led to development of provincial administration. This administration divided the country into provinces, districts, divisions, sub locations, and locations. Ethnic homogenous districts, therefore, emerged in the course of the country’s evolution, leading to segregation and geographical targeting by various races to form ethnic groups. 2. Ethnic favouritism as a political strategy The paper reveals ethnic favouritism as the main strategy used by political leaders in many developing countries. Political leaders may use ethnic favouritism with the fear that without proper tactics in political games, they may lose their positions to other competing politic ians. They, therefore, believe that practicing ethnic favouritism increases strongholds that propel them to higher positions in the government (Anderson, 1999). However, since ethnic favouritism is a political game, I would expect the author to elaborate more on the issue. For instance, explaining how politician utilizes ethnic favouritism in weakening their political opponent through silencing their ethnic groups. This can be done through weakening or shutting down the electoral institutions. If a political leader practices ethnic favouritism then he or she is unaccountable and unrepresentative to his or her own people. This is because there are a few people who are favoured while others are being taxed, yet these leaders manage to remain in power for decades. It is possible for a president