About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

5 Strathmore L.J. 189 (2021)
A Representative of the People: A Review of Dominic Burbidge's an Experiment in Devolution: National Unity and the Deconstruction of the Kenyan State

handle is hein.journals/strathlj5 and id is 189 raw text is: Book Reviews A representative of the people A review of Dominic Burbidge's An experiment in devolution: National unity and the deconstruction of the Kenyan state Lizzy Muthoni Kibira* It is a scene so ordinary, so normal, you know. That at a funeral, a political representative - the chief or some other low-level bureaucrat should attend and; sooner or later, as an interlude to an otherwise sombre speech, they will launch into an impassioned digest of what their bosses have been doing or some other drivel. Every once in a while though, if the 'event' is large enough - maybe concerning a hayati or marehemu rather than a mwendazake - then, it attracts quite the shindy. A gaggle of political geese unabashedly having words and setting the political tropology for the next few months; while we - over the noise of the pub, or of the children - raise our fists at the TV at the indignity of it all. If nothing else, at least the bereaved are spared in their preoccupation with grief. This, is us. It has happened to me, maybe to you too, but we have all certainly been witness to it. This scene, rather an exemplar of it, concludes what has since become my favourite chapter of Dominic Burbidge's An experment in devolution, chapter six. Published by Strathmore University Press in 2019, the 319-page volume is a welcome addition to the growing scholarship on devolution in Kenya.1 This text, indeed, brings with it a much needed 'empirical grit' to a discourse previously saturated with historically and theoretically derived conjecture. The hallmark of the book is, therefore, this attention to the material, the meticulousness Dominic Burbidge, An experiment in devolution: National unity and the deconstruction of the Kenyan state, Strathmore University Press, Nairobi, 2019. * The author is an LLB student at Strathmore Law School. 5 STRATHMORE LAW JOURNAL, 1, JUNE 2021 189

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most