(Begin with political context and see all other articles in this set below)

The survey research for this report was conducted in July and August 2009, as Kenya continued to grapple with the aftermath of the civil unrest of early 2008. The complex political backdrop included a fragile power-sharing government, pervasive suspicion of official corruption (reflected in the 90 percent of survey respondents who said corruption was a “serious problem” or “very serious problem” in Kenya), and unresolved ethnic tensions within a highly multiethnic population (see Map 1).

Map 1 

                                     
Map Source: Mynott, Adam. “Ethnic Tensions Dividing Kenya,” BBC News Online, 5 January 2008. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/7172038.stm#map

The contested presidential election in December 2007 sparked violence (much of it ethnically driven) that resulted in about 1,500 deaths and half a million displaced persons.  The crisis ebbed after the formation of a coalition government under incumbent President Mwai Kibaki and the opposition leader (now prime minister) Raila Odinga. Under the deal, the president retains most executive power as chief of state and head of government, while the prime minister leads parliament and has some executive powers.  The new government has been charged with addressing the constitutional, procedural and political roots of the crisis; though some reforms have already taken place, others have been more drawn out, particularly the drafting of a new constitution that may curtail presidential powers.

Given this unsettled social and political backdrop, it may not be surprising to learn that survey respondents' stated levels of trust in many government institutions trailed trust in other types of institutions by wide margins (Chart 1).
International development organizations, which received favorable ratings themselves, can also use these trust numbers as guideposts when they are considering various Kenyan institutions for partners in development communication and implementation efforts. The high trust ratings for media and local NGOs are encouraging, given that they are typical conduits for spreading development information.

Chart 1
                     

(click on each link to get a complete picture of the development context in Kenya)