The Social Structure of the National Assembly in Kenya

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Periodical article

Title:	The Social Structure of the National Assembly in Kenya
Author:	Hornsby, Charles
Year:	1989
Periodical:	Journal of Modern African Studies
Volume:	27
Issue:	2
Period:	June
Pages:	275-296
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Kenya
Subjects:	political elite parliamentarians Politics and Government Ethnic and Race Relations
External link:	https://www.jstor.org/stable/160851
Abstract:	This article presents and analyses data about the socioeconomic background of Kenya's Members of Parliament since independence in 1963 up to 1983. The information presented has been obtained from a variety of sources, notably all published Who's Who's, local newspapers and magazines, the national archives, and interviews with Kenyan MPs. Information has been unearthed on 473 of the 487 directly elected MPs. When compared with the mass of the population, MPs form a clearly defined and distinct group. They are male, middle-aged, well-educated, from high-status occupations (particularly business), and they hold or have held a large number of formal positions in the institutions of party, State, and local government. The tendency which appeared at independence for a democratization of the legislature, with young, less-educated but politically active representatives, has been wholly reversed since 1969. The élite now corresponds closely to that found in most other African and Western countries. Notes, ref.