Last week, Africa lost one of its finest scholars, Thandika Mkandawire of the London School of Economics. I came to know about Prof Thandika years back while researching about the thriving politics of patronage in Africa, and his work on the concept of "neopatrimonialism" which incorporates a diverse range of sub-concept from elitism, ethnicity, tradition, tribalism, nepotism and even rent-seeking was very illuminating.
In Kenya, neopatrimonialism takes the form of political and administrative system formally constructed to concentrate power, misuse of public resources and provision of individual interest through ethnic lines. And the patrimonial elites present the image of this power structure to the world as the workable system for stability and people are happy with it.
