By Otuma Ongalo

This is the big question that the first Institute for Development Studies (IDS) seminar in the new year ,2020, will address, based on the Afrobarometer survey conducted in September last year.

The seminar, “Afrobarometer Survey Results on Kenyans’ Perceptions of Economic Development and Political Economy Issues”, will be given by Dr Paul Kamau on 23 January, 2020, at the University of Nairobi Towers. Dr Kamau is a Senior Research Fellow and Associate Director at IDS.

A peek into the presentation indicates that only 44 per cent of Kenyans believe that the country is headed in the right direction but the citizens are optimistic about future economic outlook.

In politics, majority of Kenyans support the handshake between President Uhuru Kenyatta and ODM leader Raila Odinga, which culminated into the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI).

Afrobarometer is an independent, non-partisan research project that measures social, political and economic atmosphere in Africa. It is managed by a network comprising Centre for Democratic Development (CDD), Ghana; Institute for Empirical Research in Political Economy (IREEP), Benin; Institute for Democracy in South Africa (IDASA), South Africa and IDS, University of Nairobi. Eight rounds of surveys were conducted in up to 37 Africans countries between 1999 and 2019. Round 8 surveys were conducted in 2018/2019.

IDS Seminar is a popular series of bi-monthly seminars hosted by the Institute for Development Studies.  The seminars are coordinated by Dr Radha Upadhyaya, a Research Fellow at IDS. Some of the recent IDS seminars are:

Recent IDS Seminars