For a brief moment, Kenyans seemed to have summoned the collective muscle necessary to hold their rulers to account. Across the country on December 27, they assembled peacefully and in record numbers to vote. As results came in from a parliamentary contest that ran alongside presidential polls, it transpired that a generation schooled in the post-colonial politics of patronage and graft was being shown the door.

There were the makings of a watershed for Africa. Alongside the eviction from parliament of nearly half the cabinet, an incumbent leader, Mwai Kibaki, looked set to be ousted and a second consecutive constitutional transfer of power – unprecedented on the continent – seemed imminent. If there were grounds to doubt that a new government would fare better at meeting demands for social justice, these were tempered by a surge of confidence among Kenyans that if incoming ministers failed, they too could be removed peacefully.