"[2] While it first came to public attention in the summer of 2004, and achieved a much greater profile during the 2005 constitutional referendum and presidential election campaigns, it subsequently lost momentum, suffering from internal dissent, leadership change, and a more general frustration at the apparent inability of Egypt's political opposition to force the pace of reform.
While Kefaya first emerged in 2004, its origins can be found in earlier strands of political protest, beginning with the solidarity committees that spread throughout Egypt following the start of the Second Intifada in October 2000.
The much-anticipated cabinet reshuffle in July resulted in only cosmetic changes, however, and saw the installation of a number of supporters of the President's son, Gamal Mubarak, in important government posts.
"[8] Then in October 2004, Tarek El-Bishry, one of Egypt's most respected judges, presented what soon came to be regarded as the movement's first manifesto in which he exhorted his fellow citizens to "withdraw their long-abused consent to be governed" – in effect, a call for civil disobedience.
"[7] Described as a "loose knit umbrella of diverse political trends,"[7] Kefaya represents a "new style" of opposition in Egypt, with parallels to Ukraine's Orange Revolution and Poland's Solidarity movement.
[9] It draws its support from a cosmopolitan range of sources including Nasserists, Islamists, Liberals, Marxists, Secularists etc., some of which have deep-rooted ideological differences, and have even clashed in the past.
Activists frequently stress that it is not a political party aiming to achieve power, but a "national coalition movement" united by the common goal of seeking an end to President Mubarak's rule.
A rally planned for 18 January was banned, while in the same month political scientist and leading activist Mohamed El-Sayed Said, was removed from a panel discussion at Cairo's Book Fair.
[7] Then on 26 February 2005, President Mubarak caused consternation when he announced a proposal to amend Article 76 of the Constitution to enable multiple candidates to contest presidential elections directly for the first time.
Under the old system, the election process was indirect: the candidate was nominated and confirmed by the People's Assembly (Majlis al-Sha'b), controlled by the National Democratic Party (NDP), before being approved in a nationwide "yes" or "no" referendum.
[11] The immediate repercussion to this announcement was the decision by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to cancel a proposed visit to the country in protest at the arrest and imprisonment of opposition politician Ayman Nour, leader of the al-Ghad (Tomorrow) Party.
[12] More generally, American President George W. Bush had been putting pressure on key regional allies, especially Egypt and Saudi Arabia, to introduce some form of electoral reform as part of efforts to spread democracy – the so-called "forward strategy for freedom.
[21] On 25 May, the day of the referendum, demonstrations organised by Kefaya in front of the Press Syndicate headquarters and Sa'd Zaghlul Shrine in Cairo were attacked by Mubarak supporters and plain-clothes policemen, whilst riot police looked on.
[7] Despite these incidents, there was no serious violence on voting day, which George Ishak, Kefaya's co-ordinator at the time, attributed to international attention on Egypt: "There are 1,800 foreign correspondents watching the elections; do you think the regime would should show its hideous face to the world?
On 8 June, 2,000 people representing a cross-section of the Egyptian opposition took part in a candle-lit vigil in front of the mausoleum of Saad Zaghoul, one of Egypt's national heroes.
At a rally held in Cairo on 30 July to protest against President Mubarak's intention to seek a fifth term, 200 activists were attacked by uniformed and plain clothed police wielding truncheons.
[10] Moreover, in the aftermath of the 2005 presidential elections, the International Crisis Group stated: "Kefaya has remained essentially a protest movement, targeting Mubarak personally and articulating a bitter rejection of the status quo rather than a constructive vision of how it might be transformed.
"[27] It has also been criticised for failing to reach beyond "an exclusive, Cairo-based intellectual crowd," offering a "lofty discourse on human rights and democracy" but no practical solutions to the problems Egyptians face on a daily basis, such as poverty, unemployment, poor access to education and public services, etc.
[6] Thus, according to Abdel Fattah, an academic at Cairo University, Kefaya "are not effective among the masses and they will not reach the point where we see millions of Egyptians take to the streets … instead of slogans I want practical solutions to problems.
"[6] Then, at the end of 2006, a more serious split occurred after an anonymous article was posted on Kefaya's website apparently supporting an anti-veil stance advocated by Farouk Hosni, the Minister of Culture.
One, Magdi Ahmed Hussein, declared that Kefaya had "failed to find the middle ground between the Islamists and liberals…"[30] The movement's co-ordinator since 2004, George Ishak, stepped down in January 2007 to be replaced by Abdel-Wahab El-Messiri, a renowned anti-zionist scholar and former member of both the Egyptian Communist Party and Muslim Brotherhood.