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Over the last two decades, the shift from state-led to market oriented economic policies has been one of the most important policy changes in sub-Saharan Africa. Fronted by international financial institutions, African governments have implemented market oriented policies with varying policy outcomes ranging from ‘half hearted’ liberalization to comprehensive economic reforms. What accounts for the variation? This paper argues that ideas (held by domestic elites) - defined as constituting both a set of policy ideas and values- matter, and can be shown to exert causal influence over and above the impact of international actors, interests, and institutions on policy outcomes in Africa. I illustrate this point by examining the shift in economic policies in Kenya. In the country, limited economic reforms in the 1990s (under President Moi) which had stalled by the end of the decade received a major boost in 2003 when the NARC government under President Kibaki came to power. I seek to explain the policy shift by focussing on how ideas, interests, and institutions interacted to produce the policy changes. The paper also explores the conditions under which ideas are likely to be influential. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]