Opinion is free but facts are sacred

Ahmednasir Abdullahi makes a startling accusation in today's Straight Talk (Voodoo economics and development corruption, Sunday Nation, 16 October 2011), while Prof Makau Mutua, in his Letter from New York, makes a rather sweeping declaration that in effect describes President Moi's entire twenty-four year reign as a tribal kleptocracy that did nothing good for the nation at all (Why Raila should not dance with Moi). Both authors attempt to create the impression that their statements, opinions if you must, are based on fact and that they should be accepted at face value simply because they attempt to explain why Kenya is the way it is today while simultaneously offering a guide to what it should do to become better in the future. Mr Ahmednasir accuses President Kibaki, in effect, of sitting at the head of a giant mafia corporation that has enriched a few at the expense of the many by concluding, without producing any proof whatsoever, that Mr Kibaki has created more billionaires in his nine year reign than all former presidents combined or, indeed any other country on earth! The impression that he creates is that he has information detailing the manner and means employed by President Kibaki and the billionaires created by his government to attain their Croesus-like riches. If this were the case, and respecting the laws of slander and libel, Mr Ahmednasir must produce this information and disseminate it to the wider public to allow them to know who is and who is not worthy of the respect and esteem such wealth brings them.

Prof Mutua will not accept that anything done during President Moi's twenty-four year rule was good; he will not accept that circumstances moulded President Moi into who he became, especially from around 1981 to 1983. President Moi did not set out to craft an authoritarian government; the circumstances he found himself in and the choices he was left to make shaped how his presidency came out. The men who surrounded the late President Kenyatta had attempted on several occasions to prevent Mr Moi from assuming the presidency and, failing that, attempted to undermine his presidency at every turn. Africa, at that time, was emerging from a century of European imperialism, and many fledgeling independent countries were unstable, to put it mildly, with competing factions seeking to rule. The received orthodoxy was that strong central rule was preferable to anarchic devolution or federal structures and hence President Moi's transformation into an overbearing, unforgiving autocrat who would brook no dissent or opposition. As one of the strategies of prolonging his reign, President Moi used the enormous powers of his office to reward loyalists and to punish dissenters. The truth is, though, he did not destroy the forces of change; they emerged in the late 1980s and forced him to change tack, repeal section 2A to the former Constitution, allow multi-partyism to grow, and eventually ceded power peacefully to a popular new government. An analysis of the twenty-four years that President Moi was in power will reveal a more complex and nuanced picture than the one painted by Prof Mutua.

Both authors betray a penchant for making wild allegations without foundation that has become another of the peculiar habits of Kenyans.No one will dispute that President Moi ruled more like a dictator than a democratically elected president, and no one will dispute that corruption has flourished under President Kibaki's watch despite his promises of fighting tooth and nail to eradicate it during his tenure. But this is not enough to state without reservation that Moi's reign was an unqualified disaster or that President Kibaki is solely responsible for the enormous levels of known graft within the corridors of his government. Other than the pacification of warring Somali clans in Kenya, and the ethnic cashes that characterised the 1992 and 1997 general elections, President Moi oversaw one of the most peaceful and stable periods in Kenya's history, and other than the mere allegation that Mwai Kibaki has created more corruption billionaires than any other president, his social programmes have done more to alleviate poverty than is acknowledged. He has managed to provide free basic education to millions of primary school-going children, and his Rapid Results Initiative and Performance Contracting System for the public service has done more to improve services to citizens than is being acknowledged. It is not enough to accuse the two presidents of being at the centre of some of Kenya's most intractable problems; one must also provide the proof for such crimes.