Mwai Kabiki's Legacy II

It is not for nothing that we must insist on a nuanced examination of Mwai Kibaki's ten years as Daniel Toroitich arap Moi's successor in State House. Many are disillusioned by the broken promises made in the run-up to the NARC whitewash of the KANU political juggernaut. Many have noted that graft seems to have flourished right under the President's nose. Many have lost faith in the many programmes initiated by Mwai Kibaki's government, arguing that once the fanfare of their launches is over and done with, the real work of "eating" and stealing begins and millions of Kenyans are left to suffer. We were once a proud nation with lofty goals of eradicating disease, poverty and ignorance. We promised ourselves safe drinking water, but kept changing the deadline for keeping the promise until now it seems as if the latest deadline is all but abandoned. We promised ourselves five-hundred thousand jobs annually for the legions of youth; instead, unemployment is running at a ruinous 40% or more, if official statistics are to be believed. Under Mwai Kibaki's watch, human rights violations were not eradicated, nor was the scourge of ethnic jingoism and negative ethnicity. But in one sense Kenyans must admit that Mwai Kibaki has done more for this country than all previous presidents combined: he has given us a measure of freedom that we could only aspire to in the dark days of the late 1980s and early 1990s.

The freedom that Mwai Kibaki has allowed Kenyans to enjoy - yes, allowed - has opened up the realm of political discourse to such an extent that it is no longer unusual for Kenyans of all shades and stripes to castigate their government or call their elected representatives to account. For the most part, their government and their elected representatives are caught in a time-warp, hostage to the education that Prof Moi imparted over a period of twenty-four years. Some, like Mwai Kibaki, had their political education under the tutelage of the wily President-for-life Jomo Kenyatta. An example should suffice to demonstrate the extent of the freedom that Mwai Kibaki has allowed. When the Tana Delta exploded a month ago, the traditional response of the Executive would have been either to ignore the problem and suppress any reports about it, or to respond with overwhelming force and suppress any reports about it. Any of the elected representatives foolish enough to be quoted about the goings-on in the Delta would have been rounded up by the dreaded Special Branch boys, hauled before the President and if they were lucky, that would be the end of it; if they were not, they looked forward to months, or even years, of Executive-sanctioned harassment.

Look at the situation today. You have an Assistant Minister accusing a Cabinet Minister of being the hand behind the violence. Then you have a slew of elected representatives accusing the Executive of being asleep on the job, demanding the resignations of Ministers and police bosses. Then there are those brave enough to demand - demand! - the deployment of additional security personnel, including the army, to quell the violence. Then there is the ludicrous claim by the police that if they were to respond as they are wont to respond, they will be accused of human rights violations and have their bosses hauled off to The Hague to face international-crimes trials at the International Criminal Court. In a complete break with the past, the President caves in and sends in a contingent of fresh-out-of-training General Service Unit officers with a mandate to "deal with the matter". Ten days after their deployment, the residents of the Tana are lamenting their decision to ask for presidential decisive action and their elected representatives are singing a different tune.One has even go so far as to threaten the President with unspecified dire outcomes if he does not direct the GSU to be a little less GSU-ish in carrying out their duties. What is unique is that all these disparate voices are permitted to speak. No way would Moi have allowed Kenyans the lee-way to make demands as they saw fit. Nor would he have allowed them to question the wisdom of his decisions.

The freedom to think and speak as one sees fit is Kibaki's greatest legacy to Kenyans. It is all well and good to celebrate the hundreds of kilometres of tarmac laid down by his government or the billions of dollars invested in the country; but it is in the freedom that Kenyans now enjoy to hold their government to account that will lay the foundations for the future development of the country. Of course, not all things have changed for the better. The government, especially the national Assembly and the Executive, are loath to admit that they must account to the people for all they have done, especially over the past decade. But they will find it very difficult to reverse the changes that Mwai Kibaki has introduced. Mwai Kibaki has disappointed many Kenyans in many different ways; but even greater than his legacy of infrastructure development and foreign investment, he must be remembered for not being Moi or Kenyatta and letting Kenyans speak their minds.