Self-serving politicians, whether as elected MPs or sitting out in the cold after losing their seats in 2007, have taken grandstanding to new heights recently, vociferously castigating the government for allowing the situation in Syokimau to deteriorate as it has. The history of the land saga in Syokimau indicts all of them as a class; after all, the issues surrounding the allocation of land in the vast plains of the Mavoko Municipal Council have been in he public domain since the Kenya Meat Commission went out of business in the early 1990s. Given the close proximity of the area to Nairobi it was only to be expected that speculators would descend on the area with plans for acquisition, subdivision and sale of the vast land. It was also to be expected that a villainous combination of Land Ministry mandarins, Mavoko Municipal Councillors, MPs and Nairobi businessmen and lawyers would take advantage of the situation and take innocent Kenyans for a very expensive ride.
The self-indulgent condemnation in the editorial pages of the nation's dailies and the self-righteous reports by news media of the pain and suffering of the victims of government demolition squads refuses to acknowledge that we are in the midst of one of the most complicated transitional periods in Kenyan history. Not only are we in the middle of implementing one of the most complex and complicated constitutions known to man, we are also attempting to reverse near forty years of one-party rule, corruption and gross institutional decline. In addition to the reforms that have been initiated in Ardhi House, we are attempting to reform the security services that have become a law unto themselves in all but name. And in all this we still have the spectre of a venal political class that blows hot and cold over the question of whether the Constitution should be implemented unamended or not.
It is callous to talk of teething problems at this time, but the demolitions that occurred in Syokimau this past week are just that in the grand scheme of reversing the effects of the corruption that flowered during the KANU era (1963 to 2002) and was allowed to entrench itself even more fully during the NARC administration (2003 to 2007). The first Kibaki administration failed to come to terms with the scale of the problems this country faced, concentrating almost exclusively in reviving the economy and Kenya's standing in the commity of nations. Perhaps President Kibaki was right in concentrating on these matters; after all, without foreign investment in Kenya, much of the programmes of his government would not have come to pass. Indeed, it is a s a result of some of the reforms he initiated then that the public infrastructure that had come to such a decrepit status was rehabilitated and expanded. Even with the failure of the first constitutional referendum in 2005, President Kibaki initiated many reforms in the public sector that are only beginning to bear fruit, including the publication of the National Land Policy in the second Kibaki administration.
Its implementation has met stiff resistance, both in and out of Parliament. The opposition has taken a robust position against the reforms initiated by Ardhi House, including the process of repossessing government land that had been irregularly allocated to individuals. The victims of the corruption that flourished, especially in the 1990s, are frequently individuals who have saved all their working lives to provide for their families a security that can only come from owning a capital asset such as a house or plot of land. The beneficiaries are frequently well-connected men and women who served the government in various capacities, whether as suppliers of goods and services, political fixers, senior civil servants and military officers, or politicians of all stripes. The calls should not be for the reform of the land sector but the expediting of the process already underway, including the investigation and possible prosecution of every person involved in the destruction of the sector. Kenyans should not be held at the mercy of an avaricious political class; they must repose their full faith and trust in public institutions that execute their mandates without fealty to political actors. It is the only way we can avoid a insurrection of the have-nots against the haves.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
The Land Question rears its ugly head again
The Government of Kenya may have acted within the letter of the law when it came to the demolition of houses constructed on land it claimed as its own, but no one with an ounce of humanity in them could deny that the spirit of the law was flouted egregiously. The images of grown men and women in tears and the confused, shattered faces of children out in the rain and cold should have turned the hardened heart of the state. There should, at the very least, been an acknowledgment that the persons who had purported to purchase land in Syokimau could not have done so without the active connivance of officers of the government.
The Land Question in Kenya is proving to be the nut that cannot be cracked. The Ministry of Lands published the National Land Policy in 2009 against the opposition of well-connected robber-barons of the Moi and Kenyatta Eras. The spirit of the Policy was entrenched in the Constitution ratified a year later and formed the basis of Chapter Five. However, many men and women have been victims of fraud when it comes to their dealings in land and the pain and suffering some of them are enduring today can be traced back to the dark days when Ardhi House was home to every shade of crook and conman known to man. While the Law Society of Kenya is lauded for having highlighted the shortcomings of the Ministry in the middle of this year, it is not absolved of involvement in the state of affairs there as man advocates of good standing were and continue to be involved in the shady goings-on that have landed the victims of the demolitions in the plight they find themselves today.
Land has always been used as a political weapon in Kenya, and the land clashes that rocked parts of the Rift Valley and Coast Provinces before the 2002 general elections can be traced to decisions that were made and enforced by Presidents Moi and Kenyatta during their long reigns. President Kibaki failed in acting speedily to reverse the rot that permeated the Ministry of Lands. However, with the National Land Policy and his spirited campaign for the Constitution, surely we must admit that he has redeemed himself. If the reforms that he has initiated come to pass, he will have done more to change the manner that we address the Land Question for a generation, at least. While we must sympathise with the victims of the demolitions today, we must be patient for all the reforms to be implemented in the land sector. The incidences where the Commissioner of Lands denies the authenticity of title deeds will be things of the past.
As always, politicians have taken advantage of the plights of their constituents to make hay while the demolition sun is shining. Hon Wavinya Ndeti and Hon Ferdinand Waititu have decided to take a front-line role in calling for enquiries into the demolitions and the circumstances surrounding the allocation of the land to the victims. They forget that over the four odd years they have been Members of Parliament, they have done little in the way of calling for or pursuing reforms that will protect their constituents from the actions of the very same government they serve as Assistant Ministers. Their utterances run the risk of inflaming already fraught emotions and igniting a fire that no one can put out save the government and its use of force. Going into an election year it may seem as smart politics to incite people against their government, but the effects may be much larger than the MPs intend. If they are not careful they may incite violence among the people that may lead to a situation as was witnessed after the last general elections. President Kibaki and Prime Minister Odinga must step in and guide the process even f it means spending tax-payers money to assist the victims resettle elsewhere. It is the only way that we can avoid the mistakes of 2007 and 2008 and instill a sense of confidence in the government and its institutions.
The Land Question in Kenya is proving to be the nut that cannot be cracked. The Ministry of Lands published the National Land Policy in 2009 against the opposition of well-connected robber-barons of the Moi and Kenyatta Eras. The spirit of the Policy was entrenched in the Constitution ratified a year later and formed the basis of Chapter Five. However, many men and women have been victims of fraud when it comes to their dealings in land and the pain and suffering some of them are enduring today can be traced back to the dark days when Ardhi House was home to every shade of crook and conman known to man. While the Law Society of Kenya is lauded for having highlighted the shortcomings of the Ministry in the middle of this year, it is not absolved of involvement in the state of affairs there as man advocates of good standing were and continue to be involved in the shady goings-on that have landed the victims of the demolitions in the plight they find themselves today.
Land has always been used as a political weapon in Kenya, and the land clashes that rocked parts of the Rift Valley and Coast Provinces before the 2002 general elections can be traced to decisions that were made and enforced by Presidents Moi and Kenyatta during their long reigns. President Kibaki failed in acting speedily to reverse the rot that permeated the Ministry of Lands. However, with the National Land Policy and his spirited campaign for the Constitution, surely we must admit that he has redeemed himself. If the reforms that he has initiated come to pass, he will have done more to change the manner that we address the Land Question for a generation, at least. While we must sympathise with the victims of the demolitions today, we must be patient for all the reforms to be implemented in the land sector. The incidences where the Commissioner of Lands denies the authenticity of title deeds will be things of the past.
As always, politicians have taken advantage of the plights of their constituents to make hay while the demolition sun is shining. Hon Wavinya Ndeti and Hon Ferdinand Waititu have decided to take a front-line role in calling for enquiries into the demolitions and the circumstances surrounding the allocation of the land to the victims. They forget that over the four odd years they have been Members of Parliament, they have done little in the way of calling for or pursuing reforms that will protect their constituents from the actions of the very same government they serve as Assistant Ministers. Their utterances run the risk of inflaming already fraught emotions and igniting a fire that no one can put out save the government and its use of force. Going into an election year it may seem as smart politics to incite people against their government, but the effects may be much larger than the MPs intend. If they are not careful they may incite violence among the people that may lead to a situation as was witnessed after the last general elections. President Kibaki and Prime Minister Odinga must step in and guide the process even f it means spending tax-payers money to assist the victims resettle elsewhere. It is the only way that we can avoid the mistakes of 2007 and 2008 and instill a sense of confidence in the government and its institutions.
Participate or withdraw
Mutula Kilonzo, the Minister for Justice, National Cohesion and Constitutional Affairs, determined to showcase the hypocrisy of his fellow Members of Parliament, went ahead and introduced in the National Assembly the Constitution of Kenya (Amendment) Bill, 2011. Hon Kilonzo is adamant - in this he is supported by the Secretary to the National Cohesion and Integration Commission and the newly appointed Chairman of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission - that the 2012 general elections cannot possibly be held in August of that year because of the logistical arrangements that must be made. Mandarins in the Treasury agree with the Minister, arguing that the procedure laid down in the Constitution for the presentation, debate and approval of government estimates preclude an election in August. The Commission for the Implementation of the Constitution is not persuaded by the Minister's rationale for amending the Constitution to shift the date of the general election and it is one among other parties that have approached the courts to obtain a final word on when the elections can be held.
Members of Parliament are livid with the Minister for Justice because he has combined several constitutional amendments in that one Bill. While they have a near-unanimous agreement that the elections should be held in December, they are disunited on the content of the other proposed amendments. Hon Millie Adhiambo-Mabona and Hon Rachel Shebesh have led from the front in objecting to the proposals that the Minister says will improve the Articles dealing with the two-thirds Gender Rule in the Constitution, arguing that the Minister's proposals will water down the gains that have been made on the gender equality front since the 1990s.
But as is common with this Parliament, the issues are not being discussed with a view to compromise, but they as political weapons of mass destruction deployed by one side of the Grand Coalition against the other. Despite the fact that Prime Minister Raila Odinga has yet to state what his position is on the proposals, it must be presumed that as the proposals received the stamp of approval from the Cabinet he must have endorsed them before they were put together in Hon Kilonzo's Bill. This must be the case too with regards to the President's position; after all it is his government. The Speaker of the National Assembly was surely right to refuse to bow down to the wishes of the vocal opposition to the introduction of what they considered an omnibus Bill and by allowing the National Assembly to deal with the matter he has opened up opportunities for parties truly interested in shooting down the Bill to participate fully in the debate that must ensue. Article 255 is very clear about the participation of the public in the process of amending the Constitution and every person interested in this matter has 90 days to make their views known as fully and widely as possible.
We are notorious for manufacturing crises where none exist, and we take our cues in this regard from men and women who have proven time and again that they are very poor political actors. When the Cabinet decided that amending the Constitution was warranted, it did so after considering fully the implications of its proposals. It may have publicised its intentions poorly - the Budget-cycle argument persuaded no one. While I am convinced that shifting the date of the elections from August to December is foolhardy, I do not deny the right of the Cabinet to make the proposal nor that of the National Assembly to consider it. Kenya is still a republic and it is the representative nature of government that we have chose for ourselves. Therefore it is improper for an elite group of men and women to presume to speak for the entire nation without a proper debate being had. Whether the amendments are approved or not, it is up to all of us as right thinking Kenyans to particpate in the process. If we do not and the national Assembly acts contrary to our desires, then we will have none to blame but ourselves. The Constitution may be flawed in many ways, but the Committee of Experts did us proud by ensuring that the process of dealing with it required our tacit and explicit participation. We must take advantage of the 90 days granted us by the Constitution to influence the process to our own ends. It is the right and proper thing to do.
Members of Parliament are livid with the Minister for Justice because he has combined several constitutional amendments in that one Bill. While they have a near-unanimous agreement that the elections should be held in December, they are disunited on the content of the other proposed amendments. Hon Millie Adhiambo-Mabona and Hon Rachel Shebesh have led from the front in objecting to the proposals that the Minister says will improve the Articles dealing with the two-thirds Gender Rule in the Constitution, arguing that the Minister's proposals will water down the gains that have been made on the gender equality front since the 1990s.
But as is common with this Parliament, the issues are not being discussed with a view to compromise, but they as political weapons of mass destruction deployed by one side of the Grand Coalition against the other. Despite the fact that Prime Minister Raila Odinga has yet to state what his position is on the proposals, it must be presumed that as the proposals received the stamp of approval from the Cabinet he must have endorsed them before they were put together in Hon Kilonzo's Bill. This must be the case too with regards to the President's position; after all it is his government. The Speaker of the National Assembly was surely right to refuse to bow down to the wishes of the vocal opposition to the introduction of what they considered an omnibus Bill and by allowing the National Assembly to deal with the matter he has opened up opportunities for parties truly interested in shooting down the Bill to participate fully in the debate that must ensue. Article 255 is very clear about the participation of the public in the process of amending the Constitution and every person interested in this matter has 90 days to make their views known as fully and widely as possible.
We are notorious for manufacturing crises where none exist, and we take our cues in this regard from men and women who have proven time and again that they are very poor political actors. When the Cabinet decided that amending the Constitution was warranted, it did so after considering fully the implications of its proposals. It may have publicised its intentions poorly - the Budget-cycle argument persuaded no one. While I am convinced that shifting the date of the elections from August to December is foolhardy, I do not deny the right of the Cabinet to make the proposal nor that of the National Assembly to consider it. Kenya is still a republic and it is the representative nature of government that we have chose for ourselves. Therefore it is improper for an elite group of men and women to presume to speak for the entire nation without a proper debate being had. Whether the amendments are approved or not, it is up to all of us as right thinking Kenyans to particpate in the process. If we do not and the national Assembly acts contrary to our desires, then we will have none to blame but ourselves. The Constitution may be flawed in many ways, but the Committee of Experts did us proud by ensuring that the process of dealing with it required our tacit and explicit participation. We must take advantage of the 90 days granted us by the Constitution to influence the process to our own ends. It is the right and proper thing to do.
How stupid are they?
Ms Wavinya Ndeti, the Member for Kathiani (Chama Cha Uzalendo) and the Assistant Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports, was visibly livid at 'the government' when she appeared before a joint Parliamentary committee investigating the on-going demolition of buildings constructed in land that belongs to the government, or other state agencies, or those constructed near sensitive installations, such as the Moi Air Base in Eastleigh. Hon Ndeti had come out earlier in the crisis, visiting with the victims of the demolitions on the gorund in her constituency when bulldozers broke the morning calm of Syokimau and laid hundreds of millions of shillings of investment to waste. She has been accompanied on her crusade to stop the demolitions by her counterpart from Embakasi, Ferdinand Waititu (PNU) who has expressed his interest in being elected the governor of Nairobi City County and, at the same sitting at which Hon Ndeti appeared, claimed that the Prime Minister and members of his family were behind the demolitions because they intended to cash in on the properties once the trespassers had been evicted.
Hon Ndeti's outrage would be touching if it were not for the insincerity with which it was expressed. Since her election to the Tenth Parliament, the MP has done precious little to ameliorate what is turning out to be one of the largest land scams in the history of the Mavoko County Council, not counting the storied history of how land belonging to the Kenya Meat Commission changed hands at the fag end of the Moi regime. The Land Question in and around Syokimau, Athi River and Kitengela townships was a volcano waiting to erupt and any elected representative of the residents of these towns knew it. Indeed, there are suspicions that Hon Ndeti or persons connected to her and her family have been beneficiaries of the lackadaisical approach to land administration in Mavoko County and that her tears of sorrow for the victims of the demolitions are nothing but crocodile tears.
Hon Ndeti has not proven to be an effective performer in Parliament. She seems not to have contributed significantk7y to debate in the National Assembly nor advanced public discourse in government regarding certain policies or objectives. Indeed, as a junior member of the Cabinet, when the Executive branch embarked on its idiotic campaign of demolitions, she should have been the first to voice her opposition. If her voice was still not heard, she should have resigned as an assistant minister and taken her agitation to the back-benches and the streets. Instead, just like the big boys on the Cabinet, she is hell-bent on having her cake and eating it too by laying into the government for what she claims to be unlawful and unconstitutional practices, but retaining her sweet seat in government. She may run with hares and hunt with the hounds only for so long; her constituents are bound to learn the truth about her positions and make her pay for her dishonesty. Or perhaps they are as stupid as she thinks they are.
Hon Ndeti's outrage would be touching if it were not for the insincerity with which it was expressed. Since her election to the Tenth Parliament, the MP has done precious little to ameliorate what is turning out to be one of the largest land scams in the history of the Mavoko County Council, not counting the storied history of how land belonging to the Kenya Meat Commission changed hands at the fag end of the Moi regime. The Land Question in and around Syokimau, Athi River and Kitengela townships was a volcano waiting to erupt and any elected representative of the residents of these towns knew it. Indeed, there are suspicions that Hon Ndeti or persons connected to her and her family have been beneficiaries of the lackadaisical approach to land administration in Mavoko County and that her tears of sorrow for the victims of the demolitions are nothing but crocodile tears.
Hon Ndeti has not proven to be an effective performer in Parliament. She seems not to have contributed significantk7y to debate in the National Assembly nor advanced public discourse in government regarding certain policies or objectives. Indeed, as a junior member of the Cabinet, when the Executive branch embarked on its idiotic campaign of demolitions, she should have been the first to voice her opposition. If her voice was still not heard, she should have resigned as an assistant minister and taken her agitation to the back-benches and the streets. Instead, just like the big boys on the Cabinet, she is hell-bent on having her cake and eating it too by laying into the government for what she claims to be unlawful and unconstitutional practices, but retaining her sweet seat in government. She may run with hares and hunt with the hounds only for so long; her constituents are bound to learn the truth about her positions and make her pay for her dishonesty. Or perhaps they are as stupid as she thinks they are.
How the Raila v Haji battle reveals our ignorance
The Intergovernmental authority on Development (IGAD) that brings together seven Eastern Africa nations (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Sudan, Djibouti, Somalia and Ethiopia) is not, as Macharia Gaitho, in today's Tragedy of Errors, would have you believe, a regional security bloc (We handed Al-Shabaab propaganda tool and envoy added fuel to the fire, Daily Nation) but a regional development organization formed to address issues of development and drought control in the region. Since its formation in 1986, the organisation has expanded its mandate to address regional security too, but not in a comprehensive manner, responding when security issues overwhelm individual nations. But, at its core, it is NOT a security bloc and it was not designed to be one.
That aside, Mr Gaitho's assessment of the Prime Minister's visit to the Jewish State is apposite; it was wrong of Raila Odinga to tom-tom the security pacts that he had secured with Israel and so was the decision of the Israeli envoy in Nairobi to divulge details of what the pact entailed. Mr Odinga has frequently been his own worst enemy; in this period of armed conflict on foreign soil, it would be expected that all members of the Cabinet would speak with one voice. The strategies that are to be pursued by the Cabinet in bringing this conflict to a close must be co-ordinated very carefully and we cannot have individual members of the Cabinet going of on their own tangents and deciding foreign or defence policy without reference to the grand strategy. By placing Israel so prominently in the middle of our national strategy with regards to the war with al Shabaab, Mr Gaitho is correct to argue that Mr Odinga and the Israeli envoy have handed the terror group a propaganda coup that may assist it to recruit more militants to its ranks in its jihad against Kenya.
President Kibaki has notoriously allowed his Cabinet a free hand to do as they see fit; the result has been a shambolic government, frequently reacting to national emergencies rather than being proactive in anticipating and heading them off. This autonomy has empowered members of the Cabinet to see themselves as operating outside the ambit of collective responsibility, free to contradict or countermand the decisions of the Cabinet. In effect, Cabinet members see themselves as superior to the Cabinet and, quite frequently, free of the control of the President himself. As a consequence, the members of the Cabinet frequently make poor choices and because of the political situation, the President has not had a free hand in disciplining them or calling them to account publicly for their errors of omission or commission. It is in this background that one can assess the recent public disagreements between the Minister for Medical Services and the Vice-President, and between the Prime Minister and the Minister of State for Defence.
As is our wont, Kenyans no longer care that much about our military operations in Somalia as shown by the rather swift shift of attention back to narrowly political matters. As a nation, we have been brainwashed to believe that the only subject worth our engagement is politics as narrowly defined as possible. The political questions that obsess us revolve around the issue of who will and who won't be elected, which political party will be his or her vehicle, and whether or not he will or won't be a member of the Cabinet. The larger question of policies and legislation receive scant consideration perhaps because a majority of Kenyans are functionally illiterate when it comes to the broader question of governance. Civic education in Kenya revolves only around the mechanics of voting and nothing else. Therefore, more and more Kenyans who have undergone civic education of one form or another are experts on election management and nothing else. Their knowledge of how their government is organised, the powers of the presidency and Cabinet, the Legislature or the Judiciary, and the manner in which revenue is raised and spent is scant at best. Kenyans are incapable of deciding whether deficit financing is a positive way of funding long term development projects or whether it carries inherent risks, especially with regards to debt-servicing. Until we begin to focus our minds and see the broader political picture that includes governance, we will continue to be led by the nose by politicians whose only claim to fame is that they are eager to hog the limelight even if it is at the expense of our national interests.
That aside, Mr Gaitho's assessment of the Prime Minister's visit to the Jewish State is apposite; it was wrong of Raila Odinga to tom-tom the security pacts that he had secured with Israel and so was the decision of the Israeli envoy in Nairobi to divulge details of what the pact entailed. Mr Odinga has frequently been his own worst enemy; in this period of armed conflict on foreign soil, it would be expected that all members of the Cabinet would speak with one voice. The strategies that are to be pursued by the Cabinet in bringing this conflict to a close must be co-ordinated very carefully and we cannot have individual members of the Cabinet going of on their own tangents and deciding foreign or defence policy without reference to the grand strategy. By placing Israel so prominently in the middle of our national strategy with regards to the war with al Shabaab, Mr Gaitho is correct to argue that Mr Odinga and the Israeli envoy have handed the terror group a propaganda coup that may assist it to recruit more militants to its ranks in its jihad against Kenya.
President Kibaki has notoriously allowed his Cabinet a free hand to do as they see fit; the result has been a shambolic government, frequently reacting to national emergencies rather than being proactive in anticipating and heading them off. This autonomy has empowered members of the Cabinet to see themselves as operating outside the ambit of collective responsibility, free to contradict or countermand the decisions of the Cabinet. In effect, Cabinet members see themselves as superior to the Cabinet and, quite frequently, free of the control of the President himself. As a consequence, the members of the Cabinet frequently make poor choices and because of the political situation, the President has not had a free hand in disciplining them or calling them to account publicly for their errors of omission or commission. It is in this background that one can assess the recent public disagreements between the Minister for Medical Services and the Vice-President, and between the Prime Minister and the Minister of State for Defence.
As is our wont, Kenyans no longer care that much about our military operations in Somalia as shown by the rather swift shift of attention back to narrowly political matters. As a nation, we have been brainwashed to believe that the only subject worth our engagement is politics as narrowly defined as possible. The political questions that obsess us revolve around the issue of who will and who won't be elected, which political party will be his or her vehicle, and whether or not he will or won't be a member of the Cabinet. The larger question of policies and legislation receive scant consideration perhaps because a majority of Kenyans are functionally illiterate when it comes to the broader question of governance. Civic education in Kenya revolves only around the mechanics of voting and nothing else. Therefore, more and more Kenyans who have undergone civic education of one form or another are experts on election management and nothing else. Their knowledge of how their government is organised, the powers of the presidency and Cabinet, the Legislature or the Judiciary, and the manner in which revenue is raised and spent is scant at best. Kenyans are incapable of deciding whether deficit financing is a positive way of funding long term development projects or whether it carries inherent risks, especially with regards to debt-servicing. Until we begin to focus our minds and see the broader political picture that includes governance, we will continue to be led by the nose by politicians whose only claim to fame is that they are eager to hog the limelight even if it is at the expense of our national interests.
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Do we still need these people?
As Kenya carries on in Somalia, going after the men who constitute the leadership cadre of al Shabaab, members of the Cabinet are going after each other, trying to paint the other as the stumbling block to a successful campaign against the terror outfit. The Prime Minister has been in Israel this past week, meeting with the President and the Prime Minister of the Jewish State and obtaining assurances of assistance in homeland security. Meanwhile the Minister of State for Defence and his colleague in the Foreign Ministry, have been doing their best to shore up support for Kenya's mission in Somalia from the diverse Arab world, securing assurances from the Kingdoms of Saudi Arabia and Morocco among others. After the euphoria of the first few days of Kenya's incursion into Somalia, it is now becoming apparent that there does not seem to be coherent foreign policy or defense strategy with regards to Kenya's mission in Somalia bar the defeat of al Shabaab and its sympathisers, both in Somalia and Kenya.
Yusuf Haji and Moses Wetangula are not exactly Raila Odinga's biggest fans, but surely they must realise that regardless of their politics, all three have an interest in protecting and advancing the interests of Kenya. When the two of them go off the deep end regarding the Prime Minister's forays in Israel, they betray the fact that they are more interested in embarrassing the PM rather than securing any and all help that may help contain the fallout from the invasion of Somalia by Kenya's military forces. The PM is not blameless either; he should have co-ordinated his plans vis-a-vis Israel with the two ministers at the heart of Kenya's diplomatic charm offensive so that it seemed that the right hand knew what the left was doing. It seems he wanted to hog the limelight and that his discussions with the Government of Israel would shore up his foreign policy chops and show up those of his political detractors.
Four years is a long time to be sorting out the teething problems of the Grand Coalition and it is incidences like these that show that Kenyan politicians are incapable of seeing beyond their noses politically or strategically. Our invasion of Somalia is a watershed moment in our history. Kenya has managed, through thick and thin, to live in relative peace ad harmony with its neighbours, bar a few unfortunate incidents. Indeed, it has frequently acted as an honest broker, helping violent factions in Somalia and Sudan to come to terms with each other and agree to live in relative peace and harmony. Such was Kenya's reputation that its participation in UN peace-keeping missions has been the norm than the exception, conducting itself professionally and with dignity. But the violence of 2007 and 2008, the formation of the Grand Coalition and the invasion of Somalia have revealed that perhaps Kenya's, or Kenya's politcians', stellar reputation has feet of clay. The longer these people keep behaving they way they are, the more they reveal the depth, or lack thereof, of their intellect and patriotism.
The post-election violence failed to bring our politicians together for the greater common good. So has the invasion of Somalia. Perhaps it is time we asked ourselves whether we would be better off without any member of the Tenth Parliament being trusted to walk the hallowed halls of the National Assembly, Senate, County Assembly, Governor's residence or State House. Time and again they have been presented with chances to demonstrate that they appreciate the plight that the people of Kenya find themselves in and tie and again they have deeply disappointed. They came up with new rules to control the price of fuel against the advise of experts in the field; the result has been that the price of fuel has only gone even higher. They set up a Parliamentary committee to investigate the rising cost of living, but all it seems to have done is to pay the members of the committee hefty sitting allowances with nothing to show for all the money spent. Kenyans are now afraid that if they enact a law to control the price of essential commodities, it may end up raising rather than lowering the price of these goods. They say that it is madness to do the same thing over and over again and expect a different outcome. It is tine we said enough of the Tenth Parliament and sent them all home where they deserve to be. It is time that only their families suffered heir presence; Kenyans are tired of being taken for very expensive rides.
Yusuf Haji and Moses Wetangula are not exactly Raila Odinga's biggest fans, but surely they must realise that regardless of their politics, all three have an interest in protecting and advancing the interests of Kenya. When the two of them go off the deep end regarding the Prime Minister's forays in Israel, they betray the fact that they are more interested in embarrassing the PM rather than securing any and all help that may help contain the fallout from the invasion of Somalia by Kenya's military forces. The PM is not blameless either; he should have co-ordinated his plans vis-a-vis Israel with the two ministers at the heart of Kenya's diplomatic charm offensive so that it seemed that the right hand knew what the left was doing. It seems he wanted to hog the limelight and that his discussions with the Government of Israel would shore up his foreign policy chops and show up those of his political detractors.
Four years is a long time to be sorting out the teething problems of the Grand Coalition and it is incidences like these that show that Kenyan politicians are incapable of seeing beyond their noses politically or strategically. Our invasion of Somalia is a watershed moment in our history. Kenya has managed, through thick and thin, to live in relative peace ad harmony with its neighbours, bar a few unfortunate incidents. Indeed, it has frequently acted as an honest broker, helping violent factions in Somalia and Sudan to come to terms with each other and agree to live in relative peace and harmony. Such was Kenya's reputation that its participation in UN peace-keeping missions has been the norm than the exception, conducting itself professionally and with dignity. But the violence of 2007 and 2008, the formation of the Grand Coalition and the invasion of Somalia have revealed that perhaps Kenya's, or Kenya's politcians', stellar reputation has feet of clay. The longer these people keep behaving they way they are, the more they reveal the depth, or lack thereof, of their intellect and patriotism.
The post-election violence failed to bring our politicians together for the greater common good. So has the invasion of Somalia. Perhaps it is time we asked ourselves whether we would be better off without any member of the Tenth Parliament being trusted to walk the hallowed halls of the National Assembly, Senate, County Assembly, Governor's residence or State House. Time and again they have been presented with chances to demonstrate that they appreciate the plight that the people of Kenya find themselves in and tie and again they have deeply disappointed. They came up with new rules to control the price of fuel against the advise of experts in the field; the result has been that the price of fuel has only gone even higher. They set up a Parliamentary committee to investigate the rising cost of living, but all it seems to have done is to pay the members of the committee hefty sitting allowances with nothing to show for all the money spent. Kenyans are now afraid that if they enact a law to control the price of essential commodities, it may end up raising rather than lowering the price of these goods. They say that it is madness to do the same thing over and over again and expect a different outcome. It is tine we said enough of the Tenth Parliament and sent them all home where they deserve to be. It is time that only their families suffered heir presence; Kenyans are tired of being taken for very expensive rides.
The time is now to resolve the Land Question
The land law of Kenya is as clear as mud, and only the foolhardy enter into a transaction over land without a battery of white-shoe lawyers attending to the nitty-gritty. The residents of various parts of Mavoko Municipality and Nairobi have had the sad experience of watching millions of shillings in investment leveled to the ground by bulldozers of the government with armed policemen standing by to ensure that the operations are not hindered or stopped. The Minister for Lands and his Permanent Secretary have declared that their intention is to repossess land that lawfully belongs to the national government and that the occupiers of thee properties are, essentially, trespassers.
Tears of grief by the hapless victims of the demolitions have not softened the heart of the Government of Kenya; nor have the crocodile tears of politicians hoping to cash in on their plight in time for the 2012 general elections. Pundits have gone on air and online to decry what they see as the heavy handed response of a government that is to blame for the situation and the extent of the corruption that has led to this sad state of affairs. None, however, has sought to examine whether this could have been avoided, or whether the victims had any role to play in the disaster that has now befallen them.
When President Kibaki was sworn in in 2003 among his first acts was to appoint a Commission of Inquiry on illegal land allocations in Kenya, the result of which was the Ndung'u Report which catalogued all the land that belonged to the government that had been irregularly or unlawfully allocated and to whom. President Kibaki's government, perhaps afraid of antagonising the men and women who run the private sector, has sat on this report for the past 8 years failing or refusing to implement its recommendations. The Minister of Lands has had to resort to, quite frankly, unlawful acts to repossess some of the parcels of land that were so irregularly or illegally allocated. The recent exercise to demolish houses in Syokimau and the Mitumba Slum near Wilson Airport seems to be part of that programme; the Minister states that the land belongs to the Kenya Airports Authority and that the occupiers do not have valid titles to these parcels. The victims have not helped their case; they have nothing to show for these parcels save for share certificates in land buying companies that were behind the demarcation and allocation of these parcels of lands. Indeed, the government also managed to publish a National Land Policy, much of which was incorporated in the new Constitution, but it is yet to be implemented.
The pain and suffering experienced by many Kenyans and the continued failure by the government to come to terms with the shambles that is land administration in Kenya hide the fact that unless and until the land question is resolved, there will be no meaningful development or that attaining the goals of Vision 2030 will remain a pipe dream. The political environment will continue to be poisonous so long as politicians can use the land question in their political campaigns to paint one community as benefitting at the expense of another. Many young families are now alive to the fact that even when they have followed due process in purchasing land and setting up their homes, they ay not be safe from the rampaging bulldozers of their government. The effect of the these demolitions on the family and family life are yet to be examined, but they cannot be positive or life affirming. It is time, as a nation, that we expedited the process of reforming land administration in Kenya and putting to bed one of the most pernicious aspects o colonial administration adopted by Independent Kenya.
Tears of grief by the hapless victims of the demolitions have not softened the heart of the Government of Kenya; nor have the crocodile tears of politicians hoping to cash in on their plight in time for the 2012 general elections. Pundits have gone on air and online to decry what they see as the heavy handed response of a government that is to blame for the situation and the extent of the corruption that has led to this sad state of affairs. None, however, has sought to examine whether this could have been avoided, or whether the victims had any role to play in the disaster that has now befallen them.
When President Kibaki was sworn in in 2003 among his first acts was to appoint a Commission of Inquiry on illegal land allocations in Kenya, the result of which was the Ndung'u Report which catalogued all the land that belonged to the government that had been irregularly or unlawfully allocated and to whom. President Kibaki's government, perhaps afraid of antagonising the men and women who run the private sector, has sat on this report for the past 8 years failing or refusing to implement its recommendations. The Minister of Lands has had to resort to, quite frankly, unlawful acts to repossess some of the parcels of land that were so irregularly or illegally allocated. The recent exercise to demolish houses in Syokimau and the Mitumba Slum near Wilson Airport seems to be part of that programme; the Minister states that the land belongs to the Kenya Airports Authority and that the occupiers do not have valid titles to these parcels. The victims have not helped their case; they have nothing to show for these parcels save for share certificates in land buying companies that were behind the demarcation and allocation of these parcels of lands. Indeed, the government also managed to publish a National Land Policy, much of which was incorporated in the new Constitution, but it is yet to be implemented.
The pain and suffering experienced by many Kenyans and the continued failure by the government to come to terms with the shambles that is land administration in Kenya hide the fact that unless and until the land question is resolved, there will be no meaningful development or that attaining the goals of Vision 2030 will remain a pipe dream. The political environment will continue to be poisonous so long as politicians can use the land question in their political campaigns to paint one community as benefitting at the expense of another. Many young families are now alive to the fact that even when they have followed due process in purchasing land and setting up their homes, they ay not be safe from the rampaging bulldozers of their government. The effect of the these demolitions on the family and family life are yet to be examined, but they cannot be positive or life affirming. It is time, as a nation, that we expedited the process of reforming land administration in Kenya and putting to bed one of the most pernicious aspects o colonial administration adopted by Independent Kenya.
Monday, November 14, 2011
You will pay tax. And then you will get shot.
The Executive Branch enjoys two powers which it is loath to delegate or share: the power to levy taxes and the power to wage war. The Executive Branch, the implementing arm of the government, has entered into an implicit and explicit contract with the people of Kenya that of the monies it raises in various taxes, charges, levies, duties and what not, none shall be wasted or spent on political vanity projects aimed at assuaging the feelings of a person, a group of persons or a class of persons. The record of the Government of Kenya over the past forty-seven years, all three Branches of them, has been abysmal when it comes to the collection and management of revenue. The chickens of this mismanagement are coming home to roost on the back of one of the most progressive Constitutions in the world. The recent industrial actions by university staff and medical workers at East Africa's largest referral hospital point to the fact that Presidents Kenyatta, Moi and Kibaki have used the public purse to pursue projects that at best had symbolic value and at worst were downright criminal.
There are certain public goods that can be provided only by the State, especially through the Executive Branch: healthcare, basic education, national security and defence, diplomacy, clean water, etc. When Kenya gained self-rule in 1963, President Kenyatta declared the national policy to eradicate ignorance, disease and poverty. When President Moi was sworn in as Kenya's president three months after President Kenyatta's death, he swore to follow in his predecessor's footsteps. When President Kibaki brought to an end forty years of KANU hegemony, he promised Kenyans a better life under his administration. All three were failures. Significant numbers of Kenyans have no access to basic healthcare, let alone specialised healthcare; have access to basic education but only of the most rudimentary kind; and still live well below the nationally-measured poverty line, subsisting on less that two dollars a day. It is not uncommon to witness hospital-bound patients sleeping two to a bed in our public hospitals (when beds can be found) or of doctors and nurses going on strike to demand better terms and conditions of service. It is heartbreaking to witness thousands upon thousands of young boys and girls taking their education under trees or in buildings with no doors, no windows, not blackboards, no desks or chairs, sometimes in environmental conditions so dire that the children are in constant war with their environment rather than concentrating on their lessons. But it is in the persistence of the number of Kenyans living in poverty that the Government of Kenya has demonstrated consistency. Since 1963, the proportion of Kenyans living in poverty has never fallen below forty per cent, and in some periods over the past forty-seven years, has risen to nearly 60%. It is this poverty that has contributed significantly to the political and socio-cultural challenges experienced over the past twenty-five years, demonstrated starkly in the post-election violence of 2007 and 2008.
Martha Karua, Peter Kenneth, Eugene Wamalwa, William Ruto, Kalonzo Musyoka, Bifwoli Wakoli, Raphael Tuju, and Raila Odinga have all declared that they will stand for the presidency in 2012. In one form or the other, all these men and woman have been involved at the highest levels of the Executive over the past decade. Indeed, some of them have served in the Executive in both the Mwai Kibaki and Daniel Moi governments. What they all have in common is that they are capable of making high-sounding promises without actually following up on them. It is a story that can be traced to every single politician ever to serve in the Executive Branch since Independence. When President Kenyatta exhorted his Ministers, Assistant Ministers and Civil Servants to 'eat' where they served, he could not have predicted that this what they would do to the complete exclusion of everything else. Today, the Executive Branch and its agencies are more prone to exercising its coercive power to enforce unfair rules and regulations that punish the weak and poor.
All the putative candidates in next year's presidential election have failed to explain how they will be different from the presidents that have gone before them. They have failed to publish what laws they intend to enact and what programmes they intend to initiate to fulfill the promises that were made at Independence. They have, instead, consistently and viscerally accused each other of the same offences over and over again that it is near impossible to listen to the news without flinching (if you are new to these parts) or rolling your eyes in derision (if your not). Until these people concentrate their, and our, minds on the real challenges that face us, and propose viable solutions to address them, we should continue to ignore them whenever they open their mouths.
There are certain public goods that can be provided only by the State, especially through the Executive Branch: healthcare, basic education, national security and defence, diplomacy, clean water, etc. When Kenya gained self-rule in 1963, President Kenyatta declared the national policy to eradicate ignorance, disease and poverty. When President Moi was sworn in as Kenya's president three months after President Kenyatta's death, he swore to follow in his predecessor's footsteps. When President Kibaki brought to an end forty years of KANU hegemony, he promised Kenyans a better life under his administration. All three were failures. Significant numbers of Kenyans have no access to basic healthcare, let alone specialised healthcare; have access to basic education but only of the most rudimentary kind; and still live well below the nationally-measured poverty line, subsisting on less that two dollars a day. It is not uncommon to witness hospital-bound patients sleeping two to a bed in our public hospitals (when beds can be found) or of doctors and nurses going on strike to demand better terms and conditions of service. It is heartbreaking to witness thousands upon thousands of young boys and girls taking their education under trees or in buildings with no doors, no windows, not blackboards, no desks or chairs, sometimes in environmental conditions so dire that the children are in constant war with their environment rather than concentrating on their lessons. But it is in the persistence of the number of Kenyans living in poverty that the Government of Kenya has demonstrated consistency. Since 1963, the proportion of Kenyans living in poverty has never fallen below forty per cent, and in some periods over the past forty-seven years, has risen to nearly 60%. It is this poverty that has contributed significantly to the political and socio-cultural challenges experienced over the past twenty-five years, demonstrated starkly in the post-election violence of 2007 and 2008.
Martha Karua, Peter Kenneth, Eugene Wamalwa, William Ruto, Kalonzo Musyoka, Bifwoli Wakoli, Raphael Tuju, and Raila Odinga have all declared that they will stand for the presidency in 2012. In one form or the other, all these men and woman have been involved at the highest levels of the Executive over the past decade. Indeed, some of them have served in the Executive in both the Mwai Kibaki and Daniel Moi governments. What they all have in common is that they are capable of making high-sounding promises without actually following up on them. It is a story that can be traced to every single politician ever to serve in the Executive Branch since Independence. When President Kenyatta exhorted his Ministers, Assistant Ministers and Civil Servants to 'eat' where they served, he could not have predicted that this what they would do to the complete exclusion of everything else. Today, the Executive Branch and its agencies are more prone to exercising its coercive power to enforce unfair rules and regulations that punish the weak and poor.
All the putative candidates in next year's presidential election have failed to explain how they will be different from the presidents that have gone before them. They have failed to publish what laws they intend to enact and what programmes they intend to initiate to fulfill the promises that were made at Independence. They have, instead, consistently and viscerally accused each other of the same offences over and over again that it is near impossible to listen to the news without flinching (if you are new to these parts) or rolling your eyes in derision (if your not). Until these people concentrate their, and our, minds on the real challenges that face us, and propose viable solutions to address them, we should continue to ignore them whenever they open their mouths.
Cohesion and integration - A way forward
All the pundits on TV and in the Sunday papers have it wrong - Kenyans are not interested in integration or cohesion, and the see nothing amiss in supporting their tribal chieftains in their marches to State House. When Raphael Tuju went campaigning in Luo Nyanza, he was stepping on the toes of Raila Odinga, and his legions of supporters in the area. The Odingas have controlled Luo Nyanza for as long as we have been an Independent nation and, for better or ill, their political fortunes are intertwined with those of the peoples of Nyanza. This is the same case in all the other 'major' areas of Kenya.
For decades, the Akamba were led by the nose by Mulu Mutisya, the Kalenjins by Daniel Toroitich arap Moi, the Kisiis by Simeon Nyachae, the Ameru by Jackson Harvester Angaine, the Embu by Jeremiah Nyagah ... and the list goes on. When Kenyans set upon each other with bows, arrows and pangas in the aftermath of the 2007 general elections, they did so at the behest of their political godfathers, completely forgetting that we are one nation and one people. The halfhearted and insincere attempts by members of the political class to pacify the warring people had no effect. It was not until President Kibaki ordered the police to use all necessary force to quell the violence that the politicians sit together to hammer out a power-sharing arrangement that gave birth to that demon-seed of a government, the Grand Coalition.
One of the outcomes of the National Accord was the Cohesion and Integration Act and the formation of the National Cohesion and Integration Commission, chaired by the rather excitable Dr Mzalendo Kibunjia. Under the Act, the actions that followed Mr Tuju's Nyanza forays may be investigated by the Commission and criminal responsibility assigned to those who may be seen to be complicit in fomenting the violence. However, in its larger mission to integrate the nation and foster cohesion among the forty-two recognised ethnic communities in Kenya, the Commission has his a brick wall. Perhaps it was too much to expect that the Commission would reverse two decades of ethnic jingoism that has been practiced by all politicians in Kenya to forward their interests at the cost of those of their voters or of the nation. This has become so pervasive that the Committee of Experts decided to entrench ethnic and regional balancing in the Constitution, the shortcomings of such a policy becoming more apparent with the appointment of each successive Commission. The ethnic and regional balance rule has distorted the formation of Commission, ensuring that not the best and brightest will be chosen to serve.
The narrative that Kikuyus have taken over the government has gained ground at the expense of a coherent national debate about what it means to be Kenyan. There is more that unites Kenyans than divides them, and until we agree that the political class is not the solution to our problems we will be no better off than when we were under the yoke of the KANU hegemony. The economy is a drag on all our wallets, yet the fatcat politicians seem to be doing well for themselves. Our poverty has nothing to do with the languages we speak but the mismanagement of the political class. All the cohesion and integration seminars of Dr Kibunjia's outfit will not rescue us until we can come to grips with this basic fact.
For decades, the Akamba were led by the nose by Mulu Mutisya, the Kalenjins by Daniel Toroitich arap Moi, the Kisiis by Simeon Nyachae, the Ameru by Jackson Harvester Angaine, the Embu by Jeremiah Nyagah ... and the list goes on. When Kenyans set upon each other with bows, arrows and pangas in the aftermath of the 2007 general elections, they did so at the behest of their political godfathers, completely forgetting that we are one nation and one people. The halfhearted and insincere attempts by members of the political class to pacify the warring people had no effect. It was not until President Kibaki ordered the police to use all necessary force to quell the violence that the politicians sit together to hammer out a power-sharing arrangement that gave birth to that demon-seed of a government, the Grand Coalition.
One of the outcomes of the National Accord was the Cohesion and Integration Act and the formation of the National Cohesion and Integration Commission, chaired by the rather excitable Dr Mzalendo Kibunjia. Under the Act, the actions that followed Mr Tuju's Nyanza forays may be investigated by the Commission and criminal responsibility assigned to those who may be seen to be complicit in fomenting the violence. However, in its larger mission to integrate the nation and foster cohesion among the forty-two recognised ethnic communities in Kenya, the Commission has his a brick wall. Perhaps it was too much to expect that the Commission would reverse two decades of ethnic jingoism that has been practiced by all politicians in Kenya to forward their interests at the cost of those of their voters or of the nation. This has become so pervasive that the Committee of Experts decided to entrench ethnic and regional balancing in the Constitution, the shortcomings of such a policy becoming more apparent with the appointment of each successive Commission. The ethnic and regional balance rule has distorted the formation of Commission, ensuring that not the best and brightest will be chosen to serve.
The narrative that Kikuyus have taken over the government has gained ground at the expense of a coherent national debate about what it means to be Kenyan. There is more that unites Kenyans than divides them, and until we agree that the political class is not the solution to our problems we will be no better off than when we were under the yoke of the KANU hegemony. The economy is a drag on all our wallets, yet the fatcat politicians seem to be doing well for themselves. Our poverty has nothing to do with the languages we speak but the mismanagement of the political class. All the cohesion and integration seminars of Dr Kibunjia's outfit will not rescue us until we can come to grips with this basic fact.
We are so screwed!
It is time we admitted to ourselves that the politics of issues and policies is a ways away here in Kenya; in the here and now, politics will be dominated by ethnic arithmetic, 'hate speech' and personalities. In fact, political parties, regardless of what the Constitution and the Political Parties Act say are mere briefcases holding the personalities of the 'party leaders', and not much else. Unlike other advanced democracies, even here in Africa such as the Republic of South Africa, political parties in Kenya are mere vehicles for demonstrating the clout and wealth of the men and women who helm them, and it is for this reason that despite the ratification and promulgation of the Constitution, and the enactment of the Political Parties Act, the good men and women atop the ODM, ODM-K, KANU, Ford-K, PNU, GNU, NARC, NARC-K, et al have been loath to give up the positions of authority in their parties, giving the lie that the rule of law is alive and well in Kenya.
Many well-meaning but misguided men and women are shouting themselves hoarse over the question of 'issues' in 2012, believing fervently that that their frequently sincere entreaties of the political class will bring them the light of day and they will cease obsessing over Raila Odinga's, Kalonzo Musyoka's, William Ruto's or Uhuru Kenyatta's chances at the hustings next year and they will instead start considering whether or not the National assembly and Senate should exercise a greater oversight over the Executive, what form devolution should take place, and what local government's place will be in the devolution structure. Kenya is today divided among those who dream of a more perfectly cohesive and integrated nation and those who do not give a hoot about national cohesion or integration. The reality is that in the midst of the worst employment crisis for a decade and the out-of-control cost of living, very few Kenyans give a damn about 'issues' and 'manifestos'; all they care about is keeping a roof over their heads, food on the table and clothes on their backs. Healthcare, even for the desperately in need, barely registers as a possibility today.
As a consequence of the prevailing economic condition, the apathy and malaise of the electorate, the bitter memories of 2007/2008 and the constant roiling of the waters by prominent members of the snake-oil selling class, the 2012 general elections will be anything but informed or informative. Instead, I fear, the world will be witness to a people who will have gone bat-shit crazy and the flames of 2007 and 2008 will look like Boy Scout camp fires. This time round, regardless of the entreaties of Koffi Annan and his Panel of Eminent African Personalities, there will be no voice of reason that will pull back the craven men and women of the political class from plunging this country headlong into an abyss that will have no bottom. We will no longer talk of IDP camps; the entire country will be one IDP camp.
The seeds of this destruction were sown the day that Raila Odinga and Mwai Kibaki smiled and shook hands and formed the Grand Coalition Government. On that day, schemers and plotters on both sides of the political divide were screwed over, and their chances of ascending smoothly to positions of greatness and power were shattered forever. Many were joining the Official Government for the first time and they felt cheated that 'their' side did not take it all; it was not right that they had to share spoils for which they had fought so hard with their bitter rivals. In time, however, they settled down into a symbiotic relationship of sorts; neither side wants the Coalition to collapse before the general elections and they are working hand in hand to ensure that the date of the next elections is pushed back as far as it will go. The wishes of Kenyans are irrelevant and they will see to it that they, and they alone, get their way; ordinary Kenyans can go take a hike if they don't like it.
It is strange to witness the gradual self-destruction of a nation; but the euphoria that accompanied the change of guard in 2003 marked a bleak and dystopian truth. The Treasury was bare; so were the halls of ideas, our universities, hollowed out by the constant, relentless and ruthless evisceration of their core beliefs and core principles. By the time NARC was coming along, we were well and truly hardened to everything good and reliable; we have become the very caricatures that amuse us of the basket-cases of the world, from Libya to Lebanon, and from Haiti to to Kyrgyzstan. We are pale shadows of our pasts; our futures will bring nothing but pain and despair. It is time to admit that in this country, whether one is wealthy or not, educated or not, young or old, male or female, we are well and truly screwed and it will take the intervention of all the gods we know - and those that we don't - to get as a fair shake.
Many well-meaning but misguided men and women are shouting themselves hoarse over the question of 'issues' in 2012, believing fervently that that their frequently sincere entreaties of the political class will bring them the light of day and they will cease obsessing over Raila Odinga's, Kalonzo Musyoka's, William Ruto's or Uhuru Kenyatta's chances at the hustings next year and they will instead start considering whether or not the National assembly and Senate should exercise a greater oversight over the Executive, what form devolution should take place, and what local government's place will be in the devolution structure. Kenya is today divided among those who dream of a more perfectly cohesive and integrated nation and those who do not give a hoot about national cohesion or integration. The reality is that in the midst of the worst employment crisis for a decade and the out-of-control cost of living, very few Kenyans give a damn about 'issues' and 'manifestos'; all they care about is keeping a roof over their heads, food on the table and clothes on their backs. Healthcare, even for the desperately in need, barely registers as a possibility today.
As a consequence of the prevailing economic condition, the apathy and malaise of the electorate, the bitter memories of 2007/2008 and the constant roiling of the waters by prominent members of the snake-oil selling class, the 2012 general elections will be anything but informed or informative. Instead, I fear, the world will be witness to a people who will have gone bat-shit crazy and the flames of 2007 and 2008 will look like Boy Scout camp fires. This time round, regardless of the entreaties of Koffi Annan and his Panel of Eminent African Personalities, there will be no voice of reason that will pull back the craven men and women of the political class from plunging this country headlong into an abyss that will have no bottom. We will no longer talk of IDP camps; the entire country will be one IDP camp.
The seeds of this destruction were sown the day that Raila Odinga and Mwai Kibaki smiled and shook hands and formed the Grand Coalition Government. On that day, schemers and plotters on both sides of the political divide were screwed over, and their chances of ascending smoothly to positions of greatness and power were shattered forever. Many were joining the Official Government for the first time and they felt cheated that 'their' side did not take it all; it was not right that they had to share spoils for which they had fought so hard with their bitter rivals. In time, however, they settled down into a symbiotic relationship of sorts; neither side wants the Coalition to collapse before the general elections and they are working hand in hand to ensure that the date of the next elections is pushed back as far as it will go. The wishes of Kenyans are irrelevant and they will see to it that they, and they alone, get their way; ordinary Kenyans can go take a hike if they don't like it.
It is strange to witness the gradual self-destruction of a nation; but the euphoria that accompanied the change of guard in 2003 marked a bleak and dystopian truth. The Treasury was bare; so were the halls of ideas, our universities, hollowed out by the constant, relentless and ruthless evisceration of their core beliefs and core principles. By the time NARC was coming along, we were well and truly hardened to everything good and reliable; we have become the very caricatures that amuse us of the basket-cases of the world, from Libya to Lebanon, and from Haiti to to Kyrgyzstan. We are pale shadows of our pasts; our futures will bring nothing but pain and despair. It is time to admit that in this country, whether one is wealthy or not, educated or not, young or old, male or female, we are well and truly screwed and it will take the intervention of all the gods we know - and those that we don't - to get as a fair shake.
Monday, October 31, 2011
How it should be, how it should have been
If there is anything that persuades me that the Committee of Experts' decision to eject politicians from the Cabinet it is the recent vitriolic public spat between the Minister for Medical Services and the Vice-President. Prof Peter Anyang' Nyong'o was incensed at Kalonzo Musyoka's decision to not only visit the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital, but also to purport to make policy decisions regarding the problems bedevilling Kenya's second-largest referral hospital. His announcement that the Government would soon release KES 300 million to the hospital was, in Prof Nyong'o's eyes, so unpleasant, he had no reason but to write a whining letter to the President to complain. Kaplich Barsito, the Vice-President's spokesman, must have added fuel to that particular fire by suggesting that as Mr Musyoka is Mwai Kibaki's 'principal assistant', he was well within his rights to do as he did, seeing that he was speaking for the President. Mwai Kibaki, as usual, has not responded, leaving his Minister and V-P to sort things out between themselves. Now, the good professor is suggesting that some elements within government are out to assassinate him!
The destruction of Kenya's public service began in earnest under President Kenyatta and was cemented by President Moi's twenty-four year rule. Even in their oaths of office, Cabinet Ministers professed their fealty to the President first, the people of Kenya coming a distant second. Ministries that were perceived as 'powerful' or 'lucrative' were 'awarded' to loyal MPs; they were rewards for political loyalty and the men and women named to these positions were not appointed for their technical competence. As a result, the public service was used as a weapon to build up the careers of loyalists or to punish those who seemed to have stepped off the line. The people of Kenya suffered as these political games were played: national hospitals frequently went without life-saving medicines or proper managers; the education system is barely creaking along, etc. Kenyans have been getting the short end of the stick for nigh on forty-seven years and with the new Constitution, we have the chance to re-write the rules of political patronage that should serve us well for a generation at least.
Prof Nyong'o and Mr Musyoka should not try to persuade us that they know what is good for the people of Kenya; their records, such as they are, are plain to see. Both should admit that their primary motivation is political; everything else is mere window-dressing.Since the day the Coalition Government was formed, the Cabinet has behaved as if the people of Kenya do not have a voice or an opinion. First there was the unseemly attempt by the Prime Minister to lord it over all his Cabinet colleagues until he was humiliatingly slapped down by the President. Then there were the accusations and counter-accusations of graft by one wing of the coalition against the other. Now it is the apparent 'encroachment' of one member of the coalition into the ministerial turf of another minister in the opposite wing. These people have demonstrated an utter lack of competence that it is surprising Kenya has continued to chug along despite their spirited attempts to derail the country. Their departure from the corridors of power could not come too soon.
The decision to adopt a purely presidential system must have been informed by the fact that Members of Parliament are not appointed to the Cabinet for their technical competence, but for their political utility. The next government will not entertain incompetent men and women in the seats of power; performance will determine whether one is retained in the Cabinet or not. Of course, no one thinks that politics will be completely outlawed in the manner the Cabinet carries out its functions, but considering that it is for their technical skills that the President will nominate them, the chances that Cabinet Secretaries will be pursuing political objectives in their portfolios has receded greatly; the only person to carry the political ball in the Cabinet will be the President. Finally, Kenyans will have the opportunity to witness how an effective ad efficient government will be managed. As portfolios will no longer be used as the lollipops of assuaging the political gods of ethnic communities, perhaps Kenyans are about to enter a phase where the government serves their needs first and that of the political class second. or once, perhaps, politicians are about to become second-class citizens, a place they have long relegated the people of Kenya. If the Cabinet fails, the President has failed and the people will punish him mercilessly at the next general elections by choosing someone else. That is how it should be, how it should have been.
The destruction of Kenya's public service began in earnest under President Kenyatta and was cemented by President Moi's twenty-four year rule. Even in their oaths of office, Cabinet Ministers professed their fealty to the President first, the people of Kenya coming a distant second. Ministries that were perceived as 'powerful' or 'lucrative' were 'awarded' to loyal MPs; they were rewards for political loyalty and the men and women named to these positions were not appointed for their technical competence. As a result, the public service was used as a weapon to build up the careers of loyalists or to punish those who seemed to have stepped off the line. The people of Kenya suffered as these political games were played: national hospitals frequently went without life-saving medicines or proper managers; the education system is barely creaking along, etc. Kenyans have been getting the short end of the stick for nigh on forty-seven years and with the new Constitution, we have the chance to re-write the rules of political patronage that should serve us well for a generation at least.
Prof Nyong'o and Mr Musyoka should not try to persuade us that they know what is good for the people of Kenya; their records, such as they are, are plain to see. Both should admit that their primary motivation is political; everything else is mere window-dressing.Since the day the Coalition Government was formed, the Cabinet has behaved as if the people of Kenya do not have a voice or an opinion. First there was the unseemly attempt by the Prime Minister to lord it over all his Cabinet colleagues until he was humiliatingly slapped down by the President. Then there were the accusations and counter-accusations of graft by one wing of the coalition against the other. Now it is the apparent 'encroachment' of one member of the coalition into the ministerial turf of another minister in the opposite wing. These people have demonstrated an utter lack of competence that it is surprising Kenya has continued to chug along despite their spirited attempts to derail the country. Their departure from the corridors of power could not come too soon.
The decision to adopt a purely presidential system must have been informed by the fact that Members of Parliament are not appointed to the Cabinet for their technical competence, but for their political utility. The next government will not entertain incompetent men and women in the seats of power; performance will determine whether one is retained in the Cabinet or not. Of course, no one thinks that politics will be completely outlawed in the manner the Cabinet carries out its functions, but considering that it is for their technical skills that the President will nominate them, the chances that Cabinet Secretaries will be pursuing political objectives in their portfolios has receded greatly; the only person to carry the political ball in the Cabinet will be the President. Finally, Kenyans will have the opportunity to witness how an effective ad efficient government will be managed. As portfolios will no longer be used as the lollipops of assuaging the political gods of ethnic communities, perhaps Kenyans are about to enter a phase where the government serves their needs first and that of the political class second. or once, perhaps, politicians are about to become second-class citizens, a place they have long relegated the people of Kenya. If the Cabinet fails, the President has failed and the people will punish him mercilessly at the next general elections by choosing someone else. That is how it should be, how it should have been.
Sunday, October 30, 2011
What Kenya should aim for in Somalia?
In formal terms, international law is contained in bi-lateral and multi-lateral agreements between states, international conventions and international treaties. It is embodied in regional and international bodies such as the African Union, the East African Community, the Community of Eastern and Southern African States, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, the United Nations, the International Court of Justice or the International Criminal Court.
However, from a political perspective, international law has a whiff of victor's law, as where the United States (and other permanent members of the United Nations Security Council) determine what is in their best interest is also in the best interests of the global community, dictating what is right and what is not. The United Nations Charter specifically outlaws 'regime change' and yet, when it was expedient, the United States has effected regime change in Iraq, Afghanistan and, more recently, Libya. As it is, no one is going to suggest that George W Bush or Barack Obama be arraigned before the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity or war crime for the command decisions they have taken in prosecuting their various wars around the world. Indeed, where George Bush was tentative in his use of remote-controlled, pilotless aircraft and special forces soldiers in his pursuit of 'terrorists', Barack Obama has not only carried on from where his predecessor left off, but has also expanded the use of these tools to wage an unrelenting global war against the enemies of the United States in places as diverse as Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen and in our own backyard, Somalia. In the words of a fictional TV character, all wars are crimes.
Kenya has decided to join in on the war gravy train, sending troops to bring the war to the doorsteps of al Shabaab after years of provocation. Someone should have a quiet word with those suggesting that Kenya may have violated the spirit of the UN Charter and other international agreements and remind them that regardless of the legality of the campaign being waged in Somalia, Kenya was and is right to do as it s doing.
Ahmednasir Abdullahi, in today's Sunday Nation's Straight Talk suggests that Kenya may have broken international law in its war with al Shabaab; the government's reasons for engaging with al Shabaab, according to Mr Abdullahi, do not hold water and that this can be cured by the expedient withdrawal of troops from the battlefield (Legal pitfalls in pursuing al Shabaab across border). If the war is wrong in conception, the length of its prosecution is immaterial; it remains illegal regardless of the time spent on the battlefield, whether or not the objectives of the war are achieved.
For two decades, Kenya has watched as the international community bungled the Somalia Question; it has spent time, money and manpower to bring the fractious clans to a round table and hammer out an agreement that would bring peace to that benighted land. All of its efforts have been for nothing and Somalia continues to be the Sick Man of the Horn of Africa. It is time that the warmongers among the Somalis were reminded that even apparently docile countries like Kenya have a breaking point and ours was arrived at a long time ago. So, regardless of Mr Ahmednasir's sage advice, Kenya should ignore the international rule-book and stay in Somalia for as long as it takes to persuade al Shabaab that waging their brand of liberation militarism should be confined to their side of the border; crossing over shall have serious consequences, as no doubt the Kenya Defence Forces are reinforcing even today.
It is Donald B Kipkorir, writing in Standard on Sunday's Shores Beyond! who takes the biscuit (Let us fight hard in Somalia but be clear on when to declare victory). Mr Kipkorir suggests that Kenya should aim for three alternative outcomes before declaring victory: the installation of a pliable government in Mogadishu; the sub-division of Somalia between Kenya and Ethiopia; or the creation of a buffer zone between Kenya and the government in Somalia by the creation of an autonomous state within Somalia that owes its allegiance to Kenya and not Mogadishu, to be headquartered at Kismayu. The first and last options are fantasies that will only be realised when hell freezes over. The second option can only be achieved if Kenya gives up the foolish notion that they can create a client state within Somalia that will do its bidding with regards to the security of Kenya.
A buffer zone along Kenya's 1,200-mile long border with Somalia can be created by making it extremely expensive for al Shabaab and like-minded groups to operate there. This can be achieved by ensuring that the traditional command and control structures of al Shabaab in this buffer zone are demolished, and every time they are re-established, they are destroyed once more. Kenya, therefore, must be prepared to constantly violate Somalia's sovereignty every time it has intelligence that al Shabaab is re-emerging in the buffer zone. Kenya cannot afford a long occupation of Somalia; nor can it pay for the maintenance of loyalty of an autonomous region within Somalia. Our public finances are stretched thin and it would be the foolhardy president who decides to expend national treasure in a project that will not succeed. Until such time the West takes its head out of the sand and agrees on a realistic agenda for the Somalia Question, this is the only practicable solution to the al Shabaab problem today.
Our strategic interests in Somalia in the medium term are security related. Now that Kenya has gotten off the fence, it is time that it re-oriented its policy towards Somalia. Once its military campaign against al Shabaab is concluded, it should join the African Union Mission in Somalia, AMISOM, in bolstering the strength of the Transional Federal Government, the TFG, with the objective that the TFG will be expanded to accommodate all moderate voices in Somalia. Once the TFG is capable of holding and securing the whole country, Kenya can consider withdrawing its troops from AMISOM. This is the only reasonable strategic objective that can be pursued with any hope of success.
Saturday, October 29, 2011
An African Century
The death of Col Muammar Gaddafi at the hands of rebel soldiers was as brutal as it was short. Ever since he sized power in 1969, Col Gaddafi ruled with an iron fist, using his secret police and a feckless judiciary to harry, harass and murder his opponents. Other than for a few wide-eyed and misguided morons, no one will miss the colonel. Libya is on the cusp of a transition into a liberal democracy.
Pundits across the political spectrum have opined about the changes taking place in the wider Arab street, noting with satisfaction the overthrow of dictators in Tunisia and Egypt, and watching with avid interest the changes that are taking place in Syria and Yemen. The putative democratic putsch in Bahrain came to nought while no one is lamenting the place that King Hussein of Jordan finds himself. Meanwhile in Africa south of the Sahara, Zambia elected seventy-four year old Sata on his fourth try and he is doing his best to confound his critics, appointing a mzungu Vice-President and firing generals left and right. But it is the remnants of Africa's old school that continue their grip on power, with Museveni in Uganda having successfully changed the constitution to keep him in power for a further five years so that he can finish what he started (never mind that it is becoming more and more apparent that he really does not have the interests of Ugandans at heart, but rather the state of his wallet now that Uganda is about to become an oil power).
Kenya has gone off to war with a terror organisation a-la USA and has also managed to confound neighbours with the effectiveness of its military strategy so far. For a country that has never executed a war before, Kenya is playing it right, with nary a soul claiming human rights violations or bringing the international community down on its head. They keep claiming that the twenty-first century will be the Chinese century, what with the billions of dollars it is pouring in far-flung and forgotten regions of the world. Methinks it will be an African century. We have a young population, land to expand our populations in, and an interest in reforming the way we have been governed ever since the British, German, Russian, Portuguese and Spanish empires came to nought. We may not have the money or the technology to rival the 'developed world', but a hundred years is a very long time and anything could happen. If Kenya, Tunisia, Egypt and Zambia could do it, so can the rest of the continent. The Chinese better watch out.
Pundits across the political spectrum have opined about the changes taking place in the wider Arab street, noting with satisfaction the overthrow of dictators in Tunisia and Egypt, and watching with avid interest the changes that are taking place in Syria and Yemen. The putative democratic putsch in Bahrain came to nought while no one is lamenting the place that King Hussein of Jordan finds himself. Meanwhile in Africa south of the Sahara, Zambia elected seventy-four year old Sata on his fourth try and he is doing his best to confound his critics, appointing a mzungu Vice-President and firing generals left and right. But it is the remnants of Africa's old school that continue their grip on power, with Museveni in Uganda having successfully changed the constitution to keep him in power for a further five years so that he can finish what he started (never mind that it is becoming more and more apparent that he really does not have the interests of Ugandans at heart, but rather the state of his wallet now that Uganda is about to become an oil power).
Kenya has gone off to war with a terror organisation a-la USA and has also managed to confound neighbours with the effectiveness of its military strategy so far. For a country that has never executed a war before, Kenya is playing it right, with nary a soul claiming human rights violations or bringing the international community down on its head. They keep claiming that the twenty-first century will be the Chinese century, what with the billions of dollars it is pouring in far-flung and forgotten regions of the world. Methinks it will be an African century. We have a young population, land to expand our populations in, and an interest in reforming the way we have been governed ever since the British, German, Russian, Portuguese and Spanish empires came to nought. We may not have the money or the technology to rival the 'developed world', but a hundred years is a very long time and anything could happen. If Kenya, Tunisia, Egypt and Zambia could do it, so can the rest of the continent. The Chinese better watch out.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Why a short campaign is better than a long one in Somalia
The President and the Prime Minister have come out strongly to justify why Kenya should conduct military operations in Somalia against the terror group, al Shabaab. Given that this is the first time that Kenya is carrying out hostile operations on foreign soil, the delay in the political leadership in making this statement remains unexplained, but we will take what we can. However, even in their various and varied statements, the politicians have failed to give a credible explanation of the political goals of Operation: Linda Nchi to date.
Regardless of their political affiliations, Kenyans are united in wishing victory for the Kenya Defence Forces. The peaceniks have been silenced in the face of continued provocations from al Shabaab and elements aiming to copy them in their tactics against Kenya. Ever since Kenyans were the victims of the 1998 bombing of the US embassy in Nairobi, it has been a matter of time before our patience ran thin and we took unilateral action against the terrorist groups operating in and out of Somalia. They have become a threat to the peace and security of Kenya, and their recent forays into parts of Kenya's coastal belt and the Capital City have only strengthened the resolve of our government to respond in kind. However, opinion continues to be divided over whether the operation should be short or prolonged long enough to eliminate the threat against this country.
If Kenya decides to become an occupying force in Somalia, then we must be prepared to bear the economic costs of such an occupation. Even a short operation carries with it the risk of escalation, causing anxiety in the capital markets and delaying much needed private investment in the private sector. The lessons that the United States and its NATO allies have learnt from the two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan should dissuade Kenya from becoming militarily entangled in Somalia beyond six months.
A longer occupation of that war-torn country will drain much-needed public resources from the country, resources needed to not only prepare Kenya for the complete transition to a new constitutional dispensation but also from other much-needed areas, such poverty alleviation and food and water security. Therefore, it is imperative that the political leadership provide Kenyans with assurances that a credible exit strategy has been formulated. Continued public information of the aims and objectives of the government is necessary to alleviate the fears engendered every time a nation goes to war. The President and Prime Minister must take this to heart or they may lose the public goodwill so necessary to sustain the military operation.
What is our plan?
The recent 'incursion' by elements of the Kenya Defence Forces into Somalia in pursuit of members of al Shabaab, an al Qaeda-affiliated militia responsible for murder and kidnapping across Kenya's border with the lawless Somalia elicited threats of retaliation from persons who claimed to speak for the terror group. This past Monday, two grenade attacks took place against civilian targets in Nairobi's Central Business District, killing one, but keeping the injury count mercifully low at less than 20. While police investigations are being conducted, speculation is rife that these attacks were by fifth-column elements of al Shabaab hiding in plain sight amongst the civilian population of Nairobi. Meanwhile, Kenyan politicians of Somali origin have thrown their might behind the government's efforts to neutralise the al Shabaab threat. However, noting the increased incidences of intimidation and discriminatory acts perpetrated against persons they claim to be innocent Somalis, they have called upon the government, in particular the security agencies, to proceed with great caution so that the civil liberties of the Somali community in Kenya are not held to ransom at the hand of the majority community.
As Kenya's 'incursion' into Somalia enters its eleventh day, it is becoming more and more apparent that the famed discipline of the Kenya's men and women in uniform is richly deserved (or, at least, we are very, very good at keeping news of indiscipline out of the national media). It is also becoming apparent that Kenya's foreign policy establishment leaves a lot to be desired. It was a mistake to re-appoint Moses Wetangula as the Minister for Foreign Affairs, though he seems to have the consummate diplomatic operator in Thuita Mwangi as his Permanent Secretary. It helps that Amb Francis Muthaura can be counted on to offer direction as Head of the Public Service. The Minister has been unable to craft a well-thought out diplomatic strategy in support of Kenya's operations in Somalia, failing even to get the President of the Somalia Transitional Federal Government to sing from the same song-book as his colleagues in the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, IGAD. He has been unable to keep the intemperate Minister of State in the Office of the President for Defence, Yusuf Hajji, from speaking to the media, and when he does speak, to do so with circumspection and deliberation. And he failed spectacularly to get the President and Prime Minister to come out early with public statements to justify their going to war at a time when Kenya is facing severe budgetary contractions, its currency is at its weakest for almost a decade, and drought and famine-related emergencies have yet to be fully resolved.
On the home front, the Minister of State in the Office of the President for Internal Security and Provincial Administration, Prof George Saitoti, has come out of his shell and, it seems, lit a fire under his security chiefs asses to do more with significantly less. The Kenya Police Force (soon to be renamed the Kenya Police Service), the Administration Police Service, the Anti-Stock Theft Unit, and the General Service Unit have been placed on high alert, and despite the dastardly attacks of Monday, are responding as swiftly as possible to internal security events. Indeed, even the recent murderous squabbles over pasture in Isiolo South District have received the full attention of the Minister and his staff and he has assure the residents of the violence-prone area that the disarmament programme that had been suspended in the wake of the Referendum Campaign of 2010 will be revived and pursued with renewed vigour.
Despite all this, it remains unclear what our tactical and strategic objectives are as a country. All the players involved in this matter seem to have taken a holiday from advising anxious Kenyans of what is going on and what it is hoped will be achieved. Dr Nene Mburu, a former army officer, writing in today's Daily Nation, makes this point forcefully, going so far as to call the incursion a strategic miscalculation (Kenya's much-hyped incursion into Somalia a strategic miscalculation). Pointing out that al Shabaab is not a national army, does not fight under a national flag, and can easily disband and regroup, Dr Mburu argues that to eradicate it completely as threat would require the establishment of a fully functioning national government whose writ extended beyond o few neighbouhoods of Mogadishu to the whole country. He also points out that Kenya's push for the creation of Puntland as a nation-state to act as a buffer with war-torn Somalia proper would be a strategic mistake, as the instability in Somalia would still overwhelm Puntland and cross over into Kenya's North East. The bottom line, despite the tom-tomming of Kenya's punditocracy, is that unless we have a clear strategic objective or a credible exit strategy, our adventure in Somalia may come back to bite us in the ass.
As Kenya's 'incursion' into Somalia enters its eleventh day, it is becoming more and more apparent that the famed discipline of the Kenya's men and women in uniform is richly deserved (or, at least, we are very, very good at keeping news of indiscipline out of the national media). It is also becoming apparent that Kenya's foreign policy establishment leaves a lot to be desired. It was a mistake to re-appoint Moses Wetangula as the Minister for Foreign Affairs, though he seems to have the consummate diplomatic operator in Thuita Mwangi as his Permanent Secretary. It helps that Amb Francis Muthaura can be counted on to offer direction as Head of the Public Service. The Minister has been unable to craft a well-thought out diplomatic strategy in support of Kenya's operations in Somalia, failing even to get the President of the Somalia Transitional Federal Government to sing from the same song-book as his colleagues in the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, IGAD. He has been unable to keep the intemperate Minister of State in the Office of the President for Defence, Yusuf Hajji, from speaking to the media, and when he does speak, to do so with circumspection and deliberation. And he failed spectacularly to get the President and Prime Minister to come out early with public statements to justify their going to war at a time when Kenya is facing severe budgetary contractions, its currency is at its weakest for almost a decade, and drought and famine-related emergencies have yet to be fully resolved.
On the home front, the Minister of State in the Office of the President for Internal Security and Provincial Administration, Prof George Saitoti, has come out of his shell and, it seems, lit a fire under his security chiefs asses to do more with significantly less. The Kenya Police Force (soon to be renamed the Kenya Police Service), the Administration Police Service, the Anti-Stock Theft Unit, and the General Service Unit have been placed on high alert, and despite the dastardly attacks of Monday, are responding as swiftly as possible to internal security events. Indeed, even the recent murderous squabbles over pasture in Isiolo South District have received the full attention of the Minister and his staff and he has assure the residents of the violence-prone area that the disarmament programme that had been suspended in the wake of the Referendum Campaign of 2010 will be revived and pursued with renewed vigour.
Despite all this, it remains unclear what our tactical and strategic objectives are as a country. All the players involved in this matter seem to have taken a holiday from advising anxious Kenyans of what is going on and what it is hoped will be achieved. Dr Nene Mburu, a former army officer, writing in today's Daily Nation, makes this point forcefully, going so far as to call the incursion a strategic miscalculation (Kenya's much-hyped incursion into Somalia a strategic miscalculation). Pointing out that al Shabaab is not a national army, does not fight under a national flag, and can easily disband and regroup, Dr Mburu argues that to eradicate it completely as threat would require the establishment of a fully functioning national government whose writ extended beyond o few neighbouhoods of Mogadishu to the whole country. He also points out that Kenya's push for the creation of Puntland as a nation-state to act as a buffer with war-torn Somalia proper would be a strategic mistake, as the instability in Somalia would still overwhelm Puntland and cross over into Kenya's North East. The bottom line, despite the tom-tomming of Kenya's punditocracy, is that unless we have a clear strategic objective or a credible exit strategy, our adventure in Somalia may come back to bite us in the ass.
KKV not enough to sink Odinga's chances
The Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, Dr Bonny Khalwale, has declared that if his Committee finds the Prime Minister liable for the Chinese accounting that took place in the Prime Minister's Office with regards to the World Bank monies meant for the highly popular Kazi Kwa Vijana programme, it will not hesitate to call for the Prime Minister to take political and personal responsibility for the quick-fingeredness of his mandarins.
Prime Minister Raila Odinga managed to survive the maize scandal in 2008 by shifting the blame squarely on the Minister for Agriculture at the time, William Ruto, who has shown that he can give as good as he got. It is too bad that the people supporting his call for the PM to take responsibility, step aside and allow full and impartial investigations, are his fellow political travellers in the Gang of Seven Alliance, including the hapless Eugene Wamalwa, brother to the late, great Michale Kijana Wamalwa, and a putative presidential candidate in next year's general elections.
It is also too bad that the Kazi Kwa Vijana programme and the scandal it has now engendered do not have the same visceral appeal to the punditocracy as the maize scam did or the scandal that attached to the Kenya Primary Schools Support Programme that saw Education Minister Prof Sam Ongeri come under popular fire for the manner in which he had handled it. The Prime Minister has decided to keep mum over the matter, despatching loyal lieutenants to calm the political waters on his behalf. However, he may have miscalculated by having only loyal Luo Nyanza politicians fighting this particular battle on his behalf and if he is not careful, he may be tarred with the tribal brush putting paid to his presidential ambitions.
Love him or loath him, the PM is the consummate Kenyan politician of today, playing off his opponents against each other in a symphony that has prevented them from finding their political footing. He remains more popular than the leading lights of the Gang of Seven; every time they seem to land on a new strategy, it seems to wash off the PM's back like water off a duck's back. Despite what many perceive as autocratic tendencies in the manner that he has executed his duties as PM or as the leader of the Orange Democratic Movement Party of Kenya, Raila Odinga has emerged as a nuanced and pragmatic politician, capable of making hard decisions as and when needed.
The manner with which he dumped Miguna Miguna is encouraging, given the untenable position his former Advisor on Coalition Affairs had placed him in. This time too he must act with ruthlessness; if there are public officers who abused their offices in the manner with which the handled the World Bank funds in the KKV programme, he must jettison them at the earliest opportunity and change the political narrative. Resignation is not an option he can exercise safely. Not if he wants to retain his position as the front-runner at the hustings next year.
Looking at the expanding field of presidential contenders, it is clear that at present Raila Odinga presents the people of Kenya with the best choice possible. Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto, unless the Pre-trial Chamber II comes back with a different decision, will have a hard time managing presidential campaigns while undergoing trial at The Hague. Eugene Wamalwa is a neophyte prone to intemperate statements and dodgy alliances. Martha Karua will not shake off her hard-eyed and steadfast support for President Kibaki in the aftermath of the 2007 general elections. Raphael Tuju and Peter Kenneth suffer from the fact that they do not seem to have constituencies larger than the ones that sent them to Parliament. Tuju, also, has to explain away how the good people of Rarieda got rid of him after just one term; claims of an ODM wave will no longer wash. Unless Raila Odinga makes serious political mistakes between now and 2August or December 2012, the presidency is his to lose.
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Lessons from Gaddafi's fall.
It was all going to end badly for Muammar Gaddafi. When the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation decided to join hands with what would eventually morph into the National Transitional Council, his goose was well and truly cooked. To his dying day, Col Gaddafi believed that he was right in the manner that he had ruled, though he would dispute the fact that he was a ruler in the traditional sense. His death at the hands of the ill-trained, ill-equipped elements of the NTC was predictable; what was not, was the fact that Washington DC and London showed such disinterest in the whole affair. But then again, Barack Obama's administration had kept their involvement in the whole affair at arms length, and London had long since given up strategic leadership in the matter to the Brussels-headquartered NATO.
After swiftly recognising the NTC as the legitimate heirs to Col Gaddafi's regime, the combined leadership of the West turned their attention to more urgent and pressing concerns such as the imminent collapse of the Greek economy, followed by the efforts of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank to stabilise the global economy following its less than stellar revival after the end of the 2007/08 crisis.
This is the lesson that Kenya needs to take away from the sorry affair in Libya. When Col Gaddafi decided to give up the pursuit of Weapons of Mass Destruction, handing over the results of his research and detailing his international contacts with groups that were hostile to the West, he was, briefly, feted in the capitals of the West. Regardless of who was in power, he enjoyed favours from both the White House and No 10 Downing Street. Libya was taken off the list of sponsors of terrorism and was slowly being rehabilitated into international bodies and systems.
But American and European leaders constantly underestimated the breadth of discontent from among the Libyans themselves, and when the uprising against Gaddafi commenced 6 months ago, it took them some time to get their ducks in a row and throw in their lot with the rebel fighters. But even their support for the rebels had the whiff of disinterest and now they are left with the choice of interceding more muscularly as the NTC tries to build new institutions in a nation that has gone a whole generation without any.
In the aftermath of the 2007/08 crisis, Kenya welcomed the assistance of international interlocutors, including the African Union, the European Union and the US Government. Now that we have decided to conduct military operations against al Shabaab in Somalia, we are once more begging for the intervention of these same powers, as well as hoping that they will legitimise our actions in the international arena.
What we seem not to have considered is that they will only do so once they have determined what their interests in the matter will be. They will not intervene simply for altruism's sake, but because their national interests are at stake. Kenya will pay a price for the help it will receive from the international community, and we must honestly discuss whether we are prepared to live with the cost of such 'help'. The costs remain unknown for now, but without a national discussion they will continue to remain unknown.
For a decade now, Kenyans have studiously refused to come to terms with the nature of their government. Even during the referendum campaign in 2010, Kenyans were only preoccupied with the political nature of the contest, refusing to hold a candid examination of the nature of the government that they were choosing for themselves in the new Constitution. That attitude has allowed our political leadership to get away with almost anything. When the dust settles in the aftermath of the 2012 general elections, if indeed the elections are held in 2012, we may yet find ourselves at the mercy of foreign interests.
For instance, devolution, we are assured, is the panacea for skewed development priorities going back 47 years, yet we seem incapable of agreeing on whether devolution is a good thing or not. We are also persuaded that a presidential system is preferable to a parliamentary one, yet there seems to be no candid discussion of how such a system will be implemented after decades of a parliamentary system. Without answering these and other thorny questions, we may find ourselves 'importing' foreign 'experts' to assist us to govern ourselves, with the result that the priorities that may be pursued may yet again favour foreign interests at the expense of our own. Watch what happens in Libya for it is a harbinger of a new form of neo-colonialism.
Friday, October 21, 2011
The experiment worked; our soldiers can fight. Now bring them home
It may be in bad taste to question official government policy when members of our armed forces are engaged in hostilities on foreign soil, but it cannot be helped. Prof George Saitoti, who is not the Minister of State in the Office of the President for Defence, stated yesterday, after the Mashujaa Day festivities at Nyayo Stadium, that Kenya would go to all lengths to destroy al Shabaab as a threat to security in the region. Now, al Shabaab is not a national army; it is not even a national criminal-cum-terrorist organisation. Unlike the Islamist, anti-Hindu terrorist organisations fighting in the Kashmir Valley in India, it does not enjoy the semi-public patronage of any government or secret police of any country. It is not a global terrorist organisation; its attacks have overwhelmingly concentrated on Somalia proper, with brief forays into Uganda and Kenya. However, it claims affiliation with al Qaeda, the organisation responsible for penetrating US defences to murderously devastating effect on 11 September 2001.
Somalia, two decades after it descended into bloody, internecine war, is a pale shadow of a functioning nation-state. The Transitional Federal Government, which is simply the biggest and best-protected gang in Somalia, enjoys legitimacy only among the members of the clans that comprise its membership. Regardless of the bloodthirstiness of al Shabaab, the TFG is seen as venal, corrupt and heavily partisan, and it will never enjoy the same level of legitimacy that the Islamic Courts Union, that flourished briefly between June and December 2006 and was foolishly toppled by the US-backed Ethiopian armed forces, enjoyed.
The piracy taking place in the Indian Ocean is proof that the terrorism that was engendered by the collapse of the Somali state after the fall of Mohammed Siad Barre has morphed into a sophisticated and well-oiled machine in 2011. Rough and unconfirmed estimates put the haul from the Indian Ocean piracy at $400 million, much of it not going to Somalia, but to the true merchants of death to be found around the Gulf of Aden, especially in Yemen and Oman. It is presumed that it is these benefactors who have an interest in perpetuating the Somali civil war, hence their suspected support for groups such as al Shabaab, which is by no means the only Islamist organisation in Somalia today. So given this scenario, who exactly have the Kenya Defence Forces been sent to vanquish? How long will they be in Somalia, and will their campaign turn into an occupation?
Once more, I turn to the question of what exactly our foreign policy is. At least during President Moi's long and ruinous reign, we knew where we stood in the comity of nations. Since Mwai Kibaki was sworn for the first time in 2003, we have muddled from one policy to another without a coherent strategy or even a basic plan, for that matter. Other than rapidly washing its hands of the Somali and South Sudan problems as soon as they showed signs of being resolved, what exactly has defined Kenya's foreign policy engagements in the Greater Eastern Africa region, especially with regards to the Horn of Africa? The answers to these questions are crucial to determining what will constitute success in our Somalia adventure. Unless we are prepared to keep our soldiers in Somalia indefinitely, or until the idiots in Washington, London, Paris and Bonn come to their senses, the moment our troops come home a new rag-tag Islamist militia will rise up to take the place of al Shabaab and this cycle will repeat itself.
So while I am proud of the courage of our soldiers and I pray that they remain victorious in their engagements with the enemy, I must ask that they be recalled and deployed along the border until the mandarins in Nairobi tell the nabobs in Harambee House and the National Assembly the truth about the true state of affairs. Wars are always fought for political reasons; what was the rationale for invading Somalia, pursuing what amounts to a cross-border criminal organisation with delusions of world domination, that does not control the territory it fights in or enjoy the legitimacy of the people of Somalia?
Why should I care?
I know I should care that the Kenya Defence Forces are engaged in operations in hostile territory, but I don't. I know that I should care that the President and the Prime Minister have demonstrated resolve, and are united in formulating a strategy to take the fight to al Shabaab deep inside Somalia, but I don't. I know I should care that Nairobi and, indeed, other parts of the country are on heightened alert because of the war with al Shabaab, but I don't. What I care for is the fact that I have been royally screwed by my Member of Parliament, and his colleagues, and that these hyenas show no remorse for the manner in which that have handled (and mishandled) matters of grave national importance.
Celebrating Mashujaa Day yesterday should have been a moment of pride in both my government and its leaders, but it wasn't. The spectacle of the last living members of the Mau Mau in their Sunday Best, but quite clearly poverty-stricken and ill, is the final sign of humiliation that I am willing to bear. How can it be that Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, who benefitted so greatly from the activities of the Mau Mau, betrayed them so egregiously? Crude as this may sound, but the Mau Mau was formed primarily of residents of the Mount Kenya region dominated by the Kikuyu and yet, in a government dominated by Kenyatta and other Kikuyus, they saw nothing of the fruits of their labours.
Twenty-five years after his death, another Kikuyu in Mwai Kibaki was elected president, and still they continued to be treated as unlettered pariahs in need of the occasional alms but no official recognition. Ironically, it was the colonial government that outlawed the Mau Mau, and this decision was not rescinded until well into the Kibaki presidency. And yet, even then, when the last of the Mau Mau decided to sue the British government for atrocities committed by the colonial government, the Government of Kenya did nothing to support or facilitate their claims. To this day the true heroes of the Mau Mau rebellion continue to be treated with callous disregard by a government that would not exist without their blood or sacrifice.
When Mwalimu Julius Nyerere described Kenya in cannibalistic terms as a man-eat-man society, he could not have known that we would sink even lower. The system of conferring national awards on ne'er-do-wells simply because of their political affiliations has a long and disgusting history in Kenya. Witness the thousands upon thousands of quislings that were officially recognised by the colonial British in Kenya. Witness the thousands upon thousands more that had national honours conferred upon them by not just the Kenyatta and Moi governments, but also the Kibaki regime who have nothing to commend them but the amount of money or 'political assistance' they can bring to the men and women in power.
Yet, the true heroes - the men and women who bring honour and glory to this nation - continue to sit on the sidelines like spectators at a Gor-AFC clash, with the attendant innocent-bystander injuries to show for it. Men and women who have not only run down national institutions, but have lied, cheated and killed their way to national prominence continue to enjoy the official recognition of the Government of Kenya, while the men and women who have run marathons in record-breaking, award-winning times, the men and women who have volley-balled themselves into world championship status, have been ignored and treated with contempt, their running tracks and stadia taking second place to edifices of official corruption and impunity erected in every political back-yard, from the Turkwell Gorge on down.
I know I should care that the Kenya Defence Forces are engaged in operations in hostile territory, but I don't. I know that I should care that the President and the Prime Minister have demonstrated resolve, and are united in formulating a strategy to take the fight to al Shabaab deep inside Somalia, but I don't. I know I should care that Nairobi and, indeed, other parts of the country are on heightened alert because of the war with al Shabaab, but I don't. Why should I when I know that no one else does? Why the hell should I?
Sunday, October 16, 2011
No longer politricks-as-usual
The KKK alliance morphed into the Gang of Seven which has now morphed into the Gang of Seven alliance. When they first came together, their primary focus was how to prevent Prime Minister Raila Odinga from succeeding President Mwai Kibaki after the next general elections (whose date has been thrown in doubt because of the machinations of the Cabinet, the resolute stand of the Commission for the Implementation of the Constitution, and the delays in setting up the Supreme Court of Kenya). They had resolved to direct all their energies to painting the Prime Minister if bad light, blame him for some of their more serious political difficulties, and generally show him to be the wrong person to be president come 2012.
They have now come up with a new plan, which is essentially, more of the same. While they have resolved now to focus more on how they will govern and what policies the will pursue, their underlying philosophical reason for being, is to prevent Raila Odinga from assuming the presidency after the next general elections. The more things change, the more they remain the same, or so it seems when it comes to the Gang of Seven Alliance.
But even with their new strategy, they will still suffer from a credibility gap. For instance, they cannot legitimately promise to pursue different policies while in power if they have not proposed such policies in their various capacities in this government. Their promise that they will be different cannot be taken at face value since they do serve this government, with varying degrees of loyalty, and have shown no indication that they will resign in order to challenge the received orthodoxies of today. Mr Musyoka, who oversees the Home Affairs ministry in addition to his position as Vice-President, while waiting to move into his sh 383 million 'house', has done very little to improve the conditions in Kenya's prisons, including their overcrowding and the operation of criminal conspiracies by inmates and warders alike.
Millions of Kenya's mobile phone users continue to be snookered by criminals behind bars through dodgy get-rich-quick schemes. Chirau Ali Mwakwere oversaw the concessioning of the Kenya-Uganda Railways to the shady Sheltam Corporation despite the fact that Roy Purfett, it's Managing Director, could provide no proof of his experience in such a venture nor provide sufficient capital to oversee the transformation of the railways. He was eventually bought out by an Egyptian company with experience in these matters. Mr Mwakwere, meanwhile, has not been investigated by either the Public Investments Committee or the Public Accounts Committee for the manner in which he oversaw the concessioning or the decisions that were taken under his watch.
Mr Kenyatta has overseen the largest depreciation in the shilling and admits that the steps that may revive it will not have an impact for at least six months. Kenyans continue to suffer the effects of a weak shilling including high energy costs and a rising rate of inflation. The controversial reappointment of the Governor of the Central Bank continues to hang over his head, especially now that it seems that Prof Njuguna Ndung'u is unable to do much to shore up the shilling against other world currencies.
Mr Ruto has been dropped from the Cabinet for, among other things, allegations that he has previously engaged in corrupt acts. The effect of the ICC trials on his political activities cannot be downplayed either. Eugene Wamalwa has made some strange forays into national politics over the past year. First he was seen in the company of the self-confessed leader of the outlawed Mungiki sect, a quasi-religious criminal organisation that has been blamed for some of the worst murders in Kenya's history. Then he made the rather incredible claim that his claim to the presidency was predicated on the promise that Mwai Kibaki had agreed to allow his brother, the late Michael Kijana Wamalwa, to succeed him and that because of the Vice-President's death, this obligation has been inherited by him.
Prof George Saitoti, a former Vice-President, has been in charge of internal security at a time when Kenyans have suffered great casualties at the hands of foreigners along the Kenya-Somali, Kenya-Ethiopia and Kenya-South Sudan borders. The continuing deaths of Kenyans and foreigners in Kenya at the hands of groups such as the Toposa and the al Shabaab are glaring proof that he has failed in his duties.
If these are the men promising changes post-2012, we are better off recalling President Moi from retirement! It is also now emerging that the Gang of Seven Alliance has opened 'negotiations' of how to share power after the next general elections, with crucial positions being dished out to members of the Alliance, including those of the Speaker of the National Assembly, Speaker of the Senate, Presidential Running-mate and Leader of the Majority Party in Parliament. They have managed to maneuver Parliament into making key amendments in key Bills to ensure that some of their plans come to fruition; for instance, the changes that they proposed and were adopted in the Elections Bill and the Political Parties Bill are meant to strengthen the Gang of Seven's hand during the next general elections. So is the Cabinet's proposed amendment to the Constitution to hold the next general elections in December 2012.
The upshot of all this is that the Alliance is not concerned with what will benefit the people of Kenya; rather, they are still obsessed with keeping Prime Minister Odinga from assuming the presidency. They are yet to admit to themselves that Kenya is a changed country and that politricks-as-usual will no longer cut it. They are yet to make a credible claim that one of their own will make a good president, let alone a better one than the Prime Minister.
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