Kenya – a country in deadlock
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Corruption in Kenya is widespread and often exposed, but impunity is total. The police and security services are chronically and thoroughly corrupt and inefficient. The President’s corruption controller is in exile.
The violence after the fraudulent 2007 election was a gigantic setback for the confidence of Kenyans in the possibility of influencing policies and appointing leaders through elections.
Primary schooling is free and even the girls go to school. Digital technology has a huge impact. Cellphone services are being developed locally and now reach every farmer and roadside vendor.
No Kenyan politicians seem to be able to replace the tainted leadership. Both the government and the opposition are still being led by the families that appeared at Independence 50 years ago.
”The police is corrupt”, The President is a drunkard”, ”Now things are worse than ever!”. Many Kenyans have set opinions about politics. But despite more free elections, and despite the open critique of those in power, the country is more locked in ethnic groups and mistrust than it was at the time of the democratic breakthrough.
Corruption is widespread and often exposed, but impunity is total. Kenya is the country where the President’s corruption controller goes into exile. The police and security services are chronically and thoroughly corrupt and inefficient.
The biggest Kenyan trauma in the 2000s is the violent conflicts after the 2007 elections, when in particular groups of Kalenjin and Kikuyu exerted brute force against each other. Over 1000 people were killed and several hundred thousand were displaced.
This was a gigantic setback for the confidence of Kenyans in the possibility of influencing policies and appointing leaders through elections. Electoral fraud was evident, even though the full truth will never be revealed.
The opposition saw itself robbed of electoral victory. That was the spark igniting the unrest, which was then fueled by power-hungry politicians. Violence was escalated and soon involved old conflicts about resettlements that changed the patterns of land holdings between various ethnic groups.
The Kenyan judiciary did not manage to prosecute those responsible. Both Parliament and the public opinion wanted the International Criminal Court in the Hague (ICC) to administer justice. Today, seven years later, it seems that the Kenyan reality with its mixture of smoke screens and brutality may be about to crack even the international justice system.
When ICC announced who would be prosecuted, the main defendants managed to turn the charges to their advantage in the Kenyan public opinion. They were the leaders of the two groups that confronted each other in the conflict – one group frustrated over what they perceived as a stolen election and rabbled to settle old scores, and the other in violent defence against the attacks.
Now, the leaders of the two previously hostile groups formed a coalition exploiting anti-western and anti-colonial sentiments. They managed to assemble a majority and won the 2013 election. Uhuru Kenyatta who is kikuyu and William Ruto who is kalenjin are now Kenya’s President and Vice President, respectively.
They are both being prosecuted for crimes against humanity, for instigation and financing of killings and displacements. They should risk spending their remaining days in prison. However, the ICC bungled the prosecution. Witnesses have died, been silenced and changed their testimonies.
Uhuru Kenyatta is the son of Kenya’s first President Jomo Kenyatta. The family is the richest in Kenya and can bribe or in other ways eliminate anything that stands in its way. The prosecutor now demands an indefinite postponement of the case against President Kenyatta due to lack of evidence. Kenyatta has not delivered the required documentation, they say. The President’s defence attorney demands that the case be dropped. Few observers believe that Vice President Ruto can be convicted.
Kenya’s campaigning in the African Union has managed to get the AU to demand that ICC may not prosecute serving Heads of Governments. (Omar al-Bashir in Sudan is also being prosecuted but has for several years refused to appear.) Can ICC survive a failure in the prestigious cases against Kenya’s foremost rulers?
The terror attacks against a shopping centre in Nairobi in September 2013 briefly seemed to unite the nation. At least 71 people were killed and the siege lasted for several days while the media reported how self-sacrificing Kenyans took care of the wounded and traumatised compatriots.
But it did not take long before the reports of the failures of the police, military and security forces created a new hangover. The response came too late and uncoordinated; the different units shot against each other and several died. Most shameful for the Kenyans was seeing the surveillance camera videos of soldiers looting shops in the midst of a national disaster. The President promised an investigation, but it has been covered up.
The terrorists were four young men from the terror network al Shabaab, which declared that the deed was in revenge of Kenya’s military actions. Kenya’s defence forces have had a minor role since independence, and never crossed a border before 2011. Then the army invaded Somalia, later to be incorporated in the African Union force.
The invasion had strong support among the Kenyans who wanted to see an end to repeated terror attacks. But insecurity has instead increased. Kenya’s borders and security apparatus is leaking like a sieve. It is doubtful whether the draconian and sweeping measures now being taken against Somalis leads to increased security. Many believe to the contrary that they just reinforce the breeding ground of terrorism.
Kenya has a new Constitution since 2010. The Constitution enacts new regional assemblies and governors; it reduces the power of the Presidency and is to enhance democracy. However, the opposition and some of the governors are already demanding a referendum about a number of constitutional amendments.
The reforms are very expensive and the newly elected representatives are demanding shamelessly generous conditions. As always in Kenya many ask who will take responsibility for the country’s development and the poor majority of the population when greed seems to be the guiding principle.
Kenya is still a very poor country. Nearly half the population are undernourished. Economic development since the democratic breakthrough has been positive, but growth is mainly driven by domestic consumption.
Export production is limited and dependent on the vulnerable agriculture. Smallholder productivity remains low. Foreign investment is sagging with the falling confidence in doing business in Kenya due to corruption and the weakening rule of law. Terror attacks frighten both tourists and investors.
Kenya’s Office of the Auditor-General reported in 2013 that about 30 per cent of the previous year’s public expenditures were unaccounted for. Inefficiency and graft is so rampant that it is hard to understand the Kenyans’ patience with their rulers. “There is need for a revolution in this country” was the surprising stated opinion of a World Bank official in Nairobi. “Everything that moves forward happens despite the government, not due to it.”
The digital technology has changed the life of Kenyans. Cellphone services are being developed locally and now reach every farmer and roadside vendor. The private sector is vital and it is not just about established firms. Even the slums are swarming with the so-called Jua kali (‘hot sun’), which is the term for all those hammering, nailing, cooking and sewing entrepreneurs who mostly work outdoors. They struggle for survival and for securing an education for their children – the main ambition of Kenyan parents.
Primary schooling is free and even the girls go to school. But the population increase is exploding and brings huge challenges for the education and health systems. Family planning is neglected. Today there are 44 million Kenyans and the projection for 2030 is 73 million.
Inequality is large, but there is an acceptance for this. In Kenya, ideas of equality and redistribution have never had a strong basis. Politics has focused on power, not on ideas, and is strongly marked by ethnic identities and the struggle for benefits for one’s own group.
There are today no prominent politicians in Kenya that seem to be able to replace the tainted leadership. Both the government and the opposition are still being led by the families that appeared at Independence 50 years ago.
The Kenyan self-picture of a country that will lead Africa out of poverty is ill-adapted to reality. The ruling Kenyatta family fortune and dominance have been shaped out of the country’s three big problems: inequality, corruption and the ethnic divide. It is hard to believe that it will demolish these three fundaments.
This article has been translated by the Editor from the original Swedish text published in the October 2014 print issue of Sida’s magazine Omvärlden (No. 7, 2014).
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