KENYA: Disrupted elections and ‘Made in Kenya’ solutions

African diplomacy triumphed when Kofi Annan and Jakaya Kikwete’s, Chairman of African Union, presence saw Kenya’s president Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader raila odinga, sign a power sharing agreement. the agreement, which surprised many, sees the position of prime minister -a job to be taken by Mr. odinga-

On this historical day, Wambui Wachira, a leading business woman in Nairobi and friend, texts me from Nairobi minutes after they sign, “People are relieved but it’s a wait and see. We just hope that it does not get derailed by politicians in parliament. It’s really strange. It’s like we don’t want to jinx it. ODM (Orange Democratic Movement) supporters are celebrating but it’s strange it is not like a victory we all feel like it’s a compromise which is what we wanted. More like a relief I think. For business it’s great. Hopefully the uncertainty is gone but no one is celebrating yet...these guys are not to be trusted.” Old habits die hard. Fears of ethnic ascendancy, power-hungry political elites, undemocratic processes and institutions -all are hallmarks of today’s Kenya. There was a brief moment of happiness as I stood with my husband and best friend along the south-bank with at least a million Londoners ushering 2008 when the Big Ben struck mid night. Fireworks were only for a brief moment before everything turned into smoke. We missed much of the display. We were not standing at a designated viewing point. My experience links me to the events in Kenya at the same time where election excitement soon turned to violence. We’ve had tribal fighting before but never like this. Kenya celebrated for its spectacular wildlife and robust economy was now a land of distress.

ThE ElEcTioN coNTrovErsY:

The violence has been a mix of hooliganism, political protest and ‘revenging’ on ethnic lines. Kikuyu, who make up 22% of the population, are Kenya’s traditional ruling class and have dominated business and politics since 1963. They run shops, restaurants, banks and factories across Kenya. Tribes, obviously, do matter in Kenya. But for the most part, the country has escaped the wide spread ethnic clashes that has haunted many of its neighbours like Ethiopia, Sudan and Rwanda. Kenya’s ethnic groups have intermarried and co-existed for decades. The Kikuyu have shared the spoils of the systems with other tribes and has helped defuse resentment. But the election controversy has created a dynamic which many of Kenya’s other, roughly 40, tribes, furious about ballot rigging that may have kept Mr. Kibaki, a kikuyu, in power, venting frustration against him and his tribe.

In the capital, Nairobi, a much feared kikuyu criminal gang called Mungiki take an ethno centric view of the Kenyan society and there are revenge killings in the slums. Mungiki have lingered in the shadows of Kenya’s politics for more than a decade; becoming increasingly important and dangerous. Mungiki make their money from extortion and protection rackets they run against city businesses. Shops and transport are their principal targets. They prefer to ‘prey’ against their own Kikuyu people seeking to chase away those of other ethnicities so as to bring in their own ‘compliant’ Kikuyu traders who are prepared to pay for the ‘protection’ that is offered.

In Kenyan politics it has become the norm for politicians to hire thugs to do their dirty work especially at election time. On the grandest scale this was seen in the 1992 and 1997 elections when the government ministers employed vast armies of hired thugs to attack the homes of voters in opposition strongholds. On a smaller scale every serious political contender arranges to be ‘protected’ by a group of so called ‘youth wingers’. In this way, since the early 80s, violence has become a normalised part of Kenyan politics.

However, in the 30th December election 2007, the government blamed Odinga. Odinga in turn refused to talk to Kibaki until the president admitted that he’d lost the election. Mr. Odinga and Mr. Kibaki ran together in 2002 in what many considered the first free election. Former president Daniel arap Moi managed to hang on for more than two decades assuming dictatorial power in 1978. The duo built a tribal alliance but fell out soon afterward. This made it difficult to broker a truce. A record number of Kenyans, nearly 10 million, lined up to vote. Mr. Kibaki, 76, vowed to keep Kenya’s economy, one of the strongest in Africa, Mr. Odinga, 62, ran as champion of the poor and promised to end the tradition of Kikuyu favours. Voting followed on tribal lines.

DEcoloNisATioN:

Kenyans wanted a made in Kenya solution and did not take David Milliband’s, Britain’s foreign secretary, ‘behave responsibly’ talk seriously. Britain, Kenya’s colonial ruler, today falls far short of democratic ideals in the eyes of many Kenyans. Kenyans have had to live with a distinctly colonial view of the rule of law, which saw the British leave behind legal systems that facilitated tyranny, oppression and poverty rather than open and accountable government. Compounding these legacies was Britain’s famous imperial policy of “divide and rule,” playing one side off another, which often turned fluid groups of individuals into immutable ethnic units, much like Kenya’s Luo and Kikuyu today.

Of note is the colonialism differential impact on land. In order to pay for the Mombasa- Kisumu (From the coast to the Lake Victoria that services the Nile) railway and administration cost, the British needed extra wealth out of their new African territories. All the British needed to do, was ensure that the local monarchies continued to tax their peasantry and hand over a proportion of their proceeds. However, in Kenya’s most fertile area, the upland plateau where the kikuyu live, there were no wealthy kingdoms with traditional wealth extraction capabilities- so the British had to find an alternative method of getting their percentage. They simply deprived large numbers of Kikuyu off their lands and sold it to white settlers who were then encouraged to grow tax yielding cash crops.

The land transfers had two consequences. The kikuyu who lost their land, out of economic necessity, started working for the white farmers who had supplanted themand as a result they became politically radicalised. Later they became the backbone of violence Mau Mau rebellion against the British rule, the defeat cleared the way for successive post colonial governance.

Caroline Elkins, an Associate Professor of African Studies at Harvard University stresses that both ethnic conflict and its attendant grievances are colonial phenomena. She adds that Britain was determined to protect its economic and geopolitical interests during the decolonization process, and it did most everything short of stuffing ballot boxes to do so. That set dangerous precedents. Among other manoeuvres, the British drew electoral boundaries to cut the representation of groups they thought might cause trouble and empowered the provincial administration to manipulate supposedly democratic outcomes. Therefore, Kenyans descent into ethnic violence could be seen as inevitable. This does not excuse the undemocratic behaviour of the current Kenyan president, or that of his opponent Odinga, neither of whom is necessarily a true voice of the masses. However, it can be said that with the ‘Made in Kenya’ spirit still intact and African diplomacy respected, Kenya can regain her position as a model for economic and, hopefully democratic progress.