Kenya is on the brink of a crisis again. Or, er, not. It’s hard to know. President Mwai Kibaki and his rival-ally Prime Minister Raila Odinga are at loggerheads again over the latter’s attempts to suspend two ministers whose offices were implicated in million-shilling corruption scandals. But despite the by-now-familiar rhetoric and grandstanding, it does not appear that either man is willing to transform the rift to a breakup. So, assuming that neither man is stupid and that they are very well aware of their mandates under the power-sharing agreement that ended the post-election violence, you have to believe that there is a game being played. At the very least, this row is a distraction from the main issues: the ubiquity of corruption at the upper levels of government and the need for the country to get ready to vote on a new constitution. It’s somewhat depressing – in a Groundhog Day-way – to see the “two principals”, as Kibaki and Odinga are known, squabbling again over power and position when they are being handed so many opportunities to be statesman-like.
I have been doing some interviews recently and what strikes me is the number of Kenyans who are so deeply disillusioned with politics that they are living their lives despite the government. In other words, they do not expect any help from the government, they do not expect any reforms, they do not expect any change. All they hope is that 2012 will somehow serve to cast out the old guard, the men and women who have been ruling Kenya for the past decades. Nobody seems quite sure how this clear-out will occur, or who will replace politicians seen by many as self-serving dinosaurs, but what is striking is the overwhelming acceptance that no good will come from the team now in power.
Take the guys at Kuweni Serious, for example. The Kuweni Serious team want to remain anonymous for now. They are smart, educated and frustrated. They want their site to give people a voice, to prompt debate and get people thinking about what is happening in Kenya. But they acknowledge that change is going to come slowly. And they are not quite sure how to get the leaders they think they deserve.
“We might make as much noise as we want but the probable reality is that the same people will be there again (after 2012),” said John (that’s not the 24-year-old’s real name). He and his colleagues – Rachel and James – spoke of apathy fed by disillusion.
“I know some fervent political guys who won’t even vote again,” said James. “I get the feeling that our generation are even more disconnected now than before (the post-election violence.).”
Rachel spoke of two friends who had stood in the 2007 elections and swore never to go near politics again. “It’s like Lord of the Rings – the ring corrupts everybody.”
She said people should boycott any future vote. John disagreed, he said that would just let politicians do what they wanted. They all spoke of voting as an exercise in choosing the lesser of all evils. John argued for the youth getting involved, mounting a real challenge with their own candidates. It might be too late to change what happens in 2012 – because any new candidate would need to build up trust – but maybe 2017? “It would call for a lot of sacrifice from our generation’s politicians. You have to build trust … Tribalism is also a trust issue so to break this, you would need something very powerful.”
I also spoke to those behind www.kenyaimagine.com. Again, smart, educated young Kenyans trying to change minds by publishing articles and opinions online and giving writers a forum for their thoughts. Emmo Opoti, one of the site’s founders, says reforming Kenya is also not just about changing the faces in the government.
“The state is where everything is thought to be wrong. We consider that there is a lot to be changed in the people themselves, what is our attitude towards shared resources, for example, our attitude towards weaker groups, the marginalised, what is our conception of human rights.”
He says more debate is needed on issues like saving the Mau forest, privatization, and the constitution but that these issues become tangled up in party politics too easily. “So, this is part of the problem, that we so identify with the politicians that when they adopt positions … the population thinks this must be the limit of options we have. We like to think that our platform (kenyaImagine) would present further options.
Tanzanian cartoonist Godfrey Mwampembwa, whose satirical drawings in the Daily Nation are a great way to start the day, says the political shenanigans here make his job easier but sometimes the repetitive wrangles get him down.
“Sometimes, I think things get so bleak and you say ‘what is happening?’” he said. He recalled his efforts to think up a cartoon at the start of the row over the suspended ministers – he eventually drew a woman calling Kofi Annan, saying she had been worried that the grand coalition would lead to two centres of power, but in fact there were two centres of corruption.
“I really struggled that day and I said what can I do because even as a cartoonist I’ve exhausted my ideas, so what can I do … Here, the absurdities outpace the realities. Sometimes, my job as a cartoonist is easier. You don’t need to come with ideas. You just need to illustrate, bang, what is happening.”
Something that is not happening is any progress on bringing those responsible for the 2007/08 violence to trial. Kenyans are still waiting to see whether the International Criminal Court (ICC) will prosecute those believed responsible for inciting and funding the violence. The pre-trial judges in the Hague have asked for more information. It seems to be taking a long time to decide on something that was supposedly well documented by the Waki Commission and various human rights groups.
