Seeds and fruits of Kenya’s false starts

By: ISAAC NEWTON KINITY of the EAiF staff
Published July 1, 2009

After Kenya attained independence from British rule, like many Kenyans, freedom fighters particularly the Mau Mau were awash with optimism, but their hopes for a better life never came to pass.

President Jomo Kenyatta turned a blind eye to freedom fighters and even failed to de-gazette the Mau Mau as a proscribed group. President Kenyatta instead appointed home guards, who had worked closely with the colonial regime, to key positions in his administration. The founding president then sowed the seeds of corruption and greed that have bedeviled Kenya to-date. At the time of his death, Kenyatta’s family had large tracts of land that, in sum, outsized Nyanza, Kenya’s third largest province.

The second president of Kenya, Daniel Arap Moi took the mantle in 1978 following the demise of Mzee Kenyatta and promised to follow in late Kenyatta’s footsteps, popularly known as kufuata nyayo. The Moi administration did little to fight corruption. If anything, the regime exacerbated an already bad graft situation.

Moi’s regime was adept at pushing social ills. Moi restructured government institutions and did away with any structures that stood on the way to self enrichment. As part of a grand scheme to fleece the nation, Moi used presidential decree to invalidate the Kenya Civil Servants Union in 1980 followed by the enactment of section 2A that made Kenya a single party state. With those two actions, the regime tightened its stranglehold on the young republic.

Non-unionization of civil servants made them less effective custodians and managers of public funds because they no longer had a fortress behind which to stand when calling for proper management of public affairs. Section 2A created fear and gagged those voicing dissent. This limited the democratic space.

Before enactment of the repressive Section 2A, doyens of opposition politics, including the late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga and the late George Anyona, petitioned the government to legalize multi-party system of politics. Moi responded by putting Odinga under house arrest and Anyona, in detention without trial. Following the humiliation of Odinga and Anyona, a new crop of compatriots started emerging in the early 1980s. Among the agitators were clergy and dissatisfied politicians.

Conspicuous voices among the millions who were calling for more democratic space and greater freedom included Hon. James Orengo; Koigi wa Wamwere; Prof. Wangari Mathai; Chelagat Mutai; the late Bishop Alexander Kipsang Muge; the late Bishop Henry Okulu; Archbishop Dr. David Gitari; and Rev. Dr. Timothy Njoya.

As the hue and cry for better leadership increased among the citizens, Moi reached for both carrot and stick. He bribed those he could and intimidated those he could not bribe. Having understood that Kenyans of his generation had insatiable thirst for land, Moi reached deep into the forests, including water catchment areas and allocated the same to his cronies as well as potential opposition.

When corruption had spread like cancer affecting every city and village, Kenyans became more persistent in asking for more avenues to voice their concerns and there was no better way than alternative political parties. In 1990, the Odinga and Anyona spirits resurrected in Raila Odinga, Kenya’s current Prime Minister, the late Charles Rubia and Kenneth Matiba. Just like their predecessors, they were put behind bars with neither charges nor trials – just scanty accusations.

When pressure for more parties reached fever pitch, Moi gave in but not without a fight. Moi resorted to fear-mongering and divide-and-rule politics. In some circumstances, literally, paying people off out of opposition or scaring them in to supporting his party, Kenya African National Union (KANU).

Kenyans have never been more optimistic than in January 2003 when Moi finally left power at the expiry of his second term. With Moi’s exit, Kenyans believed that the country was going to pull itself out of the morass, but this too never came to pass. President Mwai Kibaki’s administration quickly got mired in to corruption. When resentment grew within his cabinet, he did not view the same as an opportunity to right the wrongs, but instead reshuffled his cabinet and brought back the same KANU sharks he served with in both Kenyatta and Moi governments.

Post 2007, the inclusion of Orange Democratic Party (ODM) into the government appeared to be the final antidote to the nation’s problems. That has also come to pass as a joke because little has changed. Both President Kibaki’s Party of National Unity ( PNU) and  Premier Odinga’s ODM have had their fair share of  implication in perpetrating corrupt practices.

To-date, the seeds of corruption and bad governance and even discord that were cast at independence dog the nation. And with it come the senseless manipulation of the poor, whom politicians use to commit atrocities in gang-related crimes that ultimately benefit the very architects of the same government that has failed them.

This is, however, not insurmountable. With proper dialogue and decent understanding, we can overcome our handicaps and not only set an example of recovery in Africa but also the world. Yes, we can look at this as an opportunity to reach the stars as opposed to condemnation to abyss.

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