Political leaders in the West expressing pious shock at the terrible events in Kenya are achieving new pinnacles of hypocrisy since for decades they have ignored the country’s growing crisis. They continued to support Mwai Kibaki’s rapacious and corrupt regime in return for Kenya’s full participation in the global market economy. The subjection of this formerly peaceful country of 40 ethnic groups to the requirements of capitalist globalisation, rather than “tribalism”, has driven on the current ethnic violence and social breakdown.
Kenyans swept Kibaki to power in 2002, their first opportunity to get rid of the kleptocracy of Daniel Arap Moi who had blatantly stolen billions of dollars in aid and investment. Kibaki promised an end to corruption but only three years later John Githongo, the man appointed by Kibaki to clean up corruption, fled to Britain. He brought with him papers and taped conversations with ministers, exposing deals that showed Kibaki and his cronies were skimming millions through fake contracts with non-existent companies.
The New Labour government knew exactly what was happening in Kenya but chose to ignore Githongo’s evidence – as did the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the US government. Kibaki was creating a comfortable home for global finance in Nairobi, a centre for tea and coffee trade and a transport hub for East Africa.
And so the UK increased aid to Kenya, from £30m in 2003-04 to £50m in 2005-06. But neither aid nor trade have prevented the massive growth of poverty and unemployment. In the past two years Kenya has achieved annual growth of 6%, whilst at the same time the gap between the wealthy elite and the poor has grown dramatically.
Kenya’s population has risen from 9 to 30 million since independence from Britain in 1963 and the average age in Kenya is 18. Unemployment amongst young people in both rural and urban areas has reached unbearable levels. There are thousands of young men who have literally nothing to lose. “It did take many, many people by surprise that things could get that bad that quickly,” admits Razia Khan, Africa analyst at Standard Chartered bank in London – demonstrating the extent to which capitalist globalisation is oblivious to its own impact.
About 80% of Kenyan land is arid and semi-arid, but huge swathes of productive land have been turned over to cash crops for the global supermarket chains, leaving rural people in landless poverty. The growth in tourism, bringing in £500 million a year, has brought little change but rather simply put more pressure on scarce resources. Terrible flooding in 2002 and 2006 destroyed many peoples’ livelihoods and they have never recovered.
The politicians from both sides whipped up tribal divisions during the election in order to win votes and now act surprised at the horror they unleashed. There is an alternative – and that is for Kenyans to unite in opposition to corporate-driven globalisation, and with fellow East Africans across tribes and borders, to regenerate the ideals of Pan-Africanism. It is only the unity of the African masses in opposition to globalisation and the corporations’ proxy regimes that can end poverty and create the conditions for dignity as well as economic and political self-determination.
Penny Cole
For revolutionary solutions to create a sustainable, not-for-profit economy in place of global capital alongside a real democracy based on People’s Assemblies. Visit our web site at www.aworldtowin.net
Showing posts with label Kibaki. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kibaki. Show all posts
Friday, February 01, 2008
Thursday, January 03, 2008
Corporate interests and Kenya's crisis
Kenya has been Africa’s fastest-growing economy, a key ally in the Bush-Blair-Brown “war against terror” and was considered a stable place for investment and tourism. Until now the country has been considered a stable hub” for transnationals like Barclays, British American Tobacco, Diageo and Unilever. Now there are indications of a breakdown of the economic model of development and the pseudo-democracy that Kenya represented.
Expert Michael Holman has noted how today’s crisis is rooted in the desperate poverty of Kenya’s rapidly-growing population: “The population has doubled in 25 years to 31m. Unemployment is growing and the number without land is growing. For these people there is nothing to lose by taking to the streets, driven by frustration and fury that transcend their tribe.” He blames the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund for backing one of Africa’s most corrupt regimes. “Seldom,” he writes, “have western policy-makers been so complicit in a crisis that is turning into Kenya’s catastrophe.”
Kenya’s urban poor masses are disrupting the wheeler dealing between their leaders and Western politicians. So desperate are Bush and Brown to hold on to the Mwai Kibaki regime that they have declined to condemn the self-evident electoral fraud in the presidential elections. Even European Union observers noted that ballot boxes were stuffed with extra Kibaki votes by the time they reached Nairobi. The fact that Kibaki’s party won only 35 out of 210 seats parliamentary seats was a clear indication that popular opinion had swung in favour of the Raila Odinga-led Orange Democratic Movement.
Riots first broke out in protest against the premature swearing-in of Kibaki as president after elections on December 27. Now, hundreds of thousands of people have been made homeless by ethnically-charged turmoil in Nairobi, the Rift Valley and elsewhere. Kibaki’s own ethnic group, the Kikuyu, have become targets for Odinga supporters. But in the capital’s vast slum city, Kibera, the defiance turned against the state itself as residents turned out in their thousands to confront the police, despite being fired at with water cannon and live bullets. Hundreds have been killed in clashes with Kibaki’s notorious security forces.
Kibaki is only the third ruler since Kenya became independent from Britain in 1964. In December 2002, he succeeded Daniel arap Moi, who ruled as a virtual dictator for 24 years, looting the country’s wealth and running a terror regime based on secret police, prisons and torture. An unholy alliance was formed between the former president and Kibaki, who appointed Moi as “peace envoy” to Sudan last July, to which the UN and the UK turned a blind eye.
Despite Moi’s open corruption and his savage repression of the Kikuyu tribe, it was business as usual between Moi and global corporate interests for a quarter of a century. And, in 2003 when Moi conceded power to Kibaki, there was no chance that the US, the UK and the United Nations were going to upset what they saw as an “island of stability” and a good place to invest. In reality, this stability was an illusion based on an agreement between Moi and his successor to carry on with the corrupt exploitation of their country at the expense of the masses. No wonder it couldn’t last.
Corinna Lotz
AWTW secretary
Expert Michael Holman has noted how today’s crisis is rooted in the desperate poverty of Kenya’s rapidly-growing population: “The population has doubled in 25 years to 31m. Unemployment is growing and the number without land is growing. For these people there is nothing to lose by taking to the streets, driven by frustration and fury that transcend their tribe.” He blames the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund for backing one of Africa’s most corrupt regimes. “Seldom,” he writes, “have western policy-makers been so complicit in a crisis that is turning into Kenya’s catastrophe.”
Kenya’s urban poor masses are disrupting the wheeler dealing between their leaders and Western politicians. So desperate are Bush and Brown to hold on to the Mwai Kibaki regime that they have declined to condemn the self-evident electoral fraud in the presidential elections. Even European Union observers noted that ballot boxes were stuffed with extra Kibaki votes by the time they reached Nairobi. The fact that Kibaki’s party won only 35 out of 210 seats parliamentary seats was a clear indication that popular opinion had swung in favour of the Raila Odinga-led Orange Democratic Movement.
Riots first broke out in protest against the premature swearing-in of Kibaki as president after elections on December 27. Now, hundreds of thousands of people have been made homeless by ethnically-charged turmoil in Nairobi, the Rift Valley and elsewhere. Kibaki’s own ethnic group, the Kikuyu, have become targets for Odinga supporters. But in the capital’s vast slum city, Kibera, the defiance turned against the state itself as residents turned out in their thousands to confront the police, despite being fired at with water cannon and live bullets. Hundreds have been killed in clashes with Kibaki’s notorious security forces.
Kibaki is only the third ruler since Kenya became independent from Britain in 1964. In December 2002, he succeeded Daniel arap Moi, who ruled as a virtual dictator for 24 years, looting the country’s wealth and running a terror regime based on secret police, prisons and torture. An unholy alliance was formed between the former president and Kibaki, who appointed Moi as “peace envoy” to Sudan last July, to which the UN and the UK turned a blind eye.
Despite Moi’s open corruption and his savage repression of the Kikuyu tribe, it was business as usual between Moi and global corporate interests for a quarter of a century. And, in 2003 when Moi conceded power to Kibaki, there was no chance that the US, the UK and the United Nations were going to upset what they saw as an “island of stability” and a good place to invest. In reality, this stability was an illusion based on an agreement between Moi and his successor to carry on with the corrupt exploitation of their country at the expense of the masses. No wonder it couldn’t last.
Corinna Lotz
AWTW secretary
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