It is now widely acknowledged that the electoral process that led to the swearing-in of Hon. Mwai Kibaki was heavily flawed and devoid of credibility.

We, the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNHCR), artists, and civil society groups in Kenya, believe that this flawed process precipitated the wave of brutal violence and senseless destruction of property sweeping parts of the country.

We are concerned that the violence seems targetted at innocent Kenyans from particular communities believed to be sympathetic to a particular party. Everyone has a right to vote for whomever they wish. Wherease we understand the disappointment, frustration and anger Kenyans feel at being disenfranchised, their anger needs to be channnelled responsibly, and without resort to violence.

The Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) handled the elections tallying process irresponsibly. ECK is squarely culpable for the crisis in the country, through its intransigence, careless statements, incompetence and lack of accountability.

The ECK had the opportunity to initiate dialogue between various stakeholders to salvage the situation. Despite pleas from credible national and international observers, and evidence presented to verify claims of rigging, among other electoral malpractices, ECK commissioners chose not to engage in this prudent course of action.

We express our disappointment and deep concern that despite every gain made in expanding democratic space in Kenya, a country governed by the rule of law, the former Minister for Internal Security, John Michuki, banned the press from live broadcasts. We question the constitutional legitimacy and legal basis of Mr. Michuki's decree. From which statute or legal instrument does he draw his powers to ban the media in this manner, considering that the president has yet to constitute a Government, and, therefore a cabinet?

Furthermore, such a decree contravenes accepted international standards that guarantee freedom of expression and access to information, both fundamental rights. By muzzling the media, a key source of information to the public, the Government is encouraging rumors, innuendo, hearsay and suspicion, in an already polarized country.

We note Mwai Kibaki's earlier gesture calling on Kenyans to reconcile. Reconciliation can only be genuine if there is truth. We urge that:

The ECK discloses to the public the full presidential tally results, to be compared to results documented by national and international observers
The Government lift the media ban prohibiting the media from live coverage in Kenya.

Those with information on election fraud or irregularities be offered platforms to make such information public, without threat of intimidation. In this regard, whistleblowers may contact:
Hotline number: 0728 606582
Send verifiable information by email to:

lochiel AT knchr.org
linakoth9 AT yahoo.com
lkabiru AT khrc.or.ke

We appeal to the international community to call for credible verification of the results before endorsing them. We note the EU observer mission has raised serious concerns about the reliability and credibility of the elections tallying process.

We appeal to the police and security agencies to ensure their responses are humane, measured, and proportional to the level of threat. We call on them to handle the situation with utmost caution, while ensuring the security of all without taking sides.

Signed:

Maina Kiai, Chair, KNCHR
Gladwell Otieno, AFRICOG
Mugambi Kiai, OSIEA
Betty Kaari Murungi, Vice-Chair, KHRC
Njeri Kabebeberi, CMD
David Ndii, KLI
Haruon Ndubi, Haki Focus
Zahid Rajan, Awaaz
Muthoni Wanyeki, KHRC
Shailja Patel

To foster peace, diplomacy must promote justice

Thursday, January 3, 2008 (Washington, DC) – In light of the serious human rights violations and challenges to stable governance Kenya has experienced in the past week, Africa Action calls for an immediate and comprehensive recount of presidential ballots supervised by international election monitors, and an end to the media broadcast ban. The clumsy series of contradictory remarks on the election made so far by U.S. officials have not been helpful in resolving the crisis and have revealed underlying U.S. interests. The U.S. must provide new coherent leadership to drive international pressure on rival candidates Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga to adhere to the democratic process peacefully and put a stop to the violence. The international community must base its response to the situation on the voices of the Kenyan people and concentrate on addressing not only the immediate political crisis but also deeper issues of social, political and economic justice. U.S.-Kenya policy should be people-centered and truly committed to robust democratic processes rather than defined by a narrow agenda of the “war on terror” and international business interests.

The ugly scenes of violence and chaos that have emerged following Kenya’s disputed presidential polls are symptoms of the greater issues of poverty and socioeconomic inequality. Western observers have held up Kenya as an economic dynamo for its high growth rates and macroeconomic stability without considering who benefits from this development. Despite vigorous growth rates of between five and seven percent over the past three years, Kenya is a country marked by disparity. With a per capita income of just $540 and a current ranking of 145 out of 177 in the United Nations’ Human Development Index, poverty is widespread. Some strides towards economic justice have been made in recent years. Notably, as president, Kibaki succeeded in eliminating primary school fees. However, the volatility around this election is testament to the fact that many Kenyans are still frustrated by poverty and a small elite holds the majority of their country’s vaunted wealth.

Kenya’s 2002 elections generated a powerful sense of optimism among the population that reflected a deep popular commitment to democratic ideals and a new future free of corruption. It is disappointing that these hopes have not materialized. This challenge should galvanize the U.S. and the international community to support this young democracy as it struggles to achieve its vision of a truly representative and responsive government. The African Union is playing a critical role as a rapid responder to help mediate the political crisis. However, U.S. leadership and sustained diplomatic pressure from the entire international community is essential to protecting human rights in Kenya and to a successful mediation between parties that results in a transparent legal solution to the dispute.

Much has been made of the ethnic dimensions of the conflict, but the bottom line is that power hungry politicians can manipulate ethnic differences to promote their own interests with dangerous consequences in the absence of social and economic justice. African nations, like countries worldwide, rely on robust democratic processes to mitigate such conflict. This involves transparent electoral machinery but also involves promoting governance and economic policies that serve all citizens and do not marginalize any groups. Both parties in the conflict have used the phrase genocide to characterize their rivals’ behavior. Africa Action urges leaders on all sides to avoide using inflammatory language that may incite further violence. At the same time, the international community must be vigilant for signs of widespread ethnic cleansing or even emerging genocide and be prepared to intervene if necessary to prevent such crimes against humanity from taking place.

The consequences of an international failure to support Kenya’s democracy during this crisis would be grim, particularly in terms of regional stability. For years, Kenya has been an anchor of stability in a region challenged by conflict. Kenya has hosted peace talks – such as those that led to Sudan’s 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) – and absorbed refugees from neighboring war-torn nations. While a step backwards for this fledgling democracy would hardly reflect on the political fortunes of the whole continent, it would add to the challenges faced by the already tenuous Horn and East Africa. Therefore, the U.S. must lead the international community in a vigorous diplomatic response to defuse current tensions. The first steps to push for are a fully transparent recount of all votes and the lifting of all restrictions on independent media.

The Kenya presidential elections of December 2007 are potentially the most damaging episode to national unity since the assassination of Tom Mboya in July 1969. Both the murder of Tom Mboya and the management of the recent presidential elections are widely interpreted as an attempt to ethnically monopolise the presidency of the country. Both Mboya’s assassination and the latest elections are seen as historic blows to national stability and major setbacks to the process of democratization. Both Mboya’s murder and the 2007 elections unleashed widespread rioting and looting and made national institutions significantly more fragile than they were before.

It is therefore imperative that Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga enter into urgent negotiations to find a solution to this painful impasse, and to help the process of national healing.

The ideal solution would be to agree to a recounting of votes in the most controversial of the provincial results for the presidency, and for both Kibaki and Odinga to commit themselves to respect the outcome of the recounting.

Another possible solution would be for the African Union to appoint an independent commission of enquiry into the management of the presidential election, and make recommendations. One possible recommendation would conceivably be to accept the parliamentary results, which had, by most estimates, been transparent and credible. But there might be new internationally supervised presidential elections with the three main candidates on the new ballot.

The third option is probably the easiest to accomplish. The new parliament should be sworn in, and called into session. Its first task should be to consider a constitutional amendment creating the post of Prime Minister answerable to Parliament and not to the Chief Executive (the President). If the constitutional amendment is passed, parliament would then vote for the first Prime Minister. Considering the balance of political parties voted into the new parliament, the new Prime Minister is almost bound to be the Honorable Raila Odinga.

Kenya would thereby become something approximating the fifth republic of France with both an executive President accountable to the people, directly, and an executive Prime Minister accountable to the people’s legislative representatives, Parliament. As in the case of the French Republic, the President (Mwai Kibaki) and the Prime Minister (Raila Odinga) would have to find ways of working together in the interest of the people of Kenya.

Who would appoint the members of the cabinet- the President or the Prime Minister? The Foreign Minister and the Minister of Defense could be the prereagative of the Head of State (Kibaki) to appoint. But the Minister of Internal Security and almost all other ministries would be appointed by the Prime Minister (Raila Odinga).

The precise division of labor and division of powers between the new Prime Minister would have to be negotiated prior to the constitutional amendment by new Parliament.

Later in the session of the new parliament there may be need to re-examine the whole constitution of Kenya in the light of problems which Kenya has had to face since the last constitutional referendum. Should we re-examine once again the Maboma Draft constructed by the Ghai Commission? Only the new parliament, in consultation with the new President, can decide whether to have a new constitutional referendum.

* Ali Mazrui is Director, Institute of Global Cultural Studies, Albert Schweitzer Professor in the Humanities, Binghamton University, State University of New York at Binghamton, New York, USA and Chancellor, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Thika and Nairobi Kenya

* Please send comments to or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

Inside looking out, snow is falling and I am thinking how
happy we once were, when promises and dreams came
easy and how when we, lovers covered only by a warm

Eldoret night, your slender hand waved a prophecy
- a shooting star and you said, "when the time comes, we
shall name our first child, Kenya" and how I laughed

and said "yes our child then shall be country and human"
and we held hands, rough and toughened by shelling
castor seeds. My dear, when did our clasped hands

become heavy chains and anchors holding us to the mines
and diamond and oil fields? Our hands roughened by love
and play, these same hands – when did they learn to grip

a machete or a gun to spit hate? And this earth that drinks
our blood like a hungry child, this earth that we have
scorched to cinders - when we are done eating it, how

much of it will be left for Kenya? My dear, our child
is born, is dying. Tomorrow the child will be dead.

UW-Madison, Jan. 3rd, 2007
Commissioned by The World Today – BBC News

National elections were held in Kenya on December 27, 2007; the results of the Presidential election were announced three days later. Within minutes of the announcement that Mwai Kibaki had emerged as the winner, there were spontaneous acts of opposition to the government in all parts of the country. The opposition was especially intense among the jobless youths who had voted overwhelmingly for change. A ruling clique that had stolen billions of dollars in a period of five years had stolen the elections. This was the verdict of the poor. However, this verdict was obscured by ethnic alienation and the constant refrain by local and foreign intellectuals that the crisis and killings emanated from deep ‘tribal’ hostilities. This tribal narrative was intensified after the burning and killings of innocent civilians in a church, in Eldoret, in the Rift Valley region of Kenya. But while these killings had all of the hallmarks of the genocidal violence of Rwanda and Burundi, more importantly, they heightened the need for Kenyan society to step back from the brink of all out war. Violence and killings provided a feedback loop that threatened to engulf even the political leaders of the society.

This analysis argues that the calls for peace and reconciliation by the political and religious leaders will remain hollow until there are efforts to break from the recursive processes of looting, extra judicial killings, rape and violation of women, and general low respect for African lives.

This short commentary on the elections and the aftermath seeks to introduce a unified emancipatory approach: liberating humanity from the mechanical, competitive, and individualistic constraints of western philosophy, and re-unifying Kenyans with each other, the Earth, and spirituality. This analysis draws from fractal theory and seeks to place Africans as human beings at the center of the analysis. Fractal theory is founded on aspects of the African knowledge system and breaks the old tribal narratives that refer to Africans as sub humans needing Civilization, Christianity and Commerce.
Those who condemn the post-election violence in Kenya have failed to condemn the traditions of killings and economic terrorism in Kenya. It should be stated clearly that using African women as guinea pigs for western pharmaceuticals is just as outrageous as burning innocent women and children in churches. Rape and violation of women, and exploitation of the poor and of jobless youth have been overlooked by the commentators who focus on one component of the matrix of exploitation in Kenya -- ethnicity.

In tandem with much of the current discourse on fractal theory, this commentary is addressed to progressive intellectuals from Kenya and calls for a revolutionary paradigmatic transformation- one that is intrinsic to African knowledge systems and can be witnessed in practice in the everyday activities of African life. Revolutionary transformations are necessary to break from the processes that have been unleashed in Kenya and East Africa since British colonialism and the British Gulag. This break requires revolutionary ideas in Kenya, along with revolutionary leaders and new forms of political organization. Thus far, neo-liberal capitalism and neo-liberal democratic organizations, along with the focus on party organization have created leaders who organize for political power. These leaders are not even concerned about forming lasting political parties. Far more profound transformations are required in Kenya, beyond the winning of elections. However, until new ideas and new leaders emerge, the current struggles will serve to educate the poor on the limitations of the old politics and ethnic alliances that privilege sections of the Kenyan capitalist class.

The analysis is presented as a drama of three acts. The first act was played out in the form of the election campaign. The second act involved the drama after the announcement of the results and the violent reactions from all sections of the society. The third act of this drama continues to unfold with the call for a fractal analysis that will place revolutionary transformation as the central question on the political agenda in Kenya and East Africa.

Act One – The Struggles over the election and the campaign for the Presidency.

The Scene: Kenya had been the epi- center of imperial domination in East Africa from the period of British colonialism. Caroline Elkins in the book, Britain’s Gulag, has documented for posterity the extreme violence and murders bequeathed to the Kenyan political culture by the British government. At independence in December 1963, Britain handed over power to people who, in essence, agreed to act as junior partners with British capitalism in Eastern and Central Africa. This partnership included an acceptance by the ruling class in Kenya of the western European forms of land ownership that stated that Africans had to be modernized from their “tribal” and “backward” ways. For forty years, Kenya was presented as a success story where a parasitic middle class and a thriving Nairobi Stock Exchange (composed of foreign capital) sought to prove that capitalism could take root in Africa.

Act 1 Scene Two of this drama took the form of a campaign for the tenth Parliament of Kenya. The drama of the struggle for change in Kenya was played out before the world in the form of an electoral struggle that gripped the society for many months. At the end of Scene Two one of the principal props of this drama – the local media - reported that the results were like a “blood bath.” The headline screamed “ energized voters sweep out Vice President, Cabinet Ministers and seasoned politicians as wind of change blows across the country.” But the newspapers were not yet aware of the implications of using language like “blood bath” in their headlines. Every one awaited the final results of the news of who would be President. The results were being delayed while the votes were being cooked. As news of the parliamentary routing of the incumbent President and his allies in the Party of National Unity (PNU) splashed on the streets, on the screens and on text messages while the principal actors and actresses of the drama, the people of Kenya, sought spontaneous actions to ensure that they were not silenced by the power brokers who had placed themselves at the head of the movement for change. These central actors and actresses (wananchi) had enthusiastically participated in the election campaign articulating their demand for peace, reconstruction and transformation of Kenyan society.

By the time of the third scene of this drama, those from the den of thieves around the incumbent Mwai Kibaki sought to silence the media. In order for this scene to be played out without an audience, international observers and the media (both national and international) were ejected from Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) election center at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre. The Chairperson of the ECK went to a small room and announced the results of the elections naming Mwai Kibaki as the winner of the election. Three days later, the same chairperson of the ECK said in the media that he was not sure if Kibaki won the elections.

Earlier in the drama Raila Odinga’s team of regional barons and aspiring capitalists argued that the true results of the elections showed that Raila Odinga had been chosen by the majority of the main players to be the leading man on the Kenyan stage. How was it possible for his Movement to win over one hundred seats in the Parliament (when Kibaki’s den of thieves had won less than thirty parliamentary seats) and still lose the Presidency? Local and foreign observers cried foul. The elections had been rigged. Ballot boxes had been stuffed. Results were being announced that did not correspond to the votes from the constituencies. The integrity of the process was flawed. These voices were soon drowned out by the might and power of those with strategic control over the military and media sections of the performance. Neo-liberal politics include rigging, so that the international observers used ‘measured’ language of “irregularities,” “anomalies” and “weighty issues” to conceal the reality of outright theft. Raila Odinga termed the process a “civilian coup.” But international capital became confused, because, after all the precedent of election rigging in Florida,U.S.A in 2000 had given the green light to electoral fraud internationally.

The Swearing in of President Kibaki

Act One Scene Three of this drama was performed within the guarded confines of State House where parastatal executives, mostly defeated cabinet members and a small section of the media were invited. In this scene, Mwai Kibaki was sworn in as the Third President of the Republic of Kenya. The stage and setting of this scene was markedly different from the previous swearing in at the Uhuru Park (in Nairobi) where an enthusiastic audience had cheered on the President on December 30, 2002. The 2007 swearing in scene had to be played out without the audience because the principal actors and actresses did not endorse this new act. Minutes after the announcement of the victory of Kibaki, there were spontaneous demonstrations all over the country, especially the urban areas. Popular outrage at the theft of the elections brought violence and the killings of innocent civilians in Kakamega, Kisumu, Mombassa, Nairobi, Nakuru and other centers. The police killed innocent demonstrators as the foreign media portrayed the demonstrations in ethnic terms. The gendered, class and ethnic dimensions of the opposition to Kibaki began to be played out in the poor communities that were called slums, but the media focused on one dimension, the ethnic alienation of the poor and exploited.

Hundreds of dead brought home the reality that the elections and vote counting were simply one site of struggle in the quest to break the old politics of exploitation and dehumanization in Kenya. However, because so much of the old politics of exploitation had been masked by the politicization of ethnicity, poor members of the Kikuyu nationality were targeted in some communities, with the killings in Eldoret bringing home the long traditions of ethnic cleaning that had been going on in this region during the Moi regime. The same media neglected to report that poor Kalenjin also torched the home of former President Arap Moi.

Would there be a break from this recursive process of killing of the poor?
Odinga and members of the Pentagon condemned the killings of members of a particular ethnic group but the anger was too deep for the youths to listen. Unfortunately, the ODM did not have structures to properly mobilize the youths away from looting.

Raila Odinga and the Orange Democratic Movement

In order to avert the possible war that could emanate from this new act of the drama there was the need for fresh if not revolutionary ideas to harness the pent up energies of the people for change. The radicalization of Kenyan politics had merged with the anti- globalization forces internationally to the point where in 2007 Kenya hosted the World Social Forum. The radical demands of the Bamako appeal of the Africa Social Forum (for profound social, economic and gender transformations in Africa) could not be carried forward by the old Non Governmental Organization elements allied with international NGO’s from Western Europe. What the World Social Forum had demonstrated was the reality that new revolutionary ideas with new revolutionary forms of organization were needed to realize the goals and aspirations and appeal of the Africa social forum. Raila Odinga and his group of regional ethnic barons had tapped into the radical sentiments of the youth all across the ethnic divisions. Calling his team, the Pentagon, Odinga mobilized the popular discourses about youth, women and disabled to speak about ‘poverty eradication’ and “corruption.”

Absent from the platform of the Orange Democratic Movement was a clear program for reconstruction and transformation. Raila Odinga had been a major political actor on the Kenyan stage for four decades. He had participated in every major political party and formation since his father, Odinga Odinga had emerged as the opponent of the Kenyan form of neo-colonialism. The 2007 elections exposed the reality that there were no real political parties in Kenya. Leaders on all sides were not interested in building a lasting movement for change. They were interested in parties as electoral vehicles to capture state power. There were more than 300 parties registered in Kenya and over 117 participated in the elections in December 2007.

Local and international writers who earlier had been voices for the poor enthusiastically supported the enactment of the first scene of the drama (the election and voting). Some of these writers moaned and groaned that the script had been changed when those who controlled the state machinery unleashed violence against the poor. In order to unleash state violence against the poor, the Minister of Internal Affairs banned the broadcast of live images. The state also toyed with the idea of banning SMS messaging in Kenya. But
Kenyans simply tuned in to the international media to confirm what they knew, that the recursive processes of killings and revenge were spiraling out of control.

Without enacting an official state of emergency (in the fear of further hurting the tourist industry) the majority of poor Kenyans lived under curfew-like conditions as the military, the police, and General Service Units were deployed all over the country and new forms of censorship were implemented. The political leadership that stole the elections had to be careful with the use of the police, military and the intelligence services in so far as the divisions within the security forces challenged the authority of those who stole the elections. Raila Odinga sought to tap into this division of the coercive forces by calling a demonstration of a million Kenyans to oppose the stolen election results.

The International media and international capital

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and other cultural voices of imperial power were from the outset one of the props of this drama. The British were particularly active because the interests of British capitalism were very much an important part of narrative of the drama. During Act 1 scenes two and three, this foreign prop had been condemning the “irregularities’” and “anomalies” of the drama and carried the press statements of the International Observers of the European Union and the Commonwealth. The head of the European Union observer mission issued a statement declaring that, “the Presidential poll lacks credibility and an independent audit should be instituted to rectify things.”

This clear statement led the US government to reverse its earlier recognition of Mwai Kibaki as the winner of the Presidential elections. There had been concern in Washington over the future of Kenya in so far as the US authorities sought to mobilize Kenyans in the war against terrorism. During the period of Kibaki, Kenyan citizens were shipped out of the country to be tried as terrorists under the US policy of kidnapping, called rendition. The ODM signed a memorandum of understanding with the Islamic community during the election campaign and members of the ODM condemned the rendering of Kenyan citizens by the government. It was argued that if these citizens acted contrary to Kenyan law, they should be tried under Kenyan law.

The propaganda war had been virulent and since Raila Odinga held the moral and political high ground, sections of the international media began to retreat from endorsement of the electoral coup. However, the occupation of the moral high ground was shaky. Would the government and opposition be more concerned with the lives of the poor than with political power?

In the face of the absence of resolute moral leadership to condemn these killings, the international media had a field day portraying the struggles for democracy in Kenya as primitive “tribal” violence.

Act Two – Stalemate and brinkmanship in politics

Raila Odinga and his team called the Pentagon had entered the drama seeking to play on the terms of those who had seized power from the time of colonialism. The very naming of his team as the ‘Pentagon’ had shown an insensitivity to the international revulsion against military symbols. The five leaders of the Pentagon were, (i) Vice Presidential running mate M Mudavadi, (ii) Charity Ngilu, (iii) William Ruto, (iv) Bilal Najib and (v) Joseph Nyagah. These regional ethnic barons had emerged from multiple political formations and many had family and business linkages with capitalists inside and outside of the government. During the campaign these regional leaders had campaigned on a pledge to devolve power from central government. The poor believed this would bring power closer to the village and communities so that health care facilities, water supply systems, road and pathways in the villages, education, sanitation and other services could be delivered so that the conditions of exploitation are ameliorated. These localized services were interpreted by various local communities as job creation avenues for the jobless youths. For the regional barons, the devolution debate was carried out to ensure easier access to the treasury. The word ‘majimbo’ re- emerged in the political vocabulary of Kenya to reignite the memory of the alliance between the ‘home guards’ and settlers at the dawn of independence.

Youths all across Kenya had transcended the ethnic identification and wanted real change in the quality of life in the society.

Entering the drama without a real party and without a real organ to bring the majority of the actors and actresses to the center of the drama, it was easy for the team around Mwai Kibaki to stall so that the spontaneous anger would peter out. Would the Orange Democratic Revolution learn the lessons of popular power in the streets of the Ukraine Orange Revolution and shake the old power with new bases of alternative power? This provided the setting for the central aspect of the drama, the stand off between the forces of orange and the forces of the defeated power. Kibaki came across as an imprisoned leader, surrounded by politicians and financiers who argued that Kibaki must enter any negotiation from a position of strength. Odinga countered that negotiations could only begin when Kibaki accepted that the elections had been stolen. The hardening of positions ratcheted up the tensions in the country as regionally countries such as Uganda, Rwanda and the Southern Sudan began to feel the effects of the shutdown of the transportation system in Kenya.

Mwai Kibaki and the neo-liberal regime in Kenya

Mwai Kibaki had been associated with the ruling class in Kenya for over fifty years. Starting his career as a representative of Shell Oil Company in Kampala, Uganda, Kibaki moved from an academic position at Makerere University to the top echelons of the independent government of Kenya after independence. In the book, The Reds and the Blacks, William Atwood, then-US ambassador, had identified Kibaki as one of the steady ‘reformers” who would guarantee the interests of foreign capital. Kibaki emerged as a stable force in the ruling circles serving both Jomo Kenyatta and Daniel Arap Moi as Minister of Finance. It was under the leadership of Kenyatta and Moi that the forms of theft by the ruling elements in Kenya were refined. Extra judicial killings and accidental deaths of prominent trade union leaders and politicians were papered over by the foreign press that labeled Kenya a ‘stable’ democracy.

Arap Moi and international capital.

After the death of Kenyatta in 1978, Daniel Arap Moi moved decisively to cement an alliance of foreign capitalists and local political careerists to loot the society and spread divisions and ethnic hatred among the poor and oppressed. British capitalism had been the dominant force in Kenya with British companies such as Unilever, Finlays, GSK, Vodafone, Barclays and Standard Bank becoming leading names on the Nairobi Stock Exchange. Britain had made a deal with the independence leaders and awarded a small sum to enhance this new class of African yeoman farmers to join the British settlers in the exploitation of Kenya and indeed, East Africa. Molo, in the Rift Valley (one of the constituencies at the center of the row over the rigged elections), represented one of the places where Kikuyu settlers had been relocated after independence.

Moi during his Presidency remained at the center of the alliance between British capitalists, Asian capitalists and Kikuyu entrepreneurs from Central Province. By the time of the electoral defeat of Moi in December 2002, the Moi family and cronies in the ruling party, Kenya African National Union (KANU) had become junior capitalists in the game of exploitation. It was under the leadership of Moi that imperialism used Kenya as a base to subvert African independence. A report commissioned by the Kibaki administration, (called the Kroll Report), had named Moi and his sons as billionaires with assets in banks in Britain, Switzerland, South Africa, Namibia, the Cayman Islands and Brunei. The 110-page report by the international risk consultancy Kroll alleged that relatives and associates of former President Moi siphoned off more than £1bn of government money. This documentation placed the Mois on a par with Africa's other great politicians-cum-looters such as Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo) and Nigeria's Sani Abacha. The Kroll report of the levels of theft when presented to the Kibaki government was never acted on. The alliance between Moi and Kibaki forces became clearer during the election campaign when Moi and his sons fiercely campaigned for the re –election of President Kibaki. The sons of Moi were decisively defeated in the elections.

The documentation of the level of theft by Moi was exposed before the public in what to became known as the Goldenberg scandal. This scandal brought to the fore the alliance between Moi, KANU and Asian capitalists in Kenya. These capitalists had looted the country with such impunity that Kamlesh Mdami Pattni (an Asian capitalist named in the Goldenberg scandal) took over one party Kenda to contest the 2007 elections.

Prior to the 1992 multi-party struggles, Kibaki had sought to distance himself from this group of capitalists. These were the capitalists involved in settler agriculture, manufacturing, transport, services, old forms of banking, insurance, real estate, construction and engineering and the health and education sectors. These capitalists from inside and outside the political arena provided cover for looters all across Eastern Africa. In the Kenyan economy money from oil in the Sudan (especially Southern Sudan), commercial interests in Somalia, gold and diamond dealers from Rwanda, Burundi and the Eastern Congo circulated with the resources from the exploited Kenyan working poor so that in the past ten years there has been a growth of the Kenyan economy. Felicia Kabunga, wanted by the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda (ICRT) for crimes of genocide in Rwanda was the kind of looter and money spinner who found safe haven among the money launderers in Kenya.

Kibaki and the rise of new capitalists.

Although Mwai Kbaki had campaigned on an anti-corruption ticket in 2002, his tenure as President of Kenya was marked by an explosion of new schemes for accumulation. The rise of the telecommunications, information technology and banking sectors boomed with new enterprises such as Equity Bank and a number of communications companies (Safaricom, Flashcom, Telecom etc) rivaling the old capitalists. The floating of new shares n the form on an Initial Public Offer (IPO) for the Company, Safarcom, became a central question in the election campaign in so far as those who got access to the shares at the time of the issuing of the IPO became instant millionaires.

The Kibaki government was in the main dominated by elements who formed a company called MEGA (a regrouping of the old Gema Gikuyu, Embu, Meru Association), and through Transcentury Corporation had elevated themselves to be the among the leading capitalists in Kenya. This group presented a program called Vision 2030 where Kenya would become the leading capitalist country in Africa, becoming the Singapore of Africa. Control of the governmental apparatus was crucial for Vision 2030.

Space does not allow for an elaboration of the individuals of this capitalist clique and their place in the interpenetrating directorates of the Nairobi Stock Exchange. What is significant is that the names of the capitalists and politicians of Trancentury figured in the scandal of corruption that rocked the government of Mai Kibaki. This was termed the Anglo-leasing scandal which involved awarding huge government contracts to bogus companies. One insider, John Githongo, exposed the scandal and repaired to Britain.

No money from the Anglo leasing scandal had been recovered before the elections and although European and US governments made noises about corruption there were no moves to repatriate the stolen wealth back to Kenya. These scandals were very much a part of the election campaign. Three of the four ministers who resigned after the Anglo Leasing scandal was exposed had been reinstated by Kibaki. These ministers along with twenty other ministers lost their parliamentary seats in the December 2007 elections.
The poor of Kenya had used the ballot to send a message to the capitalists in Kenya but those who stole billions of dollars from the Kenyan Treasury were not above stealing an election.

The real test in Kenyan politics was whether the team called the Pentagon was serious about changing the political culture of theft, looting and storing billions of dollars in foreign banks. The people of Kenya had voted for change. Was the Orange Democratic Movement a movement for change or a movement for political power? This was the outstanding question as the cast and the writers got ready for Act three of the drama of the struggle for democracy.

Act 3. A Revolutionary situation without revolutionary ideas and real revolutionaries.

Because the drama is being played out it is not possible to make a presentation of the last act of this drama. This is the act where the peoples of Kenya are torn between two traditions. These are the traditions of the freedom fighters for independence and the traditions of violence, looting and the low respect for African life. The youths of Kenya have been brought up in the period of the aftermath of the end of apartheid and the defeat of Mobutism. These youths have risen above the politicization of ethnicity and along with progressive women want to end the rape and violation of women. These youths have been heard to say that Kenya is in the midst of a liberation war.

While the consciousness of the youth may be high with the thought of a long term struggle, there are very few revolutionary leaders and a poverty of revolutionary ideas in Kenya. If anything, the poorer youths are being mobilized into counter-revolutionary violence where poor and oppressed people burn and kill each other. This was the lesson of the killings, burning and massacre in the Rift Valley. Counter-revolutionary violence of the Rwanda genocidal form lay just below the surface and the same politicians who gave refuge to genocidaires from Rwanda are not above fomenting genocidal violence among the poor. The media images of marauding youths with pangas provide the necessary imagery to represent to the world another version of African savagery. This same media will not prominently carry the news that poor peasants from the home area of Danieal Arap Moi burnt his house to the ground. The prospect of real class warfare in Kenya frightens both the government and the opposition so there is a delicate effort to manage the crisis so that the forms of capital accumulation can return to the business pages rather than the front pages.

Raila Odinga and the Orange Democratic movement are now caught between the aspirations of the regional capitalists of the ‘Pentagon’ and the demand for real change across Kenya. The post election mayhem is a clear demonstration that the ODM did not sufficiently engage their followers on new ideas transcending ethnicity and patriarchy. This demand for democratic change in Kenya will require new forms of organization beyond electoral politics and new ideas about the value of African lives. This requires a break with the European ideation systems that promote capitalism as democracy and genocide as progress.

* Horace Campbell is Professor of Political Science at Syracuse University

* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

This brief list of useful links is provided to help our readers keep up to date.

LINKS FROM 3 JANUARY 2008
In this AllAfrica blog Brian Kennedy lists the wide range of those who now question the results of Kenya’s 2007 presidential election, including foreign governments, election monitoring missions, and the Electoral Commission of Kenya itself. He also refers to reports that the Kenyan police, who were deployed to guard the 36,000 polling stations across the country, kept records of the results and that their tally is said to differ from what the ECK announced:

The Economist has described the result as a meticulously planned ‘civil coup’, stating that the decision to return Mwai Kibaki to office was made not by the Kenyan people but by a group of hardline Kikuyu leaders. Although the report states that their instinct will now be to use the security services to reverse basic freedoms, ‘it is not clear that Kenya will stand for it’:

The ECK Chair, Samuel Kivuitu, has given details of the inconsistencies in the constituency tallies of the presidential votes, which include altered figures from certain constituencies and the improper submission of documentation:
http://allafrica.com/stories/200801030025.html

The leader of the Pan-African Movement Observers Mission, Stephen Othieno, also criticised the ECK at a press conference in Kampala. The Mission sent 41 observers to Kenya who were not permitted to observe the process in its entirety – specifically the final tally. Mr Othieno also criticised the limited time made available for verification of the voters’ register prior to polling day, and biased coverage by some media houses:

The Kenya Human Rights Commission has called on Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who arrived in Kenya on 3 January, to oversee a recount. Professor Makau Mutua, chair of the KHRC, appealed for calm, dialogue and statesmanship from Kenya’s political leaders:

The head of the Commonwealth Observer Group, Dr Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, has decided to stay on in Kenya to support mediation efforts. The Group’s departure statement on 2 January noted that ‘delays in the announcement of the results raised questions about the integrity of the final phase of the election process’:
http://allafrica.com/stories/200801030533.html

http://www.thecommonwealth.org/document/174034/kenya_elections_2007___departure_statement_by_the.htm

A group of business, religious and cultural leaders delivered an open letter to all three presidential candidates, calling for an independent and transparent review of the whole electoral process and its outcomes, as well as personal and collective leadership that delivers a swift conclusion to the crisis in the best interests of the country:
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Daudi Were writes in his blog of the shocking speed with which Kenya slid into violence. ‘The aim of this post is not to explore the issues around the issues but to highlight that there is a sophisticated and dedicated response to the crisis in our country’:
http://www.mentalacrobatics.com/think/

Moody Awori, the Vice-President, appealed for calm and stated that the government was willing to enter into dialogue with the ODM leadership. Raila Odinga reiterated his position that any dialogue must be based on acceptance that the elections were compromised:

The Kenya Red Cross Society estimates (3 January) that at least 100,000 people require immediate assistance in the northern Rift Valley alone. Confirmed country-wide statistics are not yet available. John Holmes, the UN’s Emergency Relief Coordinator, emphasised the responsibility of Kenya’s political leaders to protect the lives and livelihoods of innocent people, and deplored the recent increase in gender-based violence:

Newspaper reports from around the East African region illustrate the impact of the crisis in Kenya on its landlocked neighbours. Fuel prices in Uganda have soared due to the shortage of fuel and the actions of speculators; bus fares in Kampala have in some places doubled.
http://www.monitor.co.ug/artman/publish/opinions/Fuel_crisis_is_big_lesson_for_us.shtml
http://www.monitor.co.ug/artman/publish/news/155_fuel_tankers_on_the_way_to_Uganda_-_govt.shtml

Traders in Rwanda are concerned at both the shortage of fuel and the prospect of being unable to restock from the suppliers in Kenya on whom they rely:

LINKS FROM 2 JANUARY

Louise Arbour, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, has called on the Kenyan government to abide by its international human rights obligations in responding to demonstrations and to allow journalists to carry out their work freely. She also emphasised the responsibility to use only peaceful means of protest:
http://www.afp.com/english/news/stories/080102073900.kf169jow.html

A report from the Human Rights House Network describes the attack on the church near Eldoret in which at least 35 people were killed. Water and food for those displaced in churches and public buildings are running short, and travel in the area is highly dangerous:

The Regional UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) published police figures released on 1 January of 143 people killed across five Provinces (Rift Valley, Western, Nyanza, Nairobi, and Coast). It adds that these are confirmed cases and that the real number may be higher. The main obstacle to delivering assistance is the number of roadblocks set up by vigilante groups:

The Nation reported on 2 January that 16 people had been killed at the Coast, while violent incidents had occurred in Taveta, Diani and Kilifi Town:

Dr Dan Ojwang, a Kenyan academic based in South Africa, criticises media coverage of the crisis and argues that it has deeper and more complex roots. ‘Let the world know the truth’, he writes, ‘that members of almost all Kenyan ethnic communities are being killed and not just Kikuyu supporters of President Mwai Kibaki’s illegitimate government’.
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Political situation:

A report from the Human Rights House Network on 31 December, based on coverage in the Kenyan press as well as interviews with several human rights defenders in Nairobi, captures the breadth and severity of the political crisis, in terms of the heavy-handed security response, the infringement of media freedoms, and the prospect of an even more powerful presidency:
http://kenopalo.wordpress.com/2008/01/01/kenya-quickly-degenerating-into-an-african-statistic/

The BBC reported on 2 January the accusations being traded by both sides. Asked if he would urge his supporters to calm down, Raila Odinga reportedly refused to be asked ‘to give the Kenyan people an anaesthetic so that they can be raped’:

The Chair of the Electoral Commission of Kenya, Samuel Kivuitu, admitted on 1 January that he announced the results of the presidential election under pressure from some PNU and ODM-Kenya leaders. According to a report in the Standard, he said that ‘We are culprits as a Commission. We have to leave it to an independent group to investigate what actually went wrong’:

Francis Atwoli, the Secretary General of the umbrella workers’ union COTU, is quoted as saying that the crisis is politically instigated and thus can only be solved by political means. In the same press report the government’s spokesman, Alfred Mutua, states that the military has been deployed to various parts of the country ‘to assist in averting a humanitarian crisis’:
http://allafrica.com/stories/printable/200801020003.html

The head of the Commonwealth’s election observer team in Kenya, former president Ahmad Tejan Kabbah of Sierra Leone, has now met all three leaders (Mwai Kibaki, Raila Odinga and Kalonzo Musyoka). Kenya’s Daily Nation reports that a joint statement may be imminent:

At the international level, the US and British foreign secretaries issued a joint statement on 2 January urging political compromise and noting the responsibility on all sides to maintain the political process:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/kenya/story/0,,2234121,00.html

On Thursday December 27th 2007, shortly after polling stations were closed, Kenya was hailed as having fulfilled an African dream – to have a free and fair closely contested democratic election. But less than 48 hours later it was clear that the dream of democracy could become a nightmare of ethnic violence. Most of the casualties so far have been the poor and the marginalized – and if things continue as they are, a bitter civil war fought along ethnic lines is certain. To say that what is at stake is the very future of Kenya is not an overstatement.

To answer the question of how the promise became a nightmare one must begin with very nature of democracy and how it has been functioning in Africa.

The first element to consider is that in the absence of strong democratic institutions (the three pillars of legislature, executive and judiciary), democracies in Africa are relying more and more on the goodwill of politicians: in this case, a nation is only as democratic as its politicians.

Added to this, African democracy is in real terms an expression of ethnic tensions. Instead of rolling back tribalism (I use the derisive term deliberately), African democracy serves it. One could say that all democracies have an element of this: in the West it generally goes under the euphemism of voter demographics. When Hilary Clinton is courting the white, black or Latino vote, she is in fact practicing what might, in other circumstances, be called tribal politics.

In the Kenyan presidential election, ethnic politics were a key factor in the close election results: the incumbent Mwai Kibaki, a Kikuyu, received very few votes in the Luo areas, while his Luo opponent, Raila Odinga, received only a very small percentage of the Kikuyu vote. In this bitterly contested election where ethnicity was the deciding factor, victory from either side was bound to spill into violence.

As a direct result of the above, questions of what true justice means and about the growing divide between haves and have-nots become lost to ethnicity. Raila is a flamboyant millionaire while Kibaki is as elite as you can get in Kenya. Lost in the fires of ethnicity is the simple fact that Kibaki and Raila have much more in common with each other than with their supporters. In this sense those engaged in the violence are, to put it bluntly, proxies in a war between two elite leaders.

Another element to consider is the extent to which the landscape of African politics has changed. We need to stop blanket condemnations of African leadership, and acknowledge that it varies and some leaders are better or worse than others. Kibaki, while not a Mandela is not a Moi or a Mobutu, or a Bokassa or an Idi Amin. By the same token the nature of opposition has changed. Since independence and the struggles against neo-colonial governments, opposition has been automatically understood as the legitimate voice of the people. But opposition no longer means the good guys. In many instances the opposition and the sitting government are practically the same as is indeed the case in Kenya. So while Raila is accusing Kibaki of vote-rigging, it could just as easily be Raila trying to rig and short-circuit the democratic process to favor himself. In other words we have no reason to take either of their claims to be true at face-value. In this impasse of two leaders intent on seizing power, respect for the democratic process couldn’t be more important.

Toward a solution, Kenyans should realize that something beautiful did happen during this election. Most of the big men of Kenyan politics were voted out of Parliament and hence out of office. Even the sons of former dictator Moi did not win seats in Parliament. There seemed to be a belief that voting was a way of talking back the Kenyan political elite, and that democracy could be made to work for the majority poor. This is the flame that we must not let die.

To nurture this flame, a recount of the votes in a transparent manner is necessary. This, no matter what one thinks of Raila or Kibaki, or whether one thinks the elections were fair or not, should be the meeting ground of all those concerned about the future, immediate and long term, of Kenya.

If the votes can be recounted in full transparency, this election will not then become the death of Kenyan democracy but rather a test along the way to a democracy with real content – the content of security, equality and justice for Kenya’s majority poor.

*Mukoma Wa Ngugi is co-editor of Pambazuka News. A version of this article first appeared at

*Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

We the undersigned call on the ODM and PNU leaders to urgently seek a resolution to the current electoral crisis in the country and restore peace and harmony in the country through leadership.

We express our concern at the deteriorating situation in Kenya following what has been widely acknowledged as an impressive election turn-out. We commend the Kenyan people for their dignity and courage but also express our condolences to the families of those who have lost their lives and to the many who have been injured in the course of needless violence over the last few days. This is a time for Kenyans to be patient, dignified and to look for solutions that are in the best interest of the majority.

We regret the chaos which has caused loss of life, destruction of property and general unrest in the country. The contested outcome has marred the prospects of democracy and peace not only in Kenya but also in Africa. The cloud which hangs over the conclusion of one of the most fiercely-fought elections in Kenya's history is regrettable. We believe that peace should be regained as a matter of urgency so that a free and fair outcome can be reached.

We believe that this is not the time for provocative actions, but a time for demonstrating leadership through bringing the contending partners to the table. This crisis can be resolved by the players in disagreement using conciliation and arbitration mechanisms as a matter of urgency to plan a peaceful resolution of the crisis. If necessary, this could be done with the involvement of others such as
the African Union and others, such as those who acted as election observers. We urge the contending leaders to act within the spirit of democracy and seek to heal the wounds that have been opened by recent events and to do so in transparent ways.

We are aware of the betrayal that many may feel in what they consider to be an electoral injustice. We ask them to engage in the process by seeking explanation and accountability and to be guided by their own sense of civic responsibility.

We call on the PNU and ODM leaders to seek conciliation and resolution of the current crisis for the sake of the country.

We call for mechanisms for mediation and conciliation to be put in place urgently to give voice to all grievances that have arisen from the present situation in which there can be no winners, only losers. We welcome the mediation processes that have been initiated

We call for an immediate ending of violence by the security forces and all other parties. Whilst we recognize that the security forces have a role to play in maintaining peace and order, we condemn the disproportionate and excessive use of force by the security forces against unarmed civilians that has been manifest over the last few days.

We call for an independent transparent review of the whole electoral process and its outcomes so as to resolve any differences between contesting parties. This should include reviewing the results of the election and all reported irregularities, especially those related to the disparities in the tallying of the final results.

We call for a swift formation of an independent and credible Judicial Commission of Enquiry by endorsing the call by the Electoral Commissioners who have called for one.

We urge the international community to be patient pending the outcome of such a proposed review process. As it is Kenyans who have to live with the consequences of a Mwai Kibaki or Raila Odinga government, the international community can only follow the recommendations of an independent review before declaring the elections free and fair.

We call on those who wish to see a peaceful democratic Kenya, especially in the African Union, to support initiatives that can bring this crisis to a swift conclusion by facilitating dialogue and reconciliation.

We are deeply concerned by the gagging of the media, especially as this has only fueled suspicion and encouraged speculation in an already highly volatile situation. Freedom of expression has been one of our greatest democratic prizes won by Kenyans during the last few years and we cannot afford to go backwards.

We call for an immediate and unconditional lifting of the reporting ban so as to ensure that Kenyans are able to keep abreast of what is happening. We commend the Kenyan press for the work they have done to keep information flowing. It is precisely in the time of crisis that a free and independent media is essential to ensure a democracy that is based on information not speculation.

We urge the international media community to support the Kenyan press during this time and continue promoting the right for a free and independent press especially during such a period.

We call on all peace loving people to join us in calling for a swift conclusion to the crisis so that Kenya can return to normality andpeople can continue their lives without fear and anxiety.

The petition is now online at
and at the time of going to prese had nearly 800 signatures. Please sign the petition.

Kenya is entering a protracted crisis. No one really knows who actually won the presidential elections. Given the overwhelming number of parliamentary seats won by the ODM and the dismissal of some 20 former ministers who lost their seats, it seems likely that the presidential results probably followed suit. But it is no longer really a matter of who won or lost. For one thing is certain: it is the Kenyan people who have lost in these elections.

That the elections results were rigged – of that there is little doubt. The hasty inauguration, the blanket banning on the broadcast media, the dispersal of security forces to deal with expected protests – all these have given the post election period the flavour of a coup d’etat. What was not expected was the speed with which the whole thing would unravel. The declaration of the members of the Electoral Commission that the results were indeed rigged only added to the growing realisation that a coup had indeed taken place.

People across the country took to the streets to protest and were met with disproportionate use of force by the police and GSU. Emotions ran high. And there is evidence that politicians from all sides used the occasion to instigate violent attacks against their opponents constituencies. There have been rapes, forced circumcision and forced female genital mutilation. The western media has been quick to describe these as ‘ethnic clashes’ – but then they appear only to be able to see tribes whenever there are conflicts in Africa. What is ignored by them is that the security forces have been responsible for the majority of killings.

What we have in Kenya is a political crisis that could, descend into civil war if the political crisis is not resolved soon. And therein lies the problem.

There is no coherent political direction from the ODM. First Raila Odinga declares he’s the ‘people’s president’ (shades of Blair’s ‘people’s princess’ speech – the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce, some might say – and says he is going to arrange to be inaugurated. What happened?

Then he says that he is not willing to meet with Kibaki, then says he will meet provided there is an international mediator. He says he will form his own government, and then takes that no further.

Then he calls for a million person march into Nairobi, and when faced with a banning order and massive police attacks, backs down and calls for another demonstration the following day.

But what is this demonstration seeking to achieve? Such events are usually a means of showing the size of popular support: but ODM has already demonstrated its popular support in the stolen elections. There are no coherent political demands for this event that would bring the support of the many who, though they may not have voted for ODM, would feel that they would nevertheless want to express their support. There is no real strategy for enabling PNU’s own political base to be won over.

The election results were rigged, sure. But the failure to demand that an independent judicial inquiry be established to investigate only leads to suspicions that even the ODM were not keen to have the results investigated. It is now probably too late to conduct a satisfactory investigation since original records may have been tampered with – which might explain the Attorney General’s sudden willingness announced today to allow the ECK records to be inspected without recourse to use of the courts.

The mass demonstrations could have been used to call for such an investigation and to protest against the media ban imposed by Kibaki and to challenge constitutionality of the ban. Instead, it served no purpose other than what some see as an infantile response to the theft of the elections.

Why has there been no public appeal to the armed forces and police – whose families have no doubt suffered in the violent upheavals – to refuse to fire on citizens, or to defend and protect citizens from the violence that has been unleashe?. Kibaki can retain power only through the use of force – and so long as the armed forces and the police remain loyal, he will be able to retain his hold on power.

ODM has failed to challenge the existing government by encouraging all sections of society to create a viable alternative to the present government.

But the real tragedy of Kenya is that the political conflict is not about alternative political programmes that could address the long standing grievances of the majority over landlessness, low wages, unemployment, lack of shelter, inadequate incomes, homelessness, etc. It is not about such heady aspirations.

No, it boils down to a fight over who has access to the honey pot that is the state. For those in control of the state machinery are free to fill their pockets. So the battle lines are reduced to which group of people are going to be chosen to fill their pockets – and citizens are left to decide perhaps that a few crumbs might fall off the table in their direction.

And the electorate – the mass of citizens who have borne the brunt of the recent violence and decades of prolonged disenfranchisement from accessing the fruits of independence – are reduced to being just being fodder for the pigs fighting over the trough.

The Kibaki regime seems unlikely to concede any space – for to do so would confirm the suspicions of election theft. And the longer that the current impasse continues, the more likely it is that people will seek to vent their anger and frustration in senseless violence – energy that could so easily be turned towards organising to building a new world.

So what is going to be the way forward? Will there be an independent inquiry into the election results? Into the violence that has taken place? Will the contending parties agree to the formation of an interim government that would oversee the re-run of the elections?

Whatever happens, the present crisis has demonstrated that there is a serious lack of any formations that can articulate a coherent political programme for social transformation. Politics will remain forever about who gets access to the trough so long as there is no alternative.

This issue of Pambazuka News is dedicated to those who have paid with their lives in this period of crisis.

* Firoze Manji is co-editor of Pambazuka News and executive director of Fahamu.

* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Kenya is bleeding. Kenya is bleeding from a political crisis that has rapidly led to a social and spiritual crisis. We, the Church leaders working together with the leadership of all faiths have been alarmed at the speed and depth this crisis has taken over the last 24 hours. Unless checked, this crisis will plunge Kenya into a complete state of lawlessness, disregard for human rights and the sanctity of life.

Three actions could defuse this political crisis.

Firstly, the outcome of the recently concluded Presidential and Parliamentary elections requires a quick and comprehensive political resolution. The Church as part of KEDOF endorses KEDOF’s statement –

“ in our view, considering the entire process, the 2007 General Elections were credible in as far as the voting and counting process is concerned. The electoral process lost credibility towards the end with regard to the tallying and announcement of presidential results”

We have considered the opinion of the Members of the Electoral Commission and international observer groups. In our opinion, the Government, in close consultation with all the parties who fielded Presidential and Parliamentary candidates should immediately establish a credible process for the establishment of an Independent Commission. This Commission will seek the transparent verification of tallies for the concerned constituencies. All parties must start by committing themselves to acting on the outcome verification by the Independent Commission.

Secondly, we urge the leaders of the three major political parties to meet and dialogue. Their political leadership at this critical hour is central to saving lives. Over the last 24 hours, we have lost at least five lives every hour, with scores of other men, women and children injured, scared, displaced and vulnerable to attacks by fellow Kenyans.

We call upon leaders who contested Parliamentary seats – both those that won and those that lost to jointly and urgently address their constituencies within the next few days. We urge the mass media to continue to support the cause of peace.

Thirdly, while we appreciate the efforts of the uniformed forces to stop lawlessness and we acknowledge the challenge that they have to protect all civilians we call upon them to establish corridors of safety. Such corridors of peace are critical for restoring access to food, shelter, crisis centres and other basic needs to which we as a faith community are committed to assist in providing.

The ability to communicate during a period of national crisis cannot be gainsaid. While we deplore the use of these media for ethnic hate speech, attempting to block these avenues will be counter-productive. It will block also the flow of information that is required for identifying and reaching people at risk. We consequently call upon the state to lift the ban on live broadcasts.

While calling on the Government, political parties and other non-state actors to take these actions, we realise that the future of Kenya is in the hands of the Kenyan people. We therefore call upon all Kenyans to immediately cease the violence that is occurring in our towns, villages and communities.

We commit ourselves to monitor and quickly respond to the humanitarian needs of all Kenyans regardless of their religion, ethnicity, gender and political affiliation.

God bless Kenya.

* Kenya Election Domestic Observation Forum (KEDOF) is a partnership representing Kenyan Civil Society Networks (and faith-based organisations) in establishing a common platform for domestic election observation programme
2007.
* * Please send comments to or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

A voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) project developed in Africa has the potential to be successfully translated to the UK and could help reduce the high levels of undiagnosed HIV infection in the UK’s African community, according to research published in the December edition of Sexually Transmitted Infections.

Kenyans go to the polls to elect leaders that they hope will help them improve their welfare. They have one powerful instrument against which to judge their performance, writes Calestous Juma: the Constituency Development Fund (CDF).

Dr. Penninah Ogada discusses the social, political and economic factors that impeding the full participation of Kenyan women in this year's general election.

Introduction

In the East African region Kenya is noted for having the smallest number of women holding elective positions. Statistics however, show that women’s limited participation in politics and governance is neither due to a lack of qualified women, nor their level of exposure and intellectual skills for participation. There are three issues in the public domain that may offer some explanation for women’s limited participation in politics and public life in Kenya. First is the socio-political environment in which the electioneering processes take place. Secondly, the role of political parties and their internal structures and operations in facilitating women’s participation; and, thirdly, the socio-economic environment in which the 2007 electoral processes are taking place in Kenya.

Socio-Political environment

The 2007 Kenyan General Election has the highest number of women political aspirants ever witnessed in the country's history. There are over 120 women cleared through the different political parties to run for parliamentary seats, and, many more are running for civic seats. This scenario is the result of a concerted effort by the non-governmental organizations and civil society activities that started in earnest in early 2006 in the run up to the 2007 electioneering period. Most of the sensitization and mobilization activities have been undertaken by the Gender and Governance Program partners who are funded by development agencies through the UNIFEM kitty for women, and, in furtherance of Article 3 of the Millennium Development Goals for Kenya.

Many sensitization workshops and seminars for women aspirants focused on individual skills for capacity and confidence building, including: identification of electioneering issues, development of relations with the media houses, and the packaging the ‘self’ for public space and elective position. The emphasis has been on “transformative” political leadership, undergirded by the principle that no society can hope to progress when women are locked out of political participation. In Kenya women comprise 52% of the voting population - this is too significant a proportion to be ignored in the decision making processes and public policies that affect the lives of women and those of their families. Yet a cursory observation of what happened during the party nominations in November 2007 reveal two disquieting trends:firstly, that political parties are not ready to accommodate women candidates, and secondly that the public mindset is generally so patriarchal that the female gender roles are first and foremost considered before individual woman’s leadership qualities can be acknowledged and embraced.

Presently Kenyan political parties revolve around individual founders with whom the parties are identified, and who are, to some extent, responsible for funding the party activities. This fact defines the extent of women’s involvement in the hierarchical structure of the party relative to women’s low economic capability in a patriarchal society. The lower the women’s economic capability, the further away from the center of power and decision making they are within these parties, and, the less likely it is that aspiring women would be able to negotiate and influence their chances of winning party nomination. Secondly, until the political parties’ bill comes into operation, it is virtually impossible for a woman candidate to fund her own election campaign from her own resources even if she won her party nomination. But more importantly, the cut-throat competition from the male counter parts which includes huge spending on voter bribery, character assassination, mudslinging, false promises, propaganda, and so on, make the cost of involvement in the current socio-political environment too costly in terms of social capital, especially for many career women with leadership qualities. Many career women find the social environment hostile and are not willing to play hard-ball in the political game which is played according to male-stream rules, and at the expense of family and career dignity and social running – even as role models to the girl child.

During the recent nomination exercises in November, women aspirants were subjected to physical beatings and rape, abductions, and even deliberate delay and hijacking of the nomination exercises in order to cause conflict with women’s other gender role performances. In September, Flora Igoki Tera, an ODM Kenya Parliamentary Candidate for the North Imenti constituency in Meru district of Kenya, was attacked and tortured by a gang of 5 men, near her Meru home. Ms Alice Onduto, a parliamentary aspirant for Lugari Constituency who lost in the nominations was shot dead while on her way home in Nairobi’s South C estate on 1/12/07. Her assailants have not been apprehended. All this has a two-pronged impact: the female voters are intimidated and denied opportunity to support the candidate of their choice, and secondly, the aspirants are traumatized psychologically and physically intimidated into giving up on the quest for elective positions.

Role of political parties

There is no provision for independent political candidates for elective positions in the current Kenyan constitution. This means that any aspiring candidate must be nominated by a political party in order to run for elective political office. The increased awareness of the historical social injustices to women perpetuated by patriarchal structures across the African region, has led the civil society to consistently advocate for ways to seek to redress this anomaly.

One suggestion that has been promoted is that the government should adopt affirmative action as a national policy towards the realization of greater participation by women in public affairs. This is not the first time the civil society and women groups are agitating for affirmative action in Kenya, in fact this policy was first verbalized in the 1970s by Mrs. P. Asiyo - then the only elected woman member of Parliament. In spite of the demonstrated success of this policy in bringing about the desired changes in neighboring countries, the “male-stream” Ninth Parliament did not support the Bill for enactment. Hence the political parties are not bound by any regulation to facilitate greater participation by women in both political party and national affairs. Indeed those who have vested interests in the maintenance of status quo have argued that Kenyan women are so amply qualified that attempts to implement affirmative action would slight their competitiveness and suggest that they are of such feeble mind and weak leadership ability as to require a leg up in the public sphere.

The three major political parties have been crisscrossing the country in the hunt for votes. All the parties are aware of the significance of women’s votes and consequently have been verbalizing their commitment to social justice and, for women’s concerns. We all waited with bated breath in November to see if political parties would grant, at least some women aspirants direct party nominations. This has not happened in the three main parties. Such a let-down to women party supporters given that the manifestos of the major parties contain specific clauses about party commitments to women’s concerns.

One may be forgiven for being cynical and believing that this may just be one more occasion for politicking and paying lip service for the sake of getting the women’s votes without commitment. It is also noted that no party has taken any disciplinary measures against perpetrators of violence against women - even in cases where evidence has been provided and individuals have been named. In the Kenyan electioneering process violence against women are equated with acts of “normal thuggery”. Women remain situated far from the center of power within the political parties. They do not hold positions of influence that can impact the party nominations neither do they have the financial clout to fund their own election campaigns. Therefore following the male-dominated party nominations fiasco that was witnessed in November, many women aspirants had no choice but to migrate to smaller and peripheral political parties in order to receive nomination certificates to for elections. Kenyan political parties are nothing more than vehicles to parliament, and have no ideological distinctions, for practical purposes, and in this regard women incur no ideological losses in changing parties. Women, on the on the hand, lose voter hype and attention when they move to small parties that have no impact and are not popular in their constituencies.

The socio-economic environment of the 2007 electoral processes

Becoming a Member of Parliament is the most lucrative job one can land in Kenya today. It is the kind of job that has no strict rules governing the quality of performance, it is a job where the employee becomes the unquestionable lord over the masses. The crushing levels of poverty in rural communities, and the gap between the haves and have-nots continue to disenfranchise the masses (mostly rural women) who have family responsibilities, forcing them to sell their voter's cards in exchange for small amounts of money to put food on the table. The voter's card buyers are agents of unpopular but wealthy candidates who presume to have a monopoly of parliamentary seats and the accruing privileges. Very few of women political aspirants have this kind of financial resources to disburse to the poor demanding masses among whom the culture of dependency, and financial handouts have been politically engineered and entrenched over the years. This fact makes the sizable block of women’s vote very fluid and transient, and therefore cannot be relied upon by women aspirants who do not have the required handouts to give.

Furthermore, women political aspirants suffer a lack of goodwill and family support. Whenever men aspirants are campaigning for elections, their wives and other relatives support them and are their most trusted campaign agents. This privileged support is not true for women aspirants. Even in cases where husbands and male relatives give moral support, it does not translate into active physical and financial engagement, that is, the relatives allow the women to campaign, but do not actively join in to lend their support. Women are physically more vulnerable to electoral violence; they literally require constant security against hired goons. Women are economically compromised because very few have the accumulated funds of their own for campaign expenses.

Therefore when women political aspirants have no financial support, political good will from political parties, or access to family resources, for logistical facilitation, then their chances of waging successful political campaign is seriously compromised, and their leadership potential and contribution to the nation will not be realized. These are some of the underpinnings to the low visibility and audibility of women’s participation in the highly patriarchal Kenyan political process.

In conclusion one may say that today the attainment of critical mass is occurring faster than the Kenyan political elite would care to acknowledge. Women as voters are both listening and watching the political campaign promises and trends. Many women leaders and voters are hoping to see many more women get into parliament more than before. They are hoping to hear their issues articulated and acted upon by way of public policies by the government of the day, in a manner that would impact their quality of life. The rural women are more likely to demand accountability from members of the tenth parliament than has ever been witnessed before. Most political aspirants during their campaigns are invoking issues such as: provision of clean and accessible water supply, accessible quality medical services, quality education, roads and marketing infrastructure that would enable rural women to sell their surplus agricultural produce to earn a living, and, physical security to enable them to enjoy the little that is theirs by their sweat. The rural women will be watching the performance of the Tenth parliament, and at the end will act accordingly. These are the key concerns of Kenya's women - politics, class and ethnic divisions aside.

* Dr. Penninah Ogada is a gender and human rights consultant, and a lecturer in political science at the University of Nairobi.

* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights has released a new report on its election campaign monitoring showing increasing misuse of state resources by Government allied politicians.

For Juliana Omale-Atemi and Rosemary Okello the electoral landscape mirrors that of the Kenyan society at large, a reason therefore for the struggle of women empowerment to continue after the elections.

For those who are interested in the struggles of Kenyan women political aspirants, it is not hard these days to miss the recurrent conversations revolving around fears about these women aspirants. They face an uphill task. Not only do they have to tackle the problems of financing their campaigns, there are also the ever-changing dynamics in the main political parties, making it difficult for them to participate meaningfully in competitive politics. However, the most serious threat is the violence that may be meted out to them.

Being in the wrong place in an election is something that women candidates can readily attest to. The irony is that in 2007 the situation is no different from the 2002, 1997 election periods. In fact, it is not different from every previous election back to 1963 when Kenya became independent: women have always found themselves pushed into the political periphery.

Unlike the previous elections in the Kenyan history, this year’s General Elections looked better for women since three women, namely Hon Charity Ngilu, Hon Julia Ojiambo and Nazlin Omar had declared their interest in vying for the Presidential seat. However, this has been overtaken by events due to the political re-alignments which, just like in 2002, have become the order of the day. Many women are now wondering whether Kenya will attain the 30 percent affirmative action in political leadership.

A look at the regional statistics as far as African women in Parliament are concerned, shows Rwanda to be the highest with 48.8 per cent, Tanzania (30.4 per cent), Burundi (30.5 per cent), Mozambique (34.8 per cent), Liberia (30 per cent) and South Africa (32.8 per cent).

With the elections on the horizon, the subject of women’s participation in the 2007 general elections is dominated by concerns that history will repeat itself once more.

Speaking recently to a gathering of women’s organizations and journalists in Nairobi, Ms Violet Awori, the chair of the Federation of Women Lawyers – Kenya (FIDA-K), said the escalation of violence targeting women candidates is cause for concern and a pointer to the fact that once again women are being denied an opportunity to participate freely and fairly in the election processes. “Before Flora Tera was attacked in Imenti North, Orie Rogo Manduli, who is a candidate in Nairobi’s Kasarani constituency, was rigged out during the NARC-K party nominations and roughed up when she tried to protest,” said Ms Awori.

The Executive Director of the Caucus for Women’s Leadership, Mrs. Deborah Okumu, says women need to understand that the stakes are high in these elections – the fourth since the advent of multiparty politics in 1991 – and women are under pressure to fit into pre-determined pigeon holes, including within their political parties.

Her argument is that women’s power to mobilize and organize human and material resources for political processes has been compromised and whittled away over the years. “This is a mini-war, and the ingredients include violence,” she explained, “The women’s movement has lost its dominance in Kenya’s political agenda, we have been boxed into programmes, yet all along we were the drivers of a political process,” she says.

The Executive Director of the Centre for Multiparty Politics, Ms Njeri Kabeberi, cautions women’s organizations reliant on donor funding, that the circumstances in 2007 are not necessarily similar to 2002. New funding mechanisms originating in the donor countries mean that aspirants seeking support within women’s political organizations will face new challenges.

“Donors have warmed up to the Paris Declaration which has given a nod for aid flows to governments rather than to civil society organizations,” she explained

Mrs. Okumu is also concerned about the dominance of patriarchy within the election processes saying that it is difficult to recognize and define it: “It has no face or form because it is in the minds of people, and in the environment of an election period, it places women in a tight box,” she adds. Mrs. Okumu says women’s organizations’ programmatic approach to the elections may actually be working against candidates in the context of patriarchy. “Non-engendered institutions are a branch of patriarchy and women cannot count on the police, their parties or the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) to come to their aid,” says Mrs. Okumu.

According to Dr Josephat Ludeki Chweya, from the University of Nairobi’s Department of Political Science, this is the reason why Kenyans ought to address the condition and roles of women in Kenya. He argues that the processes and returns of Kenya’s electoral regime affect men and women differently. “The reason there are more men than women represented in Parliament, City Councils and County Councils is because the constitution and electoral laws are blind to the marginalization of women,” says Dr. Chweya, “The constitution assumes that society is homogeneous between men and women when in reality this is not the case, hence the voices demanding affirmative action in matters of representation.”

A nagging problem for women seeking electoral posts is the realization that it is extremely expensive to run an election campaign. Conservatively, candidates in urban constituencies need between Ksh. six million and Ksh. 10 million, while their rural counterparts would need between Ksh. six million and 10 million. Taking the long-standing economic subordination of Kenyan women into account, this scenario is particularly challenging.

However, Ms Njeri Kabeberi says that winning an election is not necessarily about how much money a candidate has in the bank. “I would like us not to dwell too much on finances for campaigns,” she says, “It is actually possible for a candidate to win an election in this country without money but with the right strategy.”

This is a point that Dr Chweya agrees with: “The constraints women face are not an excuse not to go for those seats,” he cautions, “We cannot wait around until the constitution is amended, laws and cultures changed and the economic situation improved.” The point being, that as they wait to get their feet under the table in 2008, the work is not quite done for women. Dr Chweya says women can use their numbers as a basis for political mobilization and work to subdue ethnicity, cultural and economic hindrances.

* Juliana Omale-Atemi and Rosemary Okello are Editorial Director and Executive Director, respectively, of the African Woman and Child Feature Service (AWC)

*This article was initially published in the WAJIBU JOURNAL Volume 22. No 4 (November - December 2007)

Media Focus on Africa Foundation (MFAF) teamed up with Wajibu to publish the current Wajibu Journal election issue. Wajibu is a well established Kenyan journal that deals with issues that are of Social and Ethical Concern. Established in 1985, it is published quaternary by Dr. Gerald J. Wanjohi and the Wajibu Task force. This particular issue focuses on the upcoming Kenya elections and is edited by Dipesh Pabari with contributions from a variety of seasoned writers.

This issue focuses on the different aspects and hot topics that are at the fore front for Kenyans with the ballot approaching. In the current issue, the meaning of peace is explored by Mukoma wa Ngugi, discussing the ethnic divisions, majimboism and historical legacies and their implication on democracy and ultimately peace.

Zarina Patel an author and managing editor of Awaaz magazine examines the role of women in the ever changing political climate, especially electoral violence and violence targeting women, as witnessed by the Flora Tera story.

Maina Kiai graces the pages of this issue discussing human rights and the ever changing face of corruption. Other issues of good government, poverty, unemployment and the youth agenda are deliberated by Charles Otieno-Hongo, Nducu Wa Ngugi, Achoka Awori and more.

This Wajibu issue is also filled with images from the thought provoking media campaign by Media Focus on Africa. The images and this campaign aim to promote informed debates on issues pertinent to a free and fair election. It is important to raise awareness about the issues surrounding democratization, development and ultimately encourage the Kenyan people to vote on political platforms not the personalities this December.

Ngugi Wa Thiong'o reflects on Mwai Kibaki's presidency, the proliferation of what he terms paper parties, and the need for African democracy to speak for and to African peasants and workers - the marginalized majority.

I am not a member of any of the contesting parties. They don’t adequately embody the vision of the unity of the small farmer, the worker, the jobless and landless Kenyans across all the regions of their birth and residence. They don’t seem to recognize sufficiently that Kenya like Africa as a whole has only two tribes: the haves and the have-nots. Membership in the two camps comes from all regions and communities. But there is a misleading tendency in the haves of one community and region to point at the haves of another community as the only haves. They then set themselves as the defenders of the entire haves and have-nots of their own community against the entire haves and have-nots of another community and region, thus setting the stage for personal fiefdoms and political warlords.

A political party must take responsibility for the development of the entire country. The condition for the real development of any one region must be development of all regions throughout the country. Real development must be measured from the standpoint of those at the bottom of the mountain and not those at the top.

But even with those misgivings, I celebrate with my fellow Kenyans the present moment in our country. We can now exercise the right to form and join a political party of one’s choice, without fear of prison, detention camps, exile or death.

We must not forget that this uhuru to form and join political associations of one’s choice did not come of itself. We owe it to the Mau Mau and all other patriots who stood up to the might of British Empire and opposed the settler colonial state. Let us not forget that we also owe this uhuru to those maimed, jailed, exiled, disappeared and killed opposing the Moi dictatorship. The resistance against Moi’s dictatorship was waged inside and outside the country led by groups who believed in the unity of the have-nots of our nation and Africa.

In the years of struggle against the Moi dictatorship, Mwai Kibaki and I were on different camps. The famous statement likening those who were struggling against Kanu to a person trying to cut down a M?gumo tree with a razor blade is enshrined in a document called Struggle for Democracy in Kenya in London, copies of that document were smuggled into the country during the Moi regime. The image of the Kibaki who made that “razor blade cutting a M?gumo” statement clashed with other more positive images of him that I carried in me from three previous encounters.

My first encounter with Kibaki was in 1961 at Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda, where I took his classes in Economics. Shortly thereafter, he left us to join Kenya African National Union (Kanu) as its executive officer. Kanu, of course, was the party that crossed over Kenya to Independence. With the death of Achieng Oneko recently, K?baki now remains the most prominent figure living with linkage to the Nationalist Kanu of Jomo Kenyatta and Jaramogi Oginga Odinga.

Kanu took power with a manifesto of one Kenya one people. Theirs was opposed to Kadu’s majimbo program. Kadu’s manifesto was said to have been drafted by a group of white settlers who wanted a weak central government for Kenya. The British settler colonial state had always opposed the formation of African political parties that cut across the different regions and, until the advent of Kanu and its predecessor KAU, the colonial regime would only legalize political parties based in regions, at one time restricting their formation to districts only.

Most of us students, at that time, shared Kanu’s nationalist vision and rejoiced at its victory over Kadu. The joy exuding in the famous picture of the triumphant trio, Jomo Kenyatta, Tom Mboya and Mwai Kibaki, dancing in the streets at the party’s victory was shared by millions across the whole country. It spoke hope. Years later, Kadu, the party of “uhuru pole pole” took over Kanu, the party of uhuru Sasa. Kadu then undermined Kanu’s nationalist credentials and social vision of African socialism.

My second encounter with Kibaki was in 1964 after I had published the novel, Weep not, Child. I had joined the Nation Newspapers as a reporter and feature writer. K?baki was then an assistant Minister in Kenyatta’s government. One evening he gave me a lift from Sans Chique, a restaurant and bar near the old Nation House, on what was then Government Road, to the YMCA near United Kenya Club where I was staying. Just before I stepped out of his car, Kibaki took his time and talked movingly about the vital importance of the freedom of the Press for democracy. I had not thought of the role of journalism in society in the way he put it.

The third and last encounter, but one forever engraved in my mind, was in July 1977 on the occasion of the publication of my novel, Petals of Blood. The novel was very critical of conditions in post colonial Kenya. It castigated, for instance, the close economic ties of dependence between Kenya and the West. It also castigated the chauvinism and the grab-and-eat mentality of the rising African middleclass.

Mwai Kibaki was then Finance Minister and he agreed to an invitation from the directors of Heinemann Educational Books to launch the book at Nairobi’s City Hall. He praised the novel and said he did not agree with everything in it. Nevertheless, he observed that the very publication of Petals of Blood, despite its critique, was a manifestation of democratic space in Kenya. Once again Kibaki dwelt on the importance of free exchange of ideas in a democratic society. It was really a call for tolerance, as against the intolerance then coalescing around then Attorney General Charles Njonjo who later made critical comments about Kibaki’s launch of the novel.

Five months later in December 1977, I was in Kam?t? Maximum Prison. There are some who claim that Petals of Blood as much as the play, Ngahika Ndenda, was the real reason for my incarceration. Years later, looking back to the political situation at the time, I came to realize the enormity of Kibaki’s courage in accepting to launch the book. But it was not just his courage; it is the fact that on those two occasions he had talked about democratic space he had absolutely nothing to gain from me.

The memory of those encounters influenced my belief that Kibaki meant it, when, on assuming national leadership in 2002, he talked of accountability, performance, stability of institutions, and commitment to democracy. Under the euphoria of Kibaki’s victory many people looked for social revolution from him, which I did not or even expect. But I was secretly fascinated to see whether he would keep to the democratic values that he had stated – which seemed to have come from deep conviction and commitment.

The five years of Kibaki’s presidency are known in Kenya and the world. I am optimistic Kenyans will vote on its record. I have not been in Kenya for long periods so I cannot fully assess the impact of his rule on the different classes and communities. But I can say that despite the fact that when my wife Njeeri and I returned home in 2004 after 22 years in exile we were victims of a brutal attack engineered by anti-ngugi forces and executed by hired hands, I have been very impressed by the atmosphere of free speech prevailing in the country. There is no terror in the eyes of Kenyans as it used to be. I have not seen people looking over their shoulders as they speak in support or censure of his government.

There are of course negative marks like the attack on the East African Standard newspapers; the very nationally embarrassing episode of the Armenian brothers; and the recent allegations in a report by the Kenya National Commission for Human Rights of extra-judicial killings of those suspected of being involved in crime. No crime however hideous can justify police becoming prosecutor, judge, jury and executioner. Crimes and insecurity which haunt a country undermining personal peace, production and internal investments has to be tackled vigorously but within the law. The social roots of crime must also be tackled. There have also been stories of corruption with the Anglo-Leasing episode reminding us of the endemic corruption of the Moi era. Corruption is also an economic crime against the nation.

But in the main, these are the first five years including colonial and post colonial times of Kenyatta and Moi when Kenyans have not been killed, exiled or imprisoned on the basis of their political views and political positions. No one has been imprisoned for attacking Kibaki either in Parliament, outside Parliament or from within his own Cabinet. And nobody can deny that there has been a vigorous opposition no matter what one may think of its tactics.

It gives me pride as a Kenyan and African to hear of an increased economic growth largely financed from within instead of its being brought about by a crippling and humiliating dependence on handouts from foreign sources, as in the past. It is a case of national capital asserting itself. This may not always please global financial lending institutions or those who take it that Africa cannot stand on its feet without golden crutches provided by western charities. What Africa needs are its feet firmly on its ground and not crutches however golden.

As a writer I try to get glimpses into the big picture through small things. I have seen a very improved courtesy in the Kenya embassies to which I have gone for services, especially in Los Angeles, Johannesburg and London, a far cry from the previous era. I was excited to read that Mau Mau had been declared a legal organization, an act that the previous regimes could not bring themselves to do. I was even more excited when I saw the picture of the statue of Dedan Kimathi in the heart of the city, or when I read about the Koitalel Arap Samoia museum. Our relatives from Mang’u, Limuru, and elsewhere in Kenya, have told us of their excitement for accessing electricity in their villages under the rural electrification program. Others have told us how they have started taking care of their coffee and maize because they are now certain of the market and fairer returns for their efforts. There have been similar stories from those with a cow or two to milk. We have also read of revival and rehabilitation of critical production facilities like the Kenya Meat Commission; Kenya Cooperative Creameries; Hamisi Sugar in Mombasa. The first time I heard of the popular CDF, was from a letter from the village.

But people can only speak from their own experiences and encounters. Every Kenyan has to ask and honestly respond to the question: are we better off now than we were before Kibaki took over? Does he deserve a chance to build on the positives of his rule? Are there others who can do a better job?

The advantage of having a political track record is that people have a basis for taking positions. This applies to all seeking public office. The electoral period should be the time that people scrutinize the track record of all candidates and their position on the national, regional, continental and international scene. People should be debating the economic, political and social programs of the parties. Questions of bread and butter are always important; and people, from the professional classes to the ordinary farmer and worker, will no doubt take them into account.

But there are other pertinent questions. What are the political parties’ positions on the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and imperialism in general? Where do they stand on the relationship between national and foreign capital? What about the relationship between the Kenya’s middleclass and rest of the people? What about the parties’ positions on the unity of the nation, East Africa and the African continent? What is their take on pan-Africanism especially now that Europe is uniting and the USA is building blocs all over the world? It is almost tragic that while the rest of the world is uniting to be in a better position to control their own resources and ours, Africa is not doing the same. Instead, the tendency is to retreat behind national boundaries, and worse, behind regional and clan barricades.

So while Europe and the USA will be bargaining from a unified position, we in Africa will be bargaining with these Western blocs as separate nations, regions or even clans. Now is the time to raise issues. It is the time to demand a clear answer to the big question: what are the political parties’ visions for Kenya in the world?

Unfortunately, focus on issues is often the first victim of political election fever. Instead of holding a candidate to account, some look to the candidate’s pockets. And from the supporters of the contesting parties comes demonization of their opponents with incredible distortions and downright lies.

Some want to silence others with violence. Yet others base their judgement on the ethnic origins of the leader they oppose or support. They forget that being a member of an ethnic group or gender is not a matter of political choice; it is a result of biological fact. If I tell you that I am a M?g?k?y? or Mjaluo or Mgiriama and proud of it, which of course I should be, that does not tell you where I stand on policy. Even people of the same gender, ethnicity, and faith can have different views on social issues.

We should always link the present to the past and to the future: where are we coming from; where are we now, and where are we heading to; and what are the best vehicles and drivers for taking us there? If you think of a political party as a vehicle, then you have to look at its political program and manifesto, its structures and organs of power. Then take a good look at the history and soberness of the driver. Obviously you do not want to board a vehicle, no matter how beautiful, driven by a driver, under influence.

Unfortunately, and despite the existence of several parties, there are now in Kenya no real parties - except perhaps Kanu - with a history, and a questionable one at that, to examine. They are paper parties, mostly, or like vehicles driven by drivers always poised to abandon them for new ones. Sometimes they leave the old vehicles with engine running, as a fallback position just in case things don’t work out for them in the new vehicle! The party represents the leader, not the leader representing the party. Or rather the leader is the party.

We have moved thus from a one party state to a “paper-parties” state. We have even turned these paper parties into commodities for sale. This is a very poor heritage for the Kenya of tomorrow. These paper parties may in the end negate the very democracy which enabled their birth. A country needs stable political parties with clear mechanism for change of leadership within them. Stable parties are also important for ensuring smooth change in the leadership of the nation.

In the absence of reliable parties, the choice of a leader becomes even more important. It means examining carefully the character of each contestant; what he has done in the past; and the likelihood that he will take us to the direction and destination he has promised. The choice we make could affect the very future, character and integrity of the Kenya nation.

Unfortunately, I am one of thousands of Kenyans abroad who will not be able to cast their vote in the coming elections because there are no provisions for us to vote at our embassies and consulates. Despite the fact that I am not able to cast my vote, I urge all Kenyans to do so.

Whatever the outcome of this year’s elections, the struggle continues for a prosperous Kenya, from the standpoint of those at the bottom of the mountain. Hopefully, with continued stability of institutions, there will emerge parties that, in their history, programs and practice, will embody the vision of a united self reliant Kenya, a united nation certain of its base in the people as it engages with East Africa, Africa and the World in a rapidly globalizing space.

We have to create a Kenya in which the worker and peasant can see all they have fought for in history finally placed at the center. In that sense, the struggle continues no matter who wins in the elections..

*Professor Ngugi wa Thiong’o is Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature, and Director of the International Centre for Writing and Translation, at the University of California Irvine.

*A version of this article first appeared in Kenya's Sunday Nation.

*Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Kenya's main opposition party accused the government on Monday of bribing voters and risking regional insecurity by trying to rig polls due on December 27. "A rigged electoral process will cause such chaos and political instability in Kenya, not only here but in the entire East Africa region," presidential challenger Raila Odinga, leader of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), told Reuters.

Thousands of civilians displaced by violence related to land disputes in Mt Elgon, western Kenya, need urgent assistance, according to local leaders. “About 50 houses were destroyed today [10 December] in three villages in Cheptais division,” Wycliffe Chongin, a local church leader, told IRIN at Kapsokwony, the Mt Elgon District headquarters, after local officials met UN representatives.

Delegates attending the GK3 summit have been introduced to "mzalendo", a Kiswahili word meaning, "patriot". The word became a subject of heated debate as South African-based Kenyan lawyer Ms Ory Okolloh shared her experience in new media, citizen journalism, human rights and development.