POLITICS-KENYA: President Faces In-House Revolt

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Philip Ngunjiri

NAIROBI, May 5 1998 (IPS) - Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi faces a rebellion of sorts by a group of legislators in the first sign that a rift is developing in the ruling Kenya African National Union (KANU) which he has led with an iron fist since 1978.

The parliamentarians have publicly spoken out against government policy, leading political pundits here to suggest that the 74-year-old Moi, one of the few remaining old-generation African leaders, is losing his grip on the party.

The tiff between Moi and the KANU legislators erupted last week following an all-party workshop held in the Indian Ocean port of Mombasa, some 360 kilometres southeast of here, to discuss the economic problems facing the East African country.

After the workshop, a visibly angry Moi hurriedly called a KANU Parliamentary Group (PG) meeting to reprimand the MPs who had attended the forum, but it ended in a rebellion with the parliamentarians refusing to be admonished for going to the meeting.

The workshop, sponsored by the World Bank, the Fredrich Ebert Foundation — a German non-governmental organisation — and the U.S. government, attracted 162 legislators including 82 from KANU, as well as diplomats and local industrialists.

Moi denounced the meeting and accused its convenors of having a hidden agenda. He also charged that the forum was poorly coordinated and breached protocol. “It had gone about its work as if there was not a constitutionally elected government in Kenya,” he said.

In a press statement made available to IPS, the president said the meeting — attended by seven of his cabinet ministers — was inconsequential since his government was not consulted.

What appears to have angered the President most was the astonishing admission by the straight-talking Finance Minister Simeon Nyachae that the government was broke and that corruption was rampant in Kenya.

Nyachae, who is tipped to take over as party leader when Moi retires, said corruption in high places had contributed directly to the mismanagement of Kenya’s economy, resulting in a domestic debt of 140 billion shillings.

(One US Dollar is equal to 59 Kenya shillings).

The legislators’ admissions came after the Speaker of the National Assembly, Francis ole Kaparo, who officially opened the Mombasa meeting, challenged them to speak freely.

“One thing that KANU government has failed to grasp is that it is out of touch with Kenya’s fluid political and economic situation and the sooner it realises it the better for the country,” said opposition MP Maoka Maore.

During the PG meeting, KANU leaders were split over the issue of the Mombasa workshop. Assistant Finance Minister Mathias Keah was jeered and booed after remarking that those who attended the meeting were not aware of its secret intentions to undermine the government.

The minister for Research and Technology, Andrew Kiptoon, who is a Moi loyalist, astounded KANU members when he said that he saw nothing wrong with the meeting, which he described as holding the key to Kenya’s ailing economy.

His view was supported by retired Anglican Bishop Henry Okullu. “If the President and KANU were committed to the interests of Kenyans, he should not stoop too low as to denouce the otherwise important meeting,” the outspoken clergyman said.

Adding his voice to the debate, Archbishop Ndingi Mwana a’Nzeki, who is the head of the Catholic Church in Kenya, commended Nyachae’s frankness. “Leaders should avoid buck-passing over the economic problem that affect ordinary Kenyans,” he said.

And an editorial in a Kenyan newspaper commented: “If the president is acting on specific advice, it is not sound advice. He would be better clued if he listened to the people. They want the governmnet to act maturely and senstively, not like a beggar who is lost and refuses to be shown the way.”

Last week the government also suffered two major defeats in parliament, sending shockwaves through a ruling party which, since independence from Britain in 1963, had never lost a motion sponsored by the opposition — some KANU parliamentarians had walked out while others abstained from casting their votes.

One of the bills seeks to establish a South African-style Truth and Reconciliation Commission to probe the causes of ethnic unrest in parts of the East African country.