POLITICS-KENYA: A Poor Report Card for Kibaki

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Joyce Mulama

NAIROBI, Dec 30 2003 (IPS) - A year ago, Kenya was buzzing with prospects for change. A new president, Mwai Kibaki, stood poised to end almost 40 years of rule by the Kenya African National Union. For ordinary citizens, it appeared that decades of political and economic mismanagement might finally be coming to an end.

However, as Kibaki ends his first year in office the optimism that ushered in the National Alliance Rainbow Coalition (NARC) government has faded away – and campaign pledges that swept the party to power remain, for the most part, unfulfilled.

This week’s move by Kibaki to dissolve the various parties that make up NARC has also conspired to take the lustre off the coalition’s first anniversary in power. The president’s decision was apparently prompted by the need to end squabbling amongst the 16 groups which united under the NARC umbrella.

At the top of NARC’s list of campaign promises were pledges to deliver a new constitution within 100 days of coming to power, free primary education and 500,000 jobs. The coalition also vowed to eliminate corruption.

But, civil servant Kitheka Mumbo expresses the feelings of many Kenyans when she says, “None of these promises has been fulfilled, apart from free primary education which has a lot of shortcomings.”

The introduction of free primary education at the start of 2003 saw an additional 1.3 million children enrolled in school. This increased to 8.5 million the number of pupils receiving a primary education.

Critics hailed the move, but argued that schools were often unable to deal with the influx of pupils. Although there are 17,600 public primary schools in Kenya, reports abound of some classes having up to 100 pupils under one teacher.

The country’s ability to build more schools – and repair its crumbling infrastructure – will depend largely on the favour of donors. Last month, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) resumed lending to Kenya – this after a decade-long hiatus prompted by concerns about corruption and mismanagement.

IMF officials agreed to a loan of 252.75 million dollars – money which the government hopes will help kick start the economy. At present, growth stands at 0.3 percent – down from an average of two percent in the 1990’s.

A number of political commentators believe growth has more to do with safety concerns than infusions of cash, however. “What is needed to boost the economy is enticement of foreign investors who are worried about the high crime rate,” says Maina Muiruri, a senior political journalist.

“To attract investment, we need to create a crime-free environment for the investors,” he adds.

Muiruri says Kibaki should also have focussed more energy on reducing the country’s towering external debt. According to Chambers of Justice, a non-governmental organisation which pushes for debt relief, Kenya’s debt amounts to about nine billion dollars. This far outweighs the annual national revenue of 2.7 billion dollars.

In another bid to deliver on its campaign promises, the government suspended 23 judges in October who were accused of corruption. This followed a damning report on the judiciary by the Integrity and Anti-Corruption Committee.

However, the move was dismissed by some as a public relations exercise.

“This is showbiz and plastic surgery on the part of the government,” said political commentator Mutahi Ngunyi. “The president should have overhauled the entire judiciary by institutionalising reforms. But what he did was to remove old players and replace them with new ones in the same structure.”

Ngunyi adds, “He (Kibaki) should have looked at the cancer in the judiciary which causes judges to be corrupt, because it does not make sense to put new players in a sick structure: the illness will still catch up with them.”

The allegation that efforts to fight corruption were little more than window-dressing was given weight by the debacle which arose when ministers and parliamentarians were ordered to declare their wealth.

Several officials failed to obey the order, sparking an outcry on the part of government critics. “This was piecemeal to appease the donors,” says Muiruri. Besides, he adds, “declaration of assets is not an effective measure to end corruption. Declaring assets and making them public, and subject to auditing by the auditor general, is.”

The promise to create 500,000 jobs by the end of 2003 returned to haunt Kibaki this year. Vice-President Moody Awori announced last month that the government had created 401,000 jobs, but failed to mention in which sectors. The public remained unconvinced.

In addition, NARC has back tracked on the issue of a new constitution.

The process of constitutional review – endlessly delayed under Kibaki’s predecessor, Daniel Arap Moi – encountered further difficulties with proposals to create a Prime Minister’s post, and to share some of the president’s powers with this office.

The suggestion sparked infighting amongst NARC members, with one of the most important groups – the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) – pressing for the introduction of a Prime Minister. According to media reports, a pre-election agreement had promised this post to LDP leader Raila Odinga.

Earlier this month, Kibaki announced that a new constitution would be in place by June 2004. It’s a suggestion that several Kenyans dismiss: “He has lied to us before and I’m not taking his promise seriously. We shall talk of a new constitution when we actually have it on the table,” said Naliaka Wesonga, a graphic designer in Nairobi.

Fortunately for the president, Mwiti Nyaga – a university student – is willing to take a softer approach: “We should not expect too much too soon from the government, which is just a year old. We all know that Rome was not built in a day,” he told IPS.