A geothermal drilling rig at the Menengai site in Kenya's Rift Valley to exploit energy which is more sustainable than that produced from fossil fuels. A Climate Change Bill now before the Kenyan parliament seeks to provide the legal and institutional framework for mitigation and adaption to the effects of climate change. Credit: Isaiah Esipisu/IPS

By Isaiah Esipisu
NAIROBI, Jul 27 2015 (IPS)

Alexander Muyekhi, a construction worker from Ebubayi village in the heart of Vihiga County in Western Kenya, and his school-going children can now enjoy a tiny solar kit supplied by the British-based Azuri Technologies to light their house and play their small FM radio.

This has saved the family from use of kerosene tin-lamps, which are dim and produce unfriendly smoke, but many other residents in the village – and elsewhere in the country – are not so lucky because they cannot afford the 1000 shillings (10 dollars) deposit for the kit, and 80 weekly instalments of 120 shillings (1.2 dollars).

“Such climate-friendly kits are very important, particularly for the rural poor,” said Philip Kilonzo, Technical Advisor for Natural Resources & Livelihoods at ActionAid International Kenya. “But for families who survive on less than a dollar per day, it becomes a tall order for them to pay the required deposit, as well as the weekly instalments.”“Once it [Climate Change Bill] becomes law, we will deliberately use it as a legal instrument to reduce or exempt taxes on such climate-friendly gadgets and on projects that are geared towards low carbon growth” - Dr Wilbur Ottichilo, Kenyan MP

It was due to such bottlenecks that Dr Wilbur Ottichilo, a member of parliament for Emuhaya constituency in Western Kenya, and chair of the Parliamentary Network on Renewable Energy and Climate Change, moved a motion in parliament to enact a Climate Change Bill, which has already been discussed, and is now being subjected to public scrutiny before becoming law.

“Once it becomes law, we will deliberately use it as a legal instrument to reduce or exempt taxes on such climate-friendly gadgets and on projects that are geared towards low carbon growth,” said Ottichilo.

While Kenya makes a low net contribution to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the country’s Draft National Climate Change Framework Policy notes that a significant number of priority development initiatives will impact on the country’s levels of emissions.

In collaboration with development partners, the country is already investing in increased geothermal electricity in the energy sector to counter this situation, switching movement of freight from road to rail in the transport sector, reforestation in the forestry sector, and agroforestry in the agricultural sector.

“With a legal framework in place, it will be possible to increase such projects that are geared towards mitigating and adapting to the impacts of climate change,” said Ottichilo.

The Climate Change Bill seeks to provide the legal and institutional framework for mitigation and adaption to the effects of climate change, to facilitate and enhance response to climate change and to provide guidance and measures for achieving low carbon climate-resilient development.

“We received the Bill from the National Assembly towards the end of March, we studied it for possible amendments, and we subjected it to public scrutiny as required by the constitution before it was read in the senate for the second time on Jul. 22, 2015,” Ekwee Ethuro, Speaker of the Senate, told IPS.

“After this, we are going to return it to the National Assembly so that it can be forwarded to the president for signing it into law.”

The same bill was first rejected by former President Mwai Kibaki on the grounds that there had been a lack of public involvement in its creation. “We are very careful this time not to repeat the same mistake,” said Ethuro.

Under the law, a National Climate Change Council is to be set up which, among others, will coordinate the formulation of national and county climate change action plans, strategies and policies, and make them available to the public.

“This law is a very important tool for civil society and all other players because it will give us an opportunity to manage and even fund-raise for climate change adaptation and mitigation projects,” said, John Kioli, chair of the Kenya Climate Change Working Group (KCCWG).

Evidence of climate change in Kenya is based on statistical analysis of trends in historical records of temperature, rainfall, sea level rise, mountain glacier coverage, and climate extremes.

Temperature and rainfall records from the Kenya Meteorological Department over the last 50 years provide clear evidence of climate change in Kenya, with temperatures generally showing increasing trends in many parts of the country starting from the early 1960s. This has also been confirmed by data in the State of the Environment reports published by the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA).

As a result, the country now experiences prolonged droughts, unreliable rainfall patterns, floods, landslides and many more effects of climate change, which experts say will worsen with time.

Furthermore, 83 percent of Kenya’s landmass is either arid or semi-arid, making the country even more vulnerable to climate change, whose impacts cut across diverse aspects of society, economy, health and the environment.

“We seek to embrace climate-friendly food production systems such as use of greenhouses, we need to minimise post-harvest losses and food wastages, and we need to adapt to new climate friendly technologies,” said Ottichilo. “All these will work very well for us once we have a supporting legal environment.”

Edited by Phil Harris

In a prepared speech after the murder of dozens of Kenyans last year, President Uhuru Kenyatta declared a national war on terror. “This is a war against Kenya and Kenyans,” he said. “It is a war that every one of us must fight.”

It was a speech he gave in December after the killing of 36 miners working in a quarry not far from the border with Somalia. They were reportedly slain by members of the terrorist group Al-Shabaab.

Once again, a few days ago, Kenyans reeled in shock, but this time at news of the massacre of at least 147 students – nearly all young Christian males – by a small rebel band filtered through the media.Despite its peaceful appearance, the [Garissa] university college was a known target for the fury of the Somali-based Al-Shabaab group which has been at war with Kenya for many years. The fact that only a small handful of security guards were on duty when the attack began shocked many.

The slaughter began in the dark pre-dawn hours of Apr. 2 while everyone slept until they were awakened by the popping sounds of gunfire. The militants urged students to cooperate. “If you want to survive, come out. If you want to die, stay inside,” they warned the still-groggy students.

“I knew those guys were lying,” said a 23-year-old student Elosy Karimi who described to a reporter how she hid in the ceiling above her bunk bed for over 24 hours.

President Barack Obama, still planning a trip to Kenya, commiserated: “Words cannot adequately condemn the terrorist atrocities that took place at Garissa University College, where innocent men and women were brazenly and brutally massacred. We join the world in mourning them, many of whom were students pursuing an education in the pursuit of a better life for themselves and their loved ones. “

“They represented a brighter future for a region that has seen too much violence for far too long.”

Garissa University College lies northeast of Nairobi, near to the border with Somalia. A small school with a staff of 75, it was recently upgraded to give technical and vocational degrees as part of Moi University. Computer science and information technology were introduced last year. But the bucolic nature of the college, highlighted by a flock of sheep, green leaves and natural springs, was apparent on the school’s website.

Despite its peaceful appearance, the university college was a known target for the fury of the Somali-based Al-Shabaab group which has been at war with Kenya for many years. The fact that only a small handful of security guards were on duty when the attack began shocked many.

It was particularly inexplicable as there had been recent warnings of an Al-Shabaab attack at Garissa and other universities. A travel advisory issued by the British government just days earlier had warned against travel to Garissa.

While some foreign media outlets describe Kenya as “powerless in the face of a ruthless terrorist organisation,” Kenya is a major military power in the region, having one of the highest defence budgets in Africa, thanks to two decades of a steady increase in military spending.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), an independent research organisation, the country purchased 19.8 billion Kenyan shillings (216 million dollars) worth of advanced weapons in five years between 2010 and 2014, up from 919.4 million Kenyan shillings (10 million dollars) between 2005 and 2009 — marking a huge jump in the period — which is the highest in the East Africa.

Yet four gunmen managed to hold off elite counter-terror police and military units called to the scene while they systematically massacred “hostages.” This is hardly unprecedented,” Patrick Gathara, a security analyst wrote in Al Jazeera news service.

“Much the same happened at Westgate (Mall) where four gunmen supposedly kept hundreds of cops and soldiers at bay for four days, apparently taking time off to pray and relax while the security agents looted the mall.”

“The government responded with a crackdown that targeted the ethnic Somali population within Nairobi – little more than an exercise in scapegoating and extortion,” he recalled. “Similarly, Garissa itself, which is populated mainly by ethnic Somalis, has been the site for ‘security operations’ – another term for collective punishment – for well over half a century.”

Government’s failure to stem the rise in insecurity has not gone unnoticed in the Kenyan community, especially since Kenya’s incursion into Somalia in Operation Linda Nchi in 2011. A reduction of troops was expected in 2014 after complaints by the Somali government.

A Twitter feed titled #GarissaAttack quickly filled up with comments and complaints. Ory Okolloh Mwangi, well-known ‘Kenyan pundit’, wrote: “When you look at the resources poured into winning one single seat in Kajiado Central, and then how we are responding to Garissa. Ai?”

Senator James Orengo pleaded:  “We know very well the consequences of a war of occupation. We must withdraw our troops from Somalia to end this. We must rethink our strategy and have a targeted and principled way of engaging Somalia rather than put our people at risk.”

Questions are forming, wrote Gathara, about whether this disaster is just the latest in a series of preventable terrorist atrocities that have now claimed more than 350 lives in the last two years.

An earlier security operation, a week into the Kenyatta presidency, saw the indiscriminate arrest of over 600 Garissa residents, including newly-elected local leaders, by a security team the government itself had described as “rotten”, wrote Gathara.

“Now, after the latest Garissa atrocity, President Kenyatta has issued another directive of dubious legality,” continued Gathara, namely calling up 10,000 new officers despite a court order freezing police recruitment following a corruption-riddled exercise last year.

“What is Kenya’s plan as far as Somalia is concerned?” asked Abdullahi Boru Halakhe, East Africa researcher with Amnesty International, regarding the Kenya’s troops stationed in Somalia. “What does the exit plan look like? Is it two years? Is it three years”?

Edited by Phil Harris    

Kenya's new President Uhuru Kenyatta on a military land rover acknowledges greetings from supporters after he was sworn in at the Moi International Sports Centre on Apr. 9. Credit: Brian Ngugi/IPS

By Brian Ngugi
NAIROBI, Apr 16 2013 (IPS)

Kenya’s newly sworn-in President Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta may be faced with a number of challenges, including an impending International Criminal Court case and a slow economy. But he must also tackle corruption and ethnic divisions as he embarks on his five-year term as head of state of East Africa’s largest economy.

This is according to newly-elected senator Bonny Khalwale, from Kakamega county in western Kenya.

Khalwale, who is a prominent anti-corruption crusader, told IPS: “What divides this country is not our tribes, it is the unequal distribution of resources, which has ensured that a section of tribes feel alienated.”

Ethnic violence followed Kenya’s disputed December 2007 poll, claiming around 1,200 lives and displacing 600,000 people. The country has 42 different ethnic groups.

Land was one of the biggest issues during the violence and at the time an economics professor at the University of Nairobi, who asked for anonymity, told IPS that the state had “showed a blatant bias in favour of one tribe at the expense of the rest at the time of independence when the land left behind by the British was to be distributed among the local people.”

A 2009 United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Human Development Report ranked Kenya as one of the most unequal societies in the world, as 30 percent of the population here live in poverty. The report further revealed that the country’s top 10 percent of households control 42 percent of total income, while the bottom 10 percent control less than one percent.

“Consequently, Kenyatta must quickly address these challenges facing Kenyans, including unemployment, food insecurity and corruption,” Khalwale said.

Ndung’u Wainaina, the executive director of the International Centre for Policy and Conflict (ICPC), said Kenyatta should fully implement the constitution without seeking “to circumvent it.”

“With the help of the constitution they (Kenyatta and and his deputy, William Ruto) have to tackle the unfinished issues of equal distribution of resources and land, that partly led to Kenyans turning against each other in 2007,” Wainaina told IPS.

Prior to Kenyatta’s win, the ICPC went to court to question whether the integrity rules of the Kenyan constitution could prevent him and Ruto from participating in the election in light of their ongoing cases at the ICC.

Both are facing charges for crimes against humanity, which were allegedly perpetuated during the 2007 post-election violence. But they have made a number of economic pledges to Kenyans in the run-up to the elections.

In his inaugural speech at the Moi International Sports Centre on Apr. 9, Kenyatta said he would fulfill the promises, which include improving primary healthcare and education, and creating one million jobs a year for the youth. Some 36 percent of Kenya’s 41.6 million people are between 15 and 35 years old, according to the UNDP report.

But regulation and competition policy expert at local think-tank the Institute of Economic Affairs Kenya, David Owiro, told IPS that although the promises are largely in tandem with the country’s needs, they lacked a clear implementation framework.

“It’s real hard to see where the money will come from for most of the projects they promised.

“The government is going to struggle to meet public sector commitments given the prevailing status of the economy,” Owiro said.

Kenyatta also promised seven to 10 percent economic growth over the next two years. He had said that in order to achieve this, his administration would focus on improving the manufacturing industry and increasing agricultural production through equitable access to land.

Owiro added that most of these pledges were very broad and capital intensive and it was not clear how Kenyatta’s government would implement them.

Nairobi economic analyst, Abdi Mohammed, told IPS that within the current economy it might be difficult for the Kenyatta administration to meet their pledges. According to the International Monetary Fund, Kenya’s economy grew between 4.5 and five percent in 2012.

“Unless Kenyatta’s administration is banking on the oil Kenya has discovered, which if proved to be commercially viable could be an economic game changer, relying on sectors like agriculture and tourism to deliver growth without bringing them up to speed by investing in them is a hard call,” Mohammed said.

In March 2012, Kenya discovered high-quality oil deposits in the northwest Turkana region, which exploratory firm Tullow Oil said would yield significant gasoline and diesel outputs.

Mohammed said that balancing the country’s widening development and recurrent budgets to promote growth would be a monumental task. He added that the highest growth the Kenyan economy has ever reached was seven percent in 2006.

“The cost of devolution has further inflated the wage bill and from a resource allocation perspective it is hard to get all sectors growing at such a pace,” he said. From midnight on Mar. 5, Kenya implemented a new devolved system of government and with the new system decisions affecting Kenya’s 47 counties will now be taken at local, as opposed to national, level.

According to political scientist Professor Edward Kisiangani of Kenyatta University, Kenyatta takes over at a time when the nation is sharply divided and plagued by challenges, including entrenched corruption and pervasive poverty.

“The president must reach out to all communities, even those who did not vote for him, so as to unite the country after the deeply-divisive general election and the presidential petition soon after,” Kisiangani told IPS.

Kenyatta’s main opponent, former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, filed a presidential petition with the Supreme Court challenging the election results and citing massive irregularities. On Mar. 30, the court ruled that Kenyatta and Ruto were validly elected.

“(Kenyatta) must also demonstrate political will in tackling corruption,” Kisiangani added.

According to Transparency International Kenya, a governance and accountability NGO, the country still ranks as one of the most corrupt in the world

Its 2011 Corruption Perceptions Index ranked Kenya 154 out of 182 countries that were surveyed – it is in the same position as Zimbabwe, and only slightly higher than war-torn Somalia, and North Korea, which were ranked most corrupt at 182.

Morris Odhiambo, the president of the National Civil Society Congress, a consortium of local governance lobbies, told IPS that Kenyatta and his administration must demonstrate a clear will to fight corruption.

“If Kenyatta does not seriously fight corruption by starting off with unearthing past major corruption scandals like the Goldenberg scandal, which led to suffering of Kenyans, he will go down in ignominy just like other past presidents,” Odhiambo said.

The 1992 600-million-dollar scandal involved the exportation of gold from Kenya in exchange for high government subsidies. It remains one of the largest corruption scandals to date as it involved nearly the entire government of former President Daniel Arap Moi.

Uhuru Kenyatta rallying in one of his strongholds in Nyeri County, Central Kenya before the elections. Credit:Miriam Gathigah/IPS

By Miriam Gathigah
NAIROBI, Mar 10 2013 (IPS)

Kenyans may have elected as president a man wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes, but political analysts here say that Uhuru Kenyatta’s presidency will not have significant implications for the country’s international standing just yet.

“World leaders will work to follow their interests. In politics, interests override all else and Kenya is too significant an East African nation to be ignored. It’s the big brother of East African nations in every aspect,” James Mwai, a political analyst, told IPS.

The president elect and his running mate, William Ruto, are both wanted by the ICC for crimes against humanity in the 2007-2008 general elections where an estimated 1,300 people were killed, at least 600,000 people displaced and property worth millions of dollars destroyed.

Kenyatta won 50.07 percent, or over 6.1 million, of all votes cast, the country’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) announced on Saturday Mar. 9. His strongest political opponent, Prime Minister Raila Odinga, garnered 43.3 percent or just over 5.3 million of votes.

Kenyatta’s win makes him the second sitting African president, along with Sudan’s Omar al-Bashir, wanted for crimes by the ICC. Kenyatta’s indictment raises the possibility of difficult diplomatic relationships with the West as the United Kingdom and the European Union have strong policies against relationships with ICC indictees.

The United States also warned ahead of the elections that a Kenyatta victory would have consequences.

But Mwai said that China would work with Kenyatta.

“China will welcome Kenyatta with open arms and its populace may well provide an alternative market for Kenya’s export. Still, the U.K. does a lot of business in Kenya,” Mwai said.

He added that Kenyatta was still a suspect who had promised to cooperate with the ICC.

“Should this position change, then we have reason to be concerned,” Mwai said.

The election saw the highest ever number of Kenyans turn out to make their mark on Mar. 4 – about 86 percent of the 14.3 million registered voters.

Uhuru Kenyatta’s supporters celebrating in Nyeri town, Central Kenya, one of his political strongholds. Credit: Miriam Gathigah/IPS

Vincent Kimosop, chief executive officer of local NGO the International Institute for Legislative Affairs, told IPS that the elections showed “that Kenya has made leaps as a democracy.”

“Look at the numbers, the gap between Odinga and Kenyatta is telling. The people have spoken and it is clear that Kenyans are not looking for affirmation from the West. The calm we have experienced throughout the week is another indication that we are moving forward,” he said.

Mutahi Ngunyi, a well-known political scientist, said that Kenyans voted for a Kenyatta government because they believe he will co-operate with the ICC and if he fails to do so “they can always impeach him in accordance with the law.”

“The West has no choice but to work with Kenya,” he told IPS.

But Simon Ngugi, a legal expert, is not so certain.

“If the truth be told, no one wants to be photographed shaking the hand of an ICC indictee. But Kenyans have spoken loud and clear. There are Kenyans who believe that the ICC is a partial and political court, and see it as a sign of continued oppression by the West,” Ngugi told IPS.

Java Bigambo, a political analyst with Interthoughts Consulting, a consultancy on governance, leadership and policy, wondered whether United Nations agencies offices in Kenya would close down.

“It may be awkward for the regional U.N. offices. Will they shut down to respect international law?

“This win raises speculation about whether the president and his deputy will actually cooperate with the ICC, and if they do, the nature of this interaction raises more questions than answers,” said Bigambo.

A presidency to heal divisions?

But Mwai said that that many had underestimated the impact of the political partnership between Kenyatta and Ruto.

Together, Kenyatta and Ruto represent two of the country’s biggest ethnic groups. Kenyatta is Kikuyu, and Ruto is Kalenjin. The two communities have shared a bitter, violent and painful past, which includes fighting against each other in the 2007-2008 post-election violence.

“Kenyatta and Ruto, previously bitter adversaries, have had to forge a strong political relationship for their own self-preservation,” he said.

Bigambo said that Odinga would have had both Kenyatta and Ruto tried for war crimes, had he won.

Kenyans who celebrated Kenyatta’s victory on Mar. 9 told IPS that they hoped that it would lead to peace-building among the country’s different ethnic groups.

Maggie Kamau, from Eldoret in the Rift Valley province, a region that experienced the worst of the 2007-2008 post-election violence, stood in the queue all day on Mar. 4 to vote.

“Kenyatta’s win will bring healing to the bedevilled Rift Valley region. Ruto will safeguard the interest of his people and Kenyatta’s. Together, with time, they can resolve historical injustices that have caused bloodshed and destruction between the two communities,” Kamau said.

Delay in voting

It was expected that once Kenyans had cast their vote it would take less than 48 hours before the winner was announced.

However, the IEBC was faced with a myriad of challenges that delayed the announcement of the presidential results for five days.

Because of the numerous technical issues it faced with the electronic counting, on Mar. 6 the IEBC announced that it would disregard provisional results streamed electronically in favour of the manual system. While the move was in accordance with the country’s constitution, not everyone was happy.

Odinga told the media that there was a “conspiracy” to have the electoral system fail and that the IEBC had kicked his party agents out of the national tallying centre and had not allowed them to verify the results.

On Mar. 9, minutes after Kenyatta walked out of the IEBC’s national tallying centre as president elect with his official certificate of the results, Odinga made the announcement to the media and refused to concede defeat.

Though Kenya's polling stations officially opened at 6 am this morning, voters were already queuing two hours prior to the start of voting. Pictured - the Moi Avenue Primary polling centre in Nairobi where one of the longest queues has been reported. Credit: Miriam Gathigah/IPS

By Miriam Gathigah
NAIROBI , Mar 4 2013 (IPS)

On Monday, Mar. 4, Betty Amollo was one of the millions of Kenyans who turned out in large numbers to cast her ballot in the country’s first general election since the 2007 disputed polls left almost 1,200 people dead and displaced 600,000 in the resultant inter-ethnic violence.

Though polling stations officially opened at 6 am this morning, voters were already queuing two hours prior to the start of voting. Amollo was one of them.

“I was in the queue at 4 am, but I voted only at 11 am. There were some technical hitches with the biometric voter registration system, which kept going on and off,” Amollo told IPS.

The blaring sounds of vuvuzelas (plastic blow horns) resounded across urban centres in this East African nation as enthusiastic voters roused fellow Kenyans from their sleep early Monday. Virtually all businesses across the country remained closed, except for the few restaurants that remained open to serve the voters.

Long queues of registered voters snaked around the usually busy Nairobi streets. Many had to patiently wait for hours as the biometric voter registration system, which identifies registered voters through reliable fingerprint and facial technology, experienced technical glitches in some areas.

“The long queues remind me of the 2002 general elections when we voted overwhelmingly for change. In a landslide, we ousted Moi’s 24-year-long presidential regime,” said Amollo, who was voting in Kibera, Nairobi. She was referring to former President Daniel Arap Moi’s largely dictatorial rule from 1978 to 2002.

If the queues of voters are anything to go by, it is clear that Kenyans are voting to ensure a decisive victory in this election, according to political analyst Peter Otondo.

“Based on the long queues witnessed today, it is obvious that Kenyans are gunning for a decisive win to avoid a repeat of the past (where everyone did not vote),” he told IPS.

Four million registered voters did not turn up to vote in the 2007 elections, the now-defunct Electoral Commission of Kenya said at the time.

According to the 2007 electoral rules, the candidate with the highest number of votes was declared president.

“The 2007 absentee voters were largely blamed for the disputed presidential poll results since the (winning) margin was too small,” Otondo said.

In 2007, current Prime Minister Raila Odinga ran for the presidency and was defeated by current outgoing President Mwai Kibaki by a mere two percent of the vote.

But the rules have changed for this election. In order for a candidate to be declared president, he or she is required to win 50 percent plus one vote of the overall votes cast. In addition, the candidate is also required to win 25 percent of the vote in the majority of Kenya’s counties.

In this election Odinga is also running for the presidency and his current main rival is deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, a man wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes. Kenyatta, a Kikuyu, has been accused of funding retaliatory attacks on the Kalenjin and Lou communities.

On Monday, the country’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) extended voting past 5 pm in areas that experienced technical hitches with the new biometric voter registration systems.

A woman at the Moi Avenue Primary School voting station in Nairobi has her left index finger marked with indelible ink by an IEBC officer, to show that she has voted. Credit: Miriam Gathigah/IPS

Voting was also extended in the Coast Province, where it is alleged that the Mombasa Republican Council (MRC), a secessionist group, intimidated voters. Suspected MRC members killed nine people in separate incidents in the region, including police officers and a presiding officer at Chumani tallying centre in Kilifi North Constituency, on Mar. 3, according to Coast provincial police officer Aggrey Adoli.

But these isolated incidents did not deter people from voting. While by the end of voting on Monday, the IEBC estimated that 70 percent of the country’s 14 million registered voters had turned out, adding that the figure could be higher as many polling stations had extended their hours.

Joyce Nyambura, a registered voter in Kiambu County, Central Province, was optimistic that Kenyans would not only vote peacefully but would accept the outcome of the election.

Nyambura lost her market stall business in Mombasa, Coast Province in 2007, at the height of the post-election violence. She has since relocated to Central Province, where she is struggling to rebuild her life.

“I escaped death and serious spinal injury after I tripped and fell (in the riots), and was trampled on by people fleeing for their lives,” she told IPS.

But she said that she felt that this election would be peaceful because “Kenyans learnt in pain, we all lost last time.”

This time around Kenyans are not keen to provoke violence, according to Jennifer Riria, the head of Tuvuke, an initiative for a peaceful and fair electoral process in Kenya.

“Civic education has borne fruit, and Kenyans are embracing a peaceful approach to the elections. There is more awareness that the election is just an event, and there is life beyond it,” she told IPS.

Still, Kenya’s security agencies were not leaving anything to chance. Police patrols were intensified, especially in areas that were most affected by the 2007-2008 post-election violence.

In Nairobi, armed police officers were a common sight throughout the day.

“Over 99,000 security personnel are already manning the more than 33,400 polling stations, to monitor incidents of election offences,” the chair of the IEBC, Isaack Hassan, told IPS.

The National Elections Centre, where national tallying is taking place for the presidential race, is also under a heavy security presence.

In the 2007 election thousands converged in and outside the tallying centre, where the results were being counted by hand. What should have been an orderly and transparent forum to announce results quickly deteriorated into a shouting match between electoral officials and political party agents at the time.

The situation is significantly different in this election, as the IEBC has adopted new technology to count the votes.

“The IEBC has also embraced electronic streaming of results, which has improved transparency and accountability in this election,” statistician Charles Onyango told IPS.

But whatever the outcome, Dominic Mango, a security guard at Brinks Security Company in Nairobi, was sure it would be a peaceful one. He told IPS: “This is a competition and whoever wins will reflect a win for all Kenyans.”

Oloo Janak, a media analyst and chairman of the Kenya Correspondents Association, told IPS that the media was still provoking emotions and favouring certain political interests. Credit: Miriam Gathigah/IPS

By Miriam Gathigah
NAIROBI , Feb 19 2013 (IPS)

With Kenyans set to go to the polls in just over two weeks, on Mar. 4, civil society has been closely monitoring the media’s coverage of the political campaigns in this East African nation – and they have found them wanting.

According to some political activists, the Kenyan media have been magnifying political conflict and hate speech in their reporting in ways reminiscent the disputed 2007 presidential election that ended in riots and politically motivated ethnic disputes, leaving around 1,200 people dead and displacing 600,000.

“When a politician attacks another politician verbally, and it becomes headline news, there will be counter verbal attacks – just as was the case in the last general elections,” Dinah Mukami, a human rights advocate and political activist consulting for local lobby group Bunge la Wananchi, told IPS.

Talking to IPS, Peter Otondo, a political analyst, agreed that that the media overall had been highly polarised during the 2007 general elections.

Prime Minister Raila Odinga accused the press of contributing to popular rhetoric that turned 41 out of the country’s 42 ethnic groups against one, the Kikuyu, significantly fanning tensions and violence at the time.

In a case in point, radio broadcast journalist Joshua Sang is currently awaiting trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC), where he’s accused of crimes against humanity, for having used his broadcasts to spread hate speech, including calls to displace members of particular ethnic groups and incitement of violence.

This year it is the case once again. “You can tell based on the headlines – often provocative and in favour of certain politicians -that the airwaves are not impartial,” Mukami said. “Neither are the political experts whose comments they seek.”

Father Gabriel Dolan, a columnist with the Saturday Nation, and a prominent human rights activist here, told IPS that he takes issue with media houses that continued to publish columnists who are known to work for politicians.

“The public doesn’t know that these so-called experts are consultants for politicians and tend to take their insights as gospel truth.

“If a writer is part of a campaign team, it is wrong for them to use the media to advance positions that favour the politicians they are beholden to,” he said.

“Journalists are receiving stipends from politicians in order to cover them favourably and to malign their opponents,” Oloo Janak, a media analyst and chairman of the Kenya Correspondents Association, told IPS.

Currently, there are over 20 TV stations and 120 radio stations in the country, Janak said. “Some of these media houses are owned by politicians, and others by businessmen beholden to certain politicians.”

Some politicians went so far as to pay callers to promote their campaigns during call-in sessions on radio and TV, he said.

“Working in cahoots with unethical journalists, these callers are given a lot of airtime and they are often very extreme in their views,” the media analyst added.

According to a Human Rights Watch report titled “High Stakes: Political Violence and the 2013 Elections in Kenya,” in 2012 and early this year “inter-communal clashes in parts of Kenya have claimed more than 477 lives and displaced about 118,000 people. Many of these incidents have been linked to pre-election manoeuvring as local politicians mobilise support.”

Meanwhile, a peace initiative called Tuvuke, Swahili for “Let’s Cross Over”, has been trying to educate the media on its role in the elections since 2012.

Hundreds of journalists, particularly in regions that experienced violence following the 2007 election, have since undergone training on how to remain objective and impartial throughout the electioneering period, Odhiambo Orlale, a media expert with Tuvuke, said.

But even the country’s top politicians and contenders for the presidential post have been involved in hateful and bitter exchanges.

The emotive issues of land ownership and pending cases at the ICC have also been brought up.

The country’s current vice-prime minister, and strong presidential candidate, Uhuru Kenyatta, is due to stand trial in the ICC for crimes against humanity and his contribution to the 2007/8 post-election violence – he is alleged to have funded retaliatory attacks. His running mate, William Ruto, also faces similar charges at the court.

Odinga, a front-runner in the race for the presidency, has used this to discredit his opponents and his emotive political campaigns have been widely covered by the media here.

“With the issue of land being such an emotive one in this country, these remarks can only flair tension,” Mukami said.

Ibrahim Oruko, a parliamentary reporter with the local Star newspaper told IPS that objective reporting was necessary in a country where politicians mobilise along ethnic lines.

“We are facing a serious challenge for we still see ourselves as Luo’s or Luhya’s first, prejudices that we take to political rallies and they influence how we tell stories,” he said.

“The main problem isn’t in the stories we cover, but that we are so embedded in our ethnic and political prejudices. We cannot be part of the stories we tell and still claim to be impartial.”

The Media Council of Kenya, the media regulatory body, which has released guidelines on election reporting, said that cases of biased media reporting have been filed with the council.

In an environment where journalists have come under fire for perceived exaggerated reporting and distortion of facts, the role of journalists in peace building is also under scrutiny.

“We can only keep that peace by remaining blind to ethnic prejudices, social class and political affiliations,” Oruko said.