AFRICANEWS

Kenya

Moi's pledges raise eyebrows

Politics

In a bid to endear himself to the electorate, President Daniel arap Moi made a number of promises to Kenyans in the run-up to the December 1997 elections. Three months after his re-election, many Kenyans are wondering whether the president will fulfil his promises or they were a mere political gimmick.

In the run up to the December 29, 1997 elections, Kenya's President Daniel arap Moi made several pledges to the electorate which he vowed to implement if given another chance. End to high level official corruption, better healthcare, improved security, more access to quality education, reconstruction of roads and creation of more jobs, were among the promises made in the paid-for advertisements that appeared in the national newspapers for weeks to the polls' day. The date came and the president and his ruling party Kanu, either fairly or unfairly, won the polls. Three months down the line, and the situation seems not to be getting any better. Life in the East African country, once held as a model of a successful capitalist economy in the sub-Saharan Africa, seems to be getting even more uncomfortable for the ordinary people.

With stagnant salaries, ever shrinking employment market and soaring taxation, many are the Kenyans who count themselves lucky to have survived yet another day.

At least 70 people lost their lives in post-election skirmishes, dubbed tribal clashes, that rocked the Rift Valley Province in January and February. Thousands of others have been displaced internally, with nobody in authority seemingly in a hurry to resettle them and many others still live in fear of being the next target of the politically-instigated violence.

There is much anti-corruption talk in public but the little action. In one of the very rare instances, the government last month fired several top managers of the Kenya Commercial Bank, for allegedly securing huge loans irregularly.

Though an Anti-Corruption Authority has been formed and former oppositionist John Harun Mwau appointed to head it, it's activities remain largely unknown to the general public. Not even the Authority's office and the telephone contact seem to be public knowledge. Inquiries in a Daily Nation column have so far not yielded any results. The Nation is Kenya's leading daily. The Kenya Revenue Authority has been instructed to be more stringent in revenue collection, but the real wealth owners are still remitting the least, if any taxes to the government. The local sugar market, for instance, is flooded with untaxed sugar imports disguised as transit goods meant for other countries. Intrigue, patronage and ethnic affiliation remain the determining factors in job acquisition. As university graduates wallow in the misery of unemployment, semi-illiterate and unsophisticated individuals ride high as company executives.

Examination scandals and all manner of unrest continue to plague Kenya's once respected learning institutions. The Sunday Nation recently unearthed a scandal involving the sale of degree certificates from Kenyatta University, prompting riots by the students.

The reconstruction of the few selected roads is going on at a snail's pace and fear looms large that the work may never be completed in good time, if at all it will be completed. The El-Nino rains have heavily damaged the road network, already in bad shape after many years of neglect.

Not even the main Mombasa-Nairobi Highway, the indispensable link between the Coast and the hinterland, was spared. When one of its bridges collapsed in February, the army had to be called upon to provide an emergency temporary solution.

"From the time President Moi named his cabinet, I was convinced that he was back to his old tricks- preaching water and drinking wine,'' says one disappointed journalist. "With war-mongers, semi-illiterates, people only famed for running down state corporations and other never-do-wells as ministers, can we get anywhere?" he poses.

With a huge chunk of them already rejected by the electorate, many had expected that Moi would have an easier task, dropping the rest of his old bad ministers. They were mistaken. The president, went out of his way to retrieve the garrulous and immensely unpopular Joseph Kamotho and reward him with a cabinet appointment. Like in the 1992 polls, Kamotho had been given a hiding by an opposition candidate in the newly-created Mathioya Constituency. The president has so far refused to name a vice-president, creating an extremely fertile ground for political wheeling and dealing.

Many had banked their hopes on a stronger parliament, considering Kanu's slim majority, but Moi, seems to have successfully short-circuited any dangers ahead. He has hammered a `co-operation' deal with two opposition parties, the National Democratic Party of Kenya, of Raila Odinga and Ford-Kenya of Kijana Wamalwa.

Raila and Wamalwa, however, maintain that theirs is nothing short of an attempt to break an impasse that hasin the past been the hallmark of the relationship between Kanu and the opposition. "The NDP disposition toward Kanu is one of opening channels for dialogue and identifying possible areas of co-operation, and not an endorsement of Kanu's predatory policies of the past, present or future," reckons Raila "The NDP is determined to chart a new path for Kenya's fledging multi-partism based on constructive dialogue with any political party in the search for enduring solution to our national problems, especially problems faced by the impoverished masses including the perennial ethnic clashes," maintains the Langata constituency Member of Parliament.

The donors continue demonstrating their reluctance to disburse any aid to Kenya, a fact attributable to the little commitment to genuine political and economic reforms on the part of the government. Late February, a mission of the International Monetary Fund announced that the government had yet to meet conditions set before resumption of aid and cited the growing budget deficit as requiring urgent attention.

The team led by IMF deputy director in charge of Africa, Mr Goodal Gondwe, said the government had promised to raise at least Sh10 billion needed to reduce the deficit from 3.9 per cent to 2.5 per cent before the end of the fiscal year. The liberalisation of Kenya's media remains a touchy issue with the government willing to give license to run radio and television stations the "political correct" individuals and organisations only. Pleas that such amove would enhance competition, improve performance of media houses, create many more additional jobs and enhance civic education, have fallen on deaf ears.

"This government prefers ignorant masses to enlightened ones because the former can be easily manipulated," says Rockens Masibo (not his real name). "Why do you think Kanu gets most of its votesfrom the least enlightened sections of the society?" Masibo poses. In the marginal North Eastern Province, for instance, Kanu won all but one parliamentary seat. In the Nairobi, the reverse was the case.

In the meantime, the National Convention Executive Council (NCEC), the body credited with initiating the demand for reforms before last elections, though weakened by defections, remains active. One thing that is apparent, however, is that NCEC has to devise new strategies to help it realise its goals. Mass action that it has relied on since its inception, is no longer popular with the people as demonstrated by the failure of the general strike it called for on April 3. President Moi has now threatened to de-register the Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) whose members are involved with the NCEC. Perhaps the 74-year-old president needed time to settle in office for his last term. But one thing is clear; if Moi wants a place not only in Kenya history but also in Kenyans' hearts, he has to translate his promises to realities.

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