Kenya´s Political Crisis: Lessons for Africa
Side Goodo
March 16, 2008
1. Introduction
Kenya has long been considered as a haven for peace and stability in the East African sub region. Hundreds of thousands of refugees who were displaced due to political instability and civil wars in several neighbouring countries including Ethiopia have been flocking into this country for over two decades. Still today, the country harbours more external refugees than any other country in the sub region. However, the recent political nightmare seriously undermined Kenya´s long history of relative peace and stability. The violence following the alleged vote rigging in December 2007 elections led to the loss of over 1500 lives and internally displaced over 300, 000 Kenyans leading to a combined internal and external refugee population of over half a million. While the victims of recent violence are primarily Kenyans, the lack of peace and political stability in the country has far reaching implications for the entire east African sub region.
According to June 2006 estimates, Kenya has population of 36.9 million. There are 42 ethnic groups, each with unique language and culture divided into four major linguistic groups: the Khoisans, Bantu, Nilotics, and Kushitic groups. The 7 major ethnic groups are Kikuyu 22%, Luyia 14%, Luo 14%, Kalengin 11%, Kamba 11%, Kisii 6% and Meru 5%. Unlike in Ethiopia where the Kushitic group, such as Sidama, Oromo, Afar, Ogadenis, Hadiya, Kambata, and others constitute the majority of the country´s population, the Kushitic population in Kenya is a tiny minority. However, due to the history of the country and its relative peace, stability, better democratic dispensation and economic progress, the minority Kushitic people in Kenya have never been marginalised as their majority counterparts in Ethiopia have. Moreover, unlike the neighbouring Ethiopia where the minority Abyssinians managed to monopolise the political power since the late 1880s until today, the post independence political scene in Kenya has not been solely dominated by Kikuyu or other majority ethnic groups.
After the death of Kenyatta, the liberation leader and visionary Pan-Africanist, in 1978, Daniel Moi, a primary school teacher and the then vice president, was instituted as the new president and ruled the country with an iron feast for about the quarter of a century until he peacefully handed over power in 2002.
The national Motto of Kenya, Harambee meaning "pull together", has been instrumental in the nation building process. Some link the Harambee spirit to the country´s better economic achievement compared to other countries in the sub region. In spite of high levels of corruption and nepotism, the free market oriented macroeconomic policies helped propel the economy forward.
As a result, Kenya emerged as the biggest economy in the east African sub region. According to the 2006 estimates Kenya´s GDP is about US $22.79 billion with the per capital income 3 times that of its largest northern neighbour, Ethiopia. Kenya has also shown remarkable social progress after independence. With the adult literacy rate of 85.1%, Kenyans are one of the most literate peoples in Africa. The primary school attendance rate is over 92%.
However, the recent political nightmare caused by an explosion of historic political rivalry between the Kikuyu and the Luo peoples has threatened to permanently derail the socio-economic achievement of this beautiful east African country. The Kenyan political crisis has deeper historic roots than vote rigging and the hasty inauguration of Kibaki as the president after the December 2007 elections.
2. The Political Crisis
One of the root causes of the current political crisis lies in the ethnic tension between the Kikuyu and the Luo that goes as far back as the late 1960s. According to Kimani (2008), in the 1960s, at the height of Cold War, western powers were digging in to secure a strategic foothold in the region and were able to secure the allegiance of Kenyatta, the first president and an ethnic Kikuyu, who turned West, to its former colonial master Britain, and the US while Odinga, who was a Luo and the vice president, looked East to China and Russia. Kimani states further that the ideological bubble exploded in July 1969, precipitated by the assassination of populist politician Tom Mboya, another leading Luo politician. Following the political fallout, Kenyatta removed his Luo vice president and dissolved his Kenya Peoples Union Party. He appointed Daniel Moi, an ethnic Kalengin, as his new vice president.
This led to the continued political marginalisation of the well educated and highly vocal Luo people in the country. Although Kenyatta was in many ways a visionary leader and a pan Africanist, he failed to properly manage the Luo political question. This bred resentment among the Luo people that the Kikuyus deliberately eliminated them from Kenyan political scene.
The recent actions of the Luos and other peoples in Kenya against the ethnic Kikuyu are reflections of this sentiment. Many ethnic groups in Kenya resent the Kikuyu domination of the economy and public services in the country.
In October 2002, when the coalition of opposition parties formed the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) party to oust Moi, the current opposition leader Raila Odinga, a Luo, and a son of Odinga senior, played an instrumental role. However, the NARC party nominated the current president Mwai Kibaki, an ethnic Kikuyu for the presidency which he won with convincing majority in December 2002.
However, after the election, Kibaki failed to honour several commitments including the change of the constitution and creation of the prime minister post with the executive power, which was agreed in the Memorandum of Understanding to be offered to the current opposition leader, Raila Odigna. Lack of agreement between the various parties which formed the NARC coalition over the lack of progress on the constitutional amendment and the creation of the position of the prime minister led to the split up in NARC in 2003. In 2005 the splinter group led a campaign which ensured an outright rejection of the referendum over the government´s alternative draft constitution. After the split of the NARC coalition, the key former allies of Kibaki, Raila Odinga and Kalonzo Musyoka formed an independent oppsotionn party, the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), the current official opposition. In September 2007, President Kibaki and his allies formed the coalition Party of National Unity (PNU) which renominated Kibaki for the December 2007 elections which many believe was rigged.
Therefore, one of the root causes of the current political crisis in Kenya is the ongoing rivalry between the two highly vocal ethnic groups and in particular the attempt to maintain the Kikuyu domination of political and economic landscape in Kenya. Political domination by a majority or more vocal minority ethnic groups is a common problem in Africa. As we mentioned earlier, in Ethiopia, the minority Abyssinians, Amhara and Tigre, who constitute only 30% of the total population in the country, have been in the helm of the Ethiopian politics for the past 120 years until today. The rest of the 70% of the population has never made any meaningful polilitcal participation during this period. On the contrary, most of these peoples, the Kushitic group in particular, have been subjected to untold suffering. Their resources have been constantly plundered. Any oppostion to the political subjugation and economic exploitation is crushed with heavy handed milittary force and with severe brutality. The Sidama massacre of 2002, the various Oromo massacres, and the current on going serious human rights abuses in Ogaden are just a few most recent examples.
Kenya has avoided ethic tensions of this magnitude so far. But if the current democratic process in the country fails to address the genuine political demands of such ethnic groups as Luo and others, Kenya will soon follow the Ethiopian path of disaster. The Kikuyu must recognise the right of other ethnic groups to genuinely participate in the country´s political dispensation. Kenya belongs to every one living in it. As Ethiopia is not an Abyssinian land, Kenya is not a Kikuyu land. Abyssinians live in Ethiopia and Kikuyus live in Kenya. Others have exactly equal rights to govern their respective countries. Africa is plagued by politics of domination and exclusion.
On top of the tendency for ethnic domination, the current Kenyan political crisis is exacerbated by the politics of exclusion and marginalisation. Some Kenyan writers support this view of exclusionist politics. Kumba and Gekera (2008) argue that the current political crisis in Kenyan is due to the political system which allows the winner to take home everything while the loser walks away empty-handed. According to these writers, capturing power gives the winners access to resources and opportunities, which they use to enrich themselves as well as their relatives and friends. Effectively, the losers are excluded, alongside their ethnic communities, from the centre of political power.
Therefore, the benefit of the democratic dispensation is lost and the exclusionist politics renders the same outcome as undemocratic politics of domination experienced in many other parts of Africa.
On the other hand, political inclusion should not be perceived as resorting to one party dictatorship. Democracy can not thrive if there is no diverse political opinion and vibrant opposition which humbly and peacefully accepts if it losses in elections and agrees to serve as a check and balance against the ruling party. Political exclusion should be avoided when the election laws and the constitution allows the winner to take away everything while the loser is left with nothing. This political system is as dangerous as the undemocratic political domination experienced in other African countries such as Ethiopia.
3. Is The Current Political Settlement Sustainable?
Currently, the political crisis in Kenya has subsided as the president and the opposition leader signed an agreement to form a power sharing government. Viewed in terms of an African solution to an African problem, the agreement brokered by the former secretary general of the United Nations, Kofi Anan, is the first major achievement in Africa and an important one in terms of curbing the crisis in Kenya. However, the biggest question is not only whether the power sharing arrangement is necessary to bring a sustainable solution to the crisis but also whether it is practicable.
First of all, as we stated earlier, power sharing should not be perceived as a substitute for multiparty democracy. The solution to the Kenyan crisis can be found in changing the election laws icluding the creation of autonmous Election Board,and changing the constitution in order to limit the power of the elected officials from taking everything home whenever they win the elections. The second concern is the actual implementation of power sharing. The two rivals, Kibaki and Odinga, were unable to share power when they were in the same political coalition, NARC. There is no guarantee that they will be able to genuinely share power at present. Thus there is a greater degree of pessimism regarding the sustainability of the current solution.
The long term solution to the Kenyan political crisis and the political turmoil in the rest of the continent is the full recognition of the human and democratic rights of the various peoples living in the continent and the promulgation of laws and constitutions that ensure full participation of these people in the political dispensation of each country. If this can not be achieved in the near future there will be so many Kosovos in Africa. If the rights of ethnic Kosovo Albanians can be protected from the domination of ethnic Serbs, why not that of Sidama in Ethiopia and that of Luo in Kenya be protected from the domination of ethnic groups in their respective countries. The world has the resources but not the will to avoid the double standards.
4. Lessons for Africa
The current political turmoil in many parts of Africa is the direct consequence of colonialism. The western colonialism created artificial states which lack legitimacy. Almost all African countries with the exception of Somalia and couple of smaller countries such as Rwanda and Burundi are an amalgamation of heterogeneous peoples with unique history, culture, and language. Before the arrival of colonialists each of these nations had their own independent indigenous political systems.
However, after the liberation from colonialism the elites from few ethnic groups managed to monopolise the political power in each of these artificial post independence states. This is one of the main causes for continued instability and underdevelopment in the continent. The Biaffra war and the current turmoil in the Niger Delta region, the Lumumba coup and the civil war in DRC in the late 1990s, the Rwandan genocide, the civil war in Seira Leon, the current crisis in Ivory Cost, an many other crisis in Africa are the direct results of the artificial states in Africa. Kushitic, Nilotic and Omotic Ethiopians are still toady under Abyssinian colonial occupation.
Africans can commit themselves to respecting the colonial boundaries. But they must commit themselves more seriously to respecting the rights of each and every ethnic groups living in these artificial states.
Most nations in Europe are built along ethnic lines. Ethnic groups which were forcefully incorporated by other ethnic groups such as the former Soviet Republics, the former Yugoslavian regions have all liberated themselves. If Europeans can liberate themselves from other Europeans, there is no reason why Africans can not liberate them selves from other Africans.
One may ask why we should worry about ethnicity during the age of globalisation. If member countries of AU in Africa do not respect the rights of the various ethnic groups living in their countries, they will never respect the rights of other countries. Thus the idea of African union will only remain a dream if there is no real freedom and democracy in respective member states. Unity can never be achieved if diversity is not fully recognised.
Therefore, the AU and the global community should address the root causes of the continued political instability and underdevelopment in Africa instead of treating the symptoms. Today, at the down of the 21st century, half a century of our resounding failure should teach us a good lesson to radically rethink before it is too late.
Kenya has long been considered as a haven for peace and stability in the East African sub region. Hundreds of thousands of refugees who were displaced due to political instability and civil wars in several neighbouring countries including Ethiopia have been flocking into this country for over two decades. Still today, the country harbours more external refugees than any other country in the sub region. However, the recent political nightmare seriously undermined Kenya´s long history of relative peace and stability. The violence following the alleged vote rigging in December 2007 elections led to the loss of over 1500 lives and internally displaced over 300, 000 Kenyans leading to a combined internal and external refugee population of over half a million. While the victims of recent violence are primarily Kenyans, the lack of peace and political stability in the country has far reaching implications for the entire east African sub region.
According to June 2006 estimates, Kenya has population of 36.9 million. There are 42 ethnic groups, each with unique language and culture divided into four major linguistic groups: the Khoisans, Bantu, Nilotics, and Kushitic groups. The 7 major ethnic groups are Kikuyu 22%, Luyia 14%, Luo 14%, Kalengin 11%, Kamba 11%, Kisii 6% and Meru 5%. Unlike in Ethiopia where the Kushitic group, such as Sidama, Oromo, Afar, Ogadenis, Hadiya, Kambata, and others constitute the majority of the country´s population, the Kushitic population in Kenya is a tiny minority. However, due to the history of the country and its relative peace, stability, better democratic dispensation and economic progress, the minority Kushitic people in Kenya have never been marginalised as their majority counterparts in Ethiopia have. Moreover, unlike the neighbouring Ethiopia where the minority Abyssinians managed to monopolise the political power since the late 1880s until today, the post independence political scene in Kenya has not been solely dominated by Kikuyu or other majority ethnic groups.
After the death of Kenyatta, the liberation leader and visionary Pan-Africanist, in 1978, Daniel Moi, a primary school teacher and the then vice president, was instituted as the new president and ruled the country with an iron feast for about the quarter of a century until he peacefully handed over power in 2002.
The national Motto of Kenya, Harambee meaning "pull together", has been instrumental in the nation building process. Some link the Harambee spirit to the country´s better economic achievement compared to other countries in the sub region. In spite of high levels of corruption and nepotism, the free market oriented macroeconomic policies helped propel the economy forward.
As a result, Kenya emerged as the biggest economy in the east African sub region. According to the 2006 estimates Kenya´s GDP is about US $22.79 billion with the per capital income 3 times that of its largest northern neighbour, Ethiopia. Kenya has also shown remarkable social progress after independence. With the adult literacy rate of 85.1%, Kenyans are one of the most literate peoples in Africa. The primary school attendance rate is over 92%.
However, the recent political nightmare caused by an explosion of historic political rivalry between the Kikuyu and the Luo peoples has threatened to permanently derail the socio-economic achievement of this beautiful east African country. The Kenyan political crisis has deeper historic roots than vote rigging and the hasty inauguration of Kibaki as the president after the December 2007 elections.
2. The Political Crisis
One of the root causes of the current political crisis lies in the ethnic tension between the Kikuyu and the Luo that goes as far back as the late 1960s. According to Kimani (2008), in the 1960s, at the height of Cold War, western powers were digging in to secure a strategic foothold in the region and were able to secure the allegiance of Kenyatta, the first president and an ethnic Kikuyu, who turned West, to its former colonial master Britain, and the US while Odinga, who was a Luo and the vice president, looked East to China and Russia. Kimani states further that the ideological bubble exploded in July 1969, precipitated by the assassination of populist politician Tom Mboya, another leading Luo politician. Following the political fallout, Kenyatta removed his Luo vice president and dissolved his Kenya Peoples Union Party. He appointed Daniel Moi, an ethnic Kalengin, as his new vice president.
This led to the continued political marginalisation of the well educated and highly vocal Luo people in the country. Although Kenyatta was in many ways a visionary leader and a pan Africanist, he failed to properly manage the Luo political question. This bred resentment among the Luo people that the Kikuyus deliberately eliminated them from Kenyan political scene.
The recent actions of the Luos and other peoples in Kenya against the ethnic Kikuyu are reflections of this sentiment. Many ethnic groups in Kenya resent the Kikuyu domination of the economy and public services in the country.
In October 2002, when the coalition of opposition parties formed the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) party to oust Moi, the current opposition leader Raila Odinga, a Luo, and a son of Odinga senior, played an instrumental role. However, the NARC party nominated the current president Mwai Kibaki, an ethnic Kikuyu for the presidency which he won with convincing majority in December 2002.
However, after the election, Kibaki failed to honour several commitments including the change of the constitution and creation of the prime minister post with the executive power, which was agreed in the Memorandum of Understanding to be offered to the current opposition leader, Raila Odigna. Lack of agreement between the various parties which formed the NARC coalition over the lack of progress on the constitutional amendment and the creation of the position of the prime minister led to the split up in NARC in 2003. In 2005 the splinter group led a campaign which ensured an outright rejection of the referendum over the government´s alternative draft constitution. After the split of the NARC coalition, the key former allies of Kibaki, Raila Odinga and Kalonzo Musyoka formed an independent oppsotionn party, the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), the current official opposition. In September 2007, President Kibaki and his allies formed the coalition Party of National Unity (PNU) which renominated Kibaki for the December 2007 elections which many believe was rigged.
Therefore, one of the root causes of the current political crisis in Kenya is the ongoing rivalry between the two highly vocal ethnic groups and in particular the attempt to maintain the Kikuyu domination of political and economic landscape in Kenya. Political domination by a majority or more vocal minority ethnic groups is a common problem in Africa. As we mentioned earlier, in Ethiopia, the minority Abyssinians, Amhara and Tigre, who constitute only 30% of the total population in the country, have been in the helm of the Ethiopian politics for the past 120 years until today. The rest of the 70% of the population has never made any meaningful polilitcal participation during this period. On the contrary, most of these peoples, the Kushitic group in particular, have been subjected to untold suffering. Their resources have been constantly plundered. Any oppostion to the political subjugation and economic exploitation is crushed with heavy handed milittary force and with severe brutality. The Sidama massacre of 2002, the various Oromo massacres, and the current on going serious human rights abuses in Ogaden are just a few most recent examples.
Kenya has avoided ethic tensions of this magnitude so far. But if the current democratic process in the country fails to address the genuine political demands of such ethnic groups as Luo and others, Kenya will soon follow the Ethiopian path of disaster. The Kikuyu must recognise the right of other ethnic groups to genuinely participate in the country´s political dispensation. Kenya belongs to every one living in it. As Ethiopia is not an Abyssinian land, Kenya is not a Kikuyu land. Abyssinians live in Ethiopia and Kikuyus live in Kenya. Others have exactly equal rights to govern their respective countries. Africa is plagued by politics of domination and exclusion.
On top of the tendency for ethnic domination, the current Kenyan political crisis is exacerbated by the politics of exclusion and marginalisation. Some Kenyan writers support this view of exclusionist politics. Kumba and Gekera (2008) argue that the current political crisis in Kenyan is due to the political system which allows the winner to take home everything while the loser walks away empty-handed. According to these writers, capturing power gives the winners access to resources and opportunities, which they use to enrich themselves as well as their relatives and friends. Effectively, the losers are excluded, alongside their ethnic communities, from the centre of political power.
Therefore, the benefit of the democratic dispensation is lost and the exclusionist politics renders the same outcome as undemocratic politics of domination experienced in many other parts of Africa.
On the other hand, political inclusion should not be perceived as resorting to one party dictatorship. Democracy can not thrive if there is no diverse political opinion and vibrant opposition which humbly and peacefully accepts if it losses in elections and agrees to serve as a check and balance against the ruling party. Political exclusion should be avoided when the election laws and the constitution allows the winner to take away everything while the loser is left with nothing. This political system is as dangerous as the undemocratic political domination experienced in other African countries such as Ethiopia.
3. Is The Current Political Settlement Sustainable?
Currently, the political crisis in Kenya has subsided as the president and the opposition leader signed an agreement to form a power sharing government. Viewed in terms of an African solution to an African problem, the agreement brokered by the former secretary general of the United Nations, Kofi Anan, is the first major achievement in Africa and an important one in terms of curbing the crisis in Kenya. However, the biggest question is not only whether the power sharing arrangement is necessary to bring a sustainable solution to the crisis but also whether it is practicable.
First of all, as we stated earlier, power sharing should not be perceived as a substitute for multiparty democracy. The solution to the Kenyan crisis can be found in changing the election laws icluding the creation of autonmous Election Board,and changing the constitution in order to limit the power of the elected officials from taking everything home whenever they win the elections. The second concern is the actual implementation of power sharing. The two rivals, Kibaki and Odinga, were unable to share power when they were in the same political coalition, NARC. There is no guarantee that they will be able to genuinely share power at present. Thus there is a greater degree of pessimism regarding the sustainability of the current solution.
The long term solution to the Kenyan political crisis and the political turmoil in the rest of the continent is the full recognition of the human and democratic rights of the various peoples living in the continent and the promulgation of laws and constitutions that ensure full participation of these people in the political dispensation of each country. If this can not be achieved in the near future there will be so many Kosovos in Africa. If the rights of ethnic Kosovo Albanians can be protected from the domination of ethnic Serbs, why not that of Sidama in Ethiopia and that of Luo in Kenya be protected from the domination of ethnic groups in their respective countries. The world has the resources but not the will to avoid the double standards.
4. Lessons for Africa
The current political turmoil in many parts of Africa is the direct consequence of colonialism. The western colonialism created artificial states which lack legitimacy. Almost all African countries with the exception of Somalia and couple of smaller countries such as Rwanda and Burundi are an amalgamation of heterogeneous peoples with unique history, culture, and language. Before the arrival of colonialists each of these nations had their own independent indigenous political systems.
However, after the liberation from colonialism the elites from few ethnic groups managed to monopolise the political power in each of these artificial post independence states. This is one of the main causes for continued instability and underdevelopment in the continent. The Biaffra war and the current turmoil in the Niger Delta region, the Lumumba coup and the civil war in DRC in the late 1990s, the Rwandan genocide, the civil war in Seira Leon, the current crisis in Ivory Cost, an many other crisis in Africa are the direct results of the artificial states in Africa. Kushitic, Nilotic and Omotic Ethiopians are still toady under Abyssinian colonial occupation.
Africans can commit themselves to respecting the colonial boundaries. But they must commit themselves more seriously to respecting the rights of each and every ethnic groups living in these artificial states.
Most nations in Europe are built along ethnic lines. Ethnic groups which were forcefully incorporated by other ethnic groups such as the former Soviet Republics, the former Yugoslavian regions have all liberated themselves. If Europeans can liberate themselves from other Europeans, there is no reason why Africans can not liberate them selves from other Africans.
One may ask why we should worry about ethnicity during the age of globalisation. If member countries of AU in Africa do not respect the rights of the various ethnic groups living in their countries, they will never respect the rights of other countries. Thus the idea of African union will only remain a dream if there is no real freedom and democracy in respective member states. Unity can never be achieved if diversity is not fully recognised.
Therefore, the AU and the global community should address the root causes of the continued political instability and underdevelopment in Africa instead of treating the symptoms. Today, at the down of the 21st century, half a century of our resounding failure should teach us a good lesson to radically rethink before it is too late.
Print
Email
