CONTENTS | ANB-BIA HOMEPAGE | WEEKLY NEWS
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Kenya |
SOCIAL CONDITIONS
There are promises galore for Kenya, as its new leader, Emilio Mwai Kibaki, 71, settles in, taking charge of a country that former president Daniel Arap Moi had run as a private affair, resulting in a colossal waste of resources
Over the years, as Kenya became a shadow of its former self, Moi missed all the signs that something was rotten in his country. He failed to understand that absolute power corrupts.
The 1982 coup attempt played a role in the country’s slow but sure descent into economic disaster. After the coup’s failure, Mr. Moi carried out immediate sweeping changes in the military, the intelligence services, the Criminal Investigation Department and the administration. He became cocky, forgotten Kenya and its humble people who had loved him so much.
Vast sums of money disappeared from the country’s exchequer. Anybody who knew anything about Kenya’s finances, knew that corporations such as the Kenya Ports Authority in Mombasa, or the Kenya Power Company in Nairobi, regularly diverted unaudited funds to State House, Nairobi. Similar amounts vanished from Telecom Kenya, Kenya’s telephone company. In fact, the World Bank wanted the telephone company sold off, but the government would never let go of what it took to be a «private mint». Incoming President Kibaki said that during the election campaign, 300 billion Kenya shillings had been lost on fraudulent road repairs and construction by the Moi regime.
In the light of this massive looting, something clearly had to snap. Millions of children went without school or dropped out of school during their early years of primary education. So it was no surprise that when the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) campaign team told people their children would receive free education once Moi went, they were ecstatic. Following the elections, parents with children in tow arrived by the hundreds, especially in Nairobi. It soon became clear that some of these parents were simply seeking to change schools for their children as some schools are better than others.
Some ill-mannered parents expected to be able to force their way into choice schools. A number of head teachers went into hiding, unable to cope with threats. Others called out the police as they were unable to handle such huge crowds of frustrated parents. Kenya’s new education minister (who was the country’s Vice-President until March last year), says accepting all these children into the country’s primary school system, will cost a small fortune. The Minister says: «Forty years after independence, all of Kenya’s children should be able to receive a basic education. But look where we are now».
«Don’t blame me»
Former president Moi has countered that it’s unfair to blame him for everything that went wrong in Kenya. He says people should explain why there are now five universities in Kenya, when there were only two when he took over 24 years ago. However, he conveniently forgets to explain why, because of the cost of school fees the and price of books, so many children have had to leave school before the end of their course. He makes no mention of the fact that farmers have been receiving so little for their cash crops, that they haven’t been able to pay their children’s school expenses.
Kenyans were uplifted when Health Minister Mrs Charity Ngilu announced that patients who were being detained at government hospitals pending the payment of their fees for treatment, are now allowed to go home. She directed that land title deeds which were being kept by the hospitals in lieu of patients’ fees, should now be returned to them. Also, bodies «detained» in mortuaries pending the payment of mortuary fees, will now be released to their loved ones. But a story in a local newspaper says that the World Bank was «not amused» by her courage. For many years, they had backed the system of «cost sharing» in Kenya’s hospitals. At the time of writing, it should be noted that hospital treatment is still not yet free.
Most of Kenya’s population are farmers but the country’s cash crops took the brunt of mismanagement and poor international prices. So what’s presently happening? It’s illegal to clear coffee bushes from the farms, but infuriated farmers are doing so, regardless of the consequences, so that they can grow crops on which to survive.
One crop that is used by everybody is sugar. Sugarcane grows very well in Kenya, but during Moi’s administration, sugar was regularly imported from abroad by Moi’s sons and other prominent people. For twenty years, Kenya’s sugar farmers suffered because of this kind of importation and Moi did nothing to stop it.
Indeed, Kibaki will need the country’s prayers to weather a corrupt and inept Moi legacy.