I spent just over three months in Kenya earlier this year, living in local communities and volunteering in various ways. Still on the mouths and minds of Kenyans two years later was the 2007 post-election violence which saw the loss of over 1,300 lives and left tens of thousands of people homeless as members of the Kikuyu and Luo tribes fought over who was rightfully president of the country. As a result of this violence, the UN, in the form of Kofi Annan stepped in, created a power sharing agreement between Raila Odinga (Luo) and Mwai Kibake (Kikuyu) whereby both leaders 'run' the country.
The inciters of the violence today have still not been brought to justice. Efforts to form specialist judiciaries to try and sentence those found guilty of the violence, or inciting the violence have failed as various ministers and government officials (whose hands, I'm sure, are completely clean) deny it at every stage. The International Criminal Court has now been forced to step in, although I doubt that their effectiveness will cause change enough to prevent violence in 2012. (My biases will become clear through this blog, particularly in respect of the UN and other international bodies).
Whilst I was in Kenya, I had many a conversation with locals about the 2007 election and what followed. There was George, the local village 'boy', or unmarried man, (who proposed marriage to me) who told me that the only way that Kenya would overcome corruption was for a white person to come in and lead the country. But not a woman. No way.
There was Stephen, an NTV reporter who we met one night at a bar at a backpackers in Nairobi who told me that it was through the visits of 'beautiful foreigners like you' that Kenyans would be educated and eventually corruption would be eliminated. And his friend, a rich businessman, the likes of whom I had spent weeks learning to dislike as I learned more about how business practices take the food out of people's mouths in the rural areas. His opinion was that it was only commerce - export in particular, that would save Kenya.
But it was my good friend Johnson who really opened my eyes up to the possibilities of the dangerous situation that faces Kenya over the coming years, and particularly in the wake of the next election.
Johnson, a youth worker based in Kisumu, Western Kenya, was walking with me through town and pointed out the burned out shell of a building. 'That was one of the biggest supermarkets in Kisumu until the election violence'.
We later sat down and had a cold 'soda' at a local cafe and I asked him to talk to me about the situation. 'Guns are being imported. I have street boys coming up to tell me that there are older boys and men who are buying guns so that at the next election we are better able to protect ourselves. The ones who caused the violence, the corruption - they are not being brought to justice, no changes are being made. There will be war in 2012'.
I was flabbergasted - truly shocked. These friendly, gregarious, kind, loving people would turn on one another as a result of an election? My mind simply could not comprehend it - this is not the purpose of democracy.
The UN is only now standing up to acknowledge the 'ethnic arms race' and warning that that "a similar flare-up could occur after the 2012 vote unless Kenya strengthens its institutions and the perpetrators of the 2007 violence are punished."
Nothing about how this might be done. Nothing about a call to action for the rest of the world to ensure that it does not happen again.
The article goes onto say:
Kenya's deputy minister for internal security, Orwa Ojode, said he was aware of
the problem and had ordered the police to clamp down on the sales.
"We will definitely apprehend those who are behind the sale of illegal arms," he
said. He blamed the country's porous borders and its proximity to
unstable states like Somalia for the influx of guns.
This is typical Kenyan government baloney and a perfect example of the way in which the government can't see the past the end of its nose. Punishing the weapons dealers will only go so far. What needs to be done is the issues behind the violence stopped.
Johnson is one of those rare Africans who lives as much in the mzungu (white person) world as he does in the mofrica (black African) world. He sees Kenya with a global vision, with a sense of what it could be, but also understanding what it is. It made me more than a little afraid that someone with as much wisdom and insight as Johnson is predicting civil war for Kenya.
But these are the eyes that Kenyans need to see Kenya with. Not with eyes that can't see beyond tribal boundaries and flare up at the suggestion of denigration of their clan. And not with eyes that see only into the world and the way in which Kenya is not living up to the world standard.
But eyes that can see the possibility of greatness, but are realitic enough to acknowledge the steps it will take to get there.
I'm a mzungu who has lived for only the shortest period of time in the mofrica world, and even then, I was never truly part of African culture due to the colour of my skin. I have only the barest possibility of an idea of what will change the face of Kenya so that riots like in 2007, and like are being predicted for 2012 can be avoided.
Education.
Education of all Kenyans about human rights and what democracy should look like. Promoting an understanding that while tribal culture, boundaries and pride are and always will be important, Kenya will never get out of this cycle of corruption and violence until its people belong to Kenya first and their tribe second.
If you ask a Luo who was in the wrong at the election, he will say Kibake. If you ask a Kikuyu, he will say Raila. If you ask a Luo about the Kikuyu tribe he will say that they are arrogant and greedy. If you ask a Kikuyu about the Luo tribe, he will say that they make trouble and cause problems for everyone. If you ask either Kikuyu or Luo about the Maasai they will say that they are greedy sheisters, always looking for a way to make a profit.
Whilst these tribal prejudices are in place, Kenya cannot prosper. A Kikuyu president will always look after the Kikuyu. A Luo president will always look after the Luo. A Kiisi president will always look after the Kiisi. And so on. How can a country succeed like this?
It would be like President Barack Obama spending all of the country's money on Illinois, because that is his home town. Or Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister of Australia choosing Brisbane as the place to pour all our tax dollars into, because that's where he is from. It's not the way democracy works, and it would not be accepted in western society.
I talked with Johnson about how to create change, and explained to him the way in which I would go about causing change to happen in Australia, if I felt it needed to. I told him how I would go to my local member of parliament, I would go to the press and I would get as much support as I could to cause change. If I needed to protest, I would, and I would have no fear of reprisals against myself and my family.
Johnson explained that it doesn't work that way in Kenya. Firstly, you can't even get access to your local member of parliament. And if you do, they tell you to push off. And if you criticise the government, you are watched, and followed. And if you continue to make too much of a fuss, you disappear. If you protest - you will be shot.
I find it unthinkable. The purpose of democracy is that the power is in the people. And yet here is a 'democratic country' that holds its people to ransom by forcing them to pay taxes for which they get nothing. 90% of the population is starving. The Anti Corruption Commissioner gets $34,000 per month while the majority of rural Kenyans survive on $20 per week.
How is this democracy at work? How can the people seize and use their power when there is a very real risk they will lose their life as a result?
Education.
When the people realise, know, understand, feel that they are the power, the system will change. When the Kenyan children of today become the citizens of the world tomorrow, they will stand up and say ‘We do not accept corruption. We do not accept violence. We do not accept poverty.’
I fear for Kenya in 2012. I fear for my friends and my Kenyan family. And I fear for my adopted home.
Africa needs no more blood soaked soil.
