Clement N. Odhiambo
Kenia - The other side of the tourists 'Paradise'

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Violence in Kenya's coastal town of Mombasa shows how precarious the security situation in the country is as veteran President Daniel arap Moi campaigns for a fifth term. The dialogue between Moi's KANU and the opposition in the Inter-Party Parliamentary Group has agreed on some basic constitutional reforms to be done before next elections. But as the announcement of the agreement was given on the 11^th September, new violence flared up in Mombasa.

Kimani Mwangi, 34, is a vegetable and fruit hawker on the sidewalks of Nairobi town centre. Six years ago he was a small farmer in the Rift Valley, but in 1992 the "ethnic clashes", in reality, the politically motivated violence, that rocked western Kenya, forced him to take refuge in Kibera, one of the sprawling slums around Nairobi.

Last August 8, he left his dwelling early in the morning despite the anticipated unrest. He had been woken up by the cries of his one-year-old son, who had the previous night cried himself to sleep while still clinging to the mother's "dry" breasts. He had quickly looked away only to land his eyes on his other three children huddled under one tattered blanket. The whole family had not had a decent meal for the last two days and the prospects for the same remained remote. Their only source of income, his vegetable stall, had been destroyed in a major operation aimed at keeping the city clean in the eyes of the tourists, and Kimani had had no time to rebuild his capital. So that morning he went first to the main market, bought what he could with his dwindling capital, and set up his goods at a busy street corner. He lost everything in the afternoon riots.

Mwangi is just one of the countless Kenyans now bearing the brunt of countrywide violence ahead of the anticipated general election later this year.

Tension is mounting by the day as Kenya's President Daniel arap Moi tries to perpetuate his stay in power. President Moi, 74, has dominated Kenya's political scene since the country's founding father, the late Jomo Kenyatta, died in 1978.

Like his predecessors, Moi's stranglehold on power has been made possible by his near-perfect use of political and economic patronage, as well as the drumming up of inter-ethnic animosity. Kenyatta came from Kenya's largest and most economically prosperous ethnic group, the Kikuyu, while Moi comes from the smaller and previously mostly pastoral Kalenjin group.

Haunted by a possibility of losing in a free and fair election, KANU in the last year has resorted to repression. Many are those who have suffered incarceration because of their dissenting views and so are those who have lost their lives, homes and property for similar reasons.

But Kenyans are yet to be totally subdued by the repression. Opposition politicians, Churches, Non-Governmental Organisations as well as other bodies have now gone full throttle in their demands for reforms before the next polls. With the ruling party KANU's intransigence, the potential for civil strife has never looked more real.

In 1991, a combination of internal opposition and international pressure forced Moi to give in to demands for the re-introduction of multi-partitism. He had all along insisted that multi-party politics would divide Kenyans along tribal lines. Having disorganised the opposition using his usual techniques, Moi went ahead to win the presidency with a mere 36 per cent of the total vote. He refused to change his style of rule, a fact that has since created in Kenya a clique of the super-rich with millions living below the poverty line. Kimani has an ironic smile when he comments, "there was more democracy when we had the one-party system".

Economic hardships

Unable to fathom the situation any more, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) last month suspended a KSh 13 billion aid package to Kenya, thus giving a major boost to the calls for reforms.

Fears that political instability will plunge Kenya into a serious slump in the run up to the general elections are now widespread. On July 11, four days after the 'Saba Saba' riots (one of the series of violent clashes between the police and civilians) the shilling lost 20 per cent of its value against the dollar.

The Government on August 22 announced new revenue measures contained in a legal notice signed on 21 August 1997, by the Finance Minister, Musalia Mudavadi, aimed at bridging the budget deficit. Among them was the increase in excise duty on petrol and diesel, raising of the top Value Added Tax (VAT) rate from 15 per cent to 16 per cent and reduction in Government expenditure. The measures are expected to save KSh 5.5 billion.

Strengthening of revenue collection by the Kenya Revenue Authority is expected to bring in an additional KSh 44 million to the exchequer.

Surviving in Nairobi, especially for those three quarters of the population that, like Kimani, jam into the slums and who when they hold a job consider themselves lucky to get a monthly salary of 3,000 shillings, or about 50 dollars.

The current full scale demand for reforms began in April, when from 4-11, 600 delegates met in Limuru, about 45 kilometres west of Nairobi, and, among other things, formed the National Convention Assembly.

Among the changes that Kenyans are calling for are the reduction in the sweeping powers of the president and the establishment of an independent Electoral Commission. Earlier, the National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK), a respected coalition of Protestant Churches, put forward a list of constitutional reforms that would ensure a free and fair election.

The ruling party, KANU, said a resounding 'NO' to all their demands. In the mean time, international human rights organisations, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch/Africa, African Rights and Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Centre for Human Rights, in an apparent show of solidarity with the reformists, have continued to document systematic abuses of human rights in Kenya. The Government has turned down all dialogue initiatives by National Convention Executive Council (NCEC), the executive arm of NCA. The Government insists that the NCEC is not an elected body and thus lacks the people's mandate.

In the meantime the dramatic facts of the Saba Saba and Nane Nane had happened. During the Saba Saba university students sitting their examinations were attacked in the university classrooms. Like the students, the professors were beaten up. At least 12 people were killed by the police. Immediately after, two State universities were closed down for two weeks.

According to a public comment by the US Secretary of State, Madelaine Albright, the real source of political violence in Kenya is not just the Government's unacceptable strong-arm tactic, but its failure to take the essential concrete steps to create a free and fair electoral climate.

1992 electoral violence

It is still fresh in the mind of Kimani and of all Kenyans that prior to the 1992 elections and a year or so later, up to 1,500 people were killed and 300,000 displaced in the infamous ethnic violence that hit western Kenya. The victims were mostly members of other communities neighbouring President Moi's Kalenjin group. The "tribal clashes" wanted to prove to the world that multy-partitism had no place in Kenya. But they also aimed at chasing from the Rift Valley all the Kikuyus and Luos, known for not liking the current regime, and so guarantee a victory for the incumbent President. They were also a reward for the local KANU leaders, who could take over the land vacated by the victims.

This time around, the powerful Kenyan politician seems to be trying the same tactic in the Coast Province. Kimani knows better. His brother has taken refuge in his shack, that was not big enough for his family. After the 1992 clashes his brothers had also left the Rift Valley and tried to rebuild a life in Mombasa. On the night of 13 August 1997, a band of about 500 armed and apparently well-trained thugs, attacked Likoni Police station, on the outskirts of Mombasa. They killed six policemen, devastated the neighbourhood, massacred another 40 people, looted the area and had withdraw with a loot of 40 guns, ammunition, money and household goods.

The police efforts to stem the mayhem have so far been in vain. Violence in the area has continued for days. Luos and Kikuyus have been the main victims, with messages to them that they should go back to their place of origin.

A week later Likoni Catholic church, where hundreds of people had taken refuge, was attacked by the members of the same gang, who claimed they wanted to finish their job. Due to the police reaction, they killed only two people before being forced to flee. This has triggered the exodus of 50,000 or 80,000 Luos and Kikuyus (according to different estimates) who have decided to flee to their villages or to Nairobi and Kisumu in fear. While President Moi obviously declared that those responsible for the violence were Opposition members, the police detained for a few days influential and affluent local KANU supporters.

The stand of the Church

In a statement published on August 27 the Catholic Bishops did not mince their words. It reads in part:

Something must be done without any delay. The Government has shown itself powerless, has not been able to explain, let alone prevent, such a well-planned and executed operation.

Victims wonder what happened to the Special Branch, to the security forces so efficient in dealing with the Opposition. Either the Government is in control or it should admit it is not.

The Government has not shown us yet that the criminals are going to be severely punished. There has been a history of terrible ethnic cleansing ... which is still going on.

Whenever it has suited the policy makers, the Constitution has been changed almost overnight. There have been many such changes without involving all the complicated legalities devised at this time ...

Why, ask many people who have suffered from violence, does the Government not crack down on ministers who publicly incite Kenyans against those not of their ethnic group? Why are the police allowed to be brutal, to shoot and kill unarmed citizens? Why do some politicians have their private armies of hooligans? If all these things are allowed to happen, then calls for peace are hollow and ridiculous.

Certainly, the Opposition has nothing to gain from the Coast chaos. Once more Kikuyus and Luos are fleeing, losing all their properties. The refugees will not be able to vote in the next election, being too far from the constituency where they were registered.

Kimani's brother read in the newspapers reports about the fleeing tourists and the cancellations in hotel booking for the next months, and has a bitter comment: "The tourists at least go back to their homes, but where is my home? I was chased from the Rift Valley, I am now chased form the Coast where in five years I had put up a small business in bicycle repair. Where shall I go? Why is the press worried about the tourists and not about us?"

It is clear that if the Kenya Government does not accept the constitutional reforms, the country will have within a few months the most rigged and anti-democratic election of its history and the danger of widespread violence will grow.

In Parliament, a nominated MP, Rashid Sajjad and Cabinet Minister Nicholas Biwott have been named as the billionaires bankrolling the mayhem at the Coast. Their disclaim has not convinced many. Biwott's name featured prominently in the 1991-1993 tribal clashes and so was the case in the mysterious disappearance and subsequent assassination of former Foreign Minister Dr Robert Ouko in 1990. Sajjad's name, like those of several other billionaire Asians in Kenya, has become almost synonymous with monumental financial rip-offs.

Whether the reforms crusade will realise its goal remains to be seen. What is certain, however, is that should KANU and Moi win another term, Kenyans should brace themselves for another five years of strong rule.

Ref.: AFRICANEWS. News and Views on Africa from Africa, Issue 18, September 1997.