NAIROBI, 31 December 2004 — When President Mwai Kibaki was sworn in two years ago some 200,000 happy Kenyans jeered at outgoing Daniel arap Moi. Some even threw lumps of soil at him. The brief farewell speech by Moi, one of Africa’s last old-style strongmen, was punctuated with shouts of “go away” and “bye bye”. It was an act of brazen rudeness by a normally deferential nation which hungered for a new era of reform.
Two years on, hopes of a fresh start free from the sleaze and mismanagement of the Moi era have faded, largely, Kenyans say, because Kibaki has failed to make good on promises to end graft, reform the economy and create 500,000 jobs annually. Some joke that Kibaki, a frail 73, has achieved the impossible and made the unloved Moi look good. “At least the (corruption) money trickled down to us in those days. Now Kibaki says there should be no corruption but he does not give us jobs,” said Ngugi wa Mukami, who runs a small kiosk in the capital Nairobi.
Kibaki pledged zero tolerance of graft in the coffee-growing nation of 30 million to revive foreign investors’ confidence and reverse the long decline of East Africa’s largest economy. But former colonial power Britain this year accused the new government of stealing public funds faster than Moi’s associates did and said it was perpetuating graft instead of fighting it. Kenyans wondered what has gone wrong. “Narc’s commitment to reform, human rights, and democracy was more rhetorical and hypocritical than real,” Makau Mutua, chairman of Kenya’s Human Rights Commission, said of Kibaki’s ruling National Rainbow Coalition party. “Kenya’s political elite is largely an eclectic and unsophisticated collage of ethnic barons with no national vision,” says Mutua of Kenya’s overwhelmingly tribal politics. Some fear that some of Moi’s cronies made an accommodation with the businessmen from Kibaki’s central Kenya home region who feature heavily among the new president’s associates. “There is no difference between this government and the last. They are all Moi’s people. If they were not, he would be in jail right now,” said Samuel Omondi, a cobbler. “Kibaki just makes his people richer and we get poorer.”
Part of the disillusionment has to do with style. Kibaki likes to delegate, is uncomfortable with the trappings of power and hesitates to impose his authority on his ministers. Kenyans at first relished the contrast with hyper-active Moi, who was a daily feature on news bulletins, hectoring crowds on all topics and traveling the length of the country to promote his conservative, homespun views of the world. Kenyans also appreciated Kibaki’s introduction of free primary school education, fostering of free speech in state media, inquiries into aspects of graft during Moi’s rule and a long overdue promotion of Kenya’s neglected tourism sector. “Life is more difficult but at least I am relieved of paying school fees,” said Anthony Musembi, a newspaper vendor.
Kibaki’s supporters say his delegating habits are wrongly seen as weakness by a population used to autocracy. Critics reply that Kibaki is too indecisive to be an effective reformer. MPs from his ruling National Rainbow Coalition often vote against the government in Parliament and ministers squabble with each other without fear of dismissal. Nothing has done more damage to Kibaki than his failure to fulfill plans to change the constitution to trim his own huge powers and set up a premier’s post to take some of his duties. Kibaki supported the post in opposition but has now vowed not to allow another center of power to exist during his rule. Critics blame venal hangers on. “Kibaki has surrounded himself with schemers, sycophants, incompetents and yes men drawn mostly from (Kibaki’s) Kikuyu and kindred communities. Unfortunately...many of these courtiers cannot think their way out of a paper bag,” says Mutua.
