Politicians should never make promises they cannot or do not intend to keep. Kenya’s President Mwai Kibaki is learning that lesson the hard way. He came to power just over three years ago on a wave of revulsion against the institutionalized corruption presided over for a quarter of a century by his predecessor, Daniel arap Moi, that had crippled the country’s economy and development.
Kibaki presented himself as Mr. Clean, the man who would root out the graft at the heart of government. But the image is now in tatters. The man he appointed to investigate the rot had to flee the country last year because of death threats and lack of government support. Now the government itself is in the firing line, marred in its own corruption, a multimillion dollar scandal, while accused of not doing enough to prosecute those involved in an even bigger financial scandal than during the Moi presidency. It is estimated that well over $1 billion, equivalent to over a fifth of the country’s budget, has been stolen in the two scams. At the latest count three government ministers have been forced to resign over the sleaze, and, yesterday, while in the capital’s streets Kenyans protested, one of the ministers appeared in court on related charges. The demonstration was a relatively peaceful one as well as an illegal one. But Kenyans are not going to be put off by that.
No one should have any doubt that Kenyans are angry, very angry. They feel betrayed. For the moment, their demands are limited to the resignations of the country’s vice president, Moody Awori, and the head of the government’s administrative service, but it could turn much nastier. There is every possibility that the people’s bitterness will turn against the entire government, including the president himself. There is widespread public perception that corruption is destroying Kenya, that the country could be rich if the graft was stopped, that those involved care neither about the economy nor the country’s legions of the poor. Resentment has already derailed government policy. Last year, a referendum on a new constitution failed to go the government’s way purely because of public resentment with its failure to tackle corruption. As a result of this, aid to Kenya is now under threat because of international concerns. What makes the situation far more perilous is that part of Kenya, as elsewhere in East Africa, is currently facing a famine. Just a week ago, the Kenyan government and the UN revealed that 3.5 million Kenyans now need emergency food aid because of a drought.
The contrast of starving millions on the one hand and allegations of lavish government sleaze on the other is a dangerous one. It could turn demonstrators into rioters. It was famine and uncaring government that brought about neighboring Ethiopia’s revolution three decades ago. Kibaki will have to throw himself back into the heart of the anti-sleaze drive if he is to regain the initiative and his credibility. Otherwise, with the opposition, the media and religious leaders in full cry, he may find it difficult to hold on even until elections next year.
