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The looming class war in Kenya PDF Print E-mail
Written by James Muritu   
Monday, 08 September 2008

I remember reading, almost a year ago, an article by the former member of parliament for Subukia, Hon. Koigi Wamwere, that spoke of a section of Kenyans retreating to high-walled complexes in search of solace and security. The fact is, there is a rise in the number of Kenyans who grow richer by the day, but who no longer feel safe and need to move to new neighbourhoods and invest in more security; it is these to whom Koigi referred.

Taking you back, while I was still living in Nairobi, a workmate told me that I was a nobody so long as I daily drove along Jogoo road and shopped on Tom Mboya Street. As he patted my back, I was told to grow up and find an apartment in Valley Road or Kileleshwa. Talk of holding fellow Kenyans in disdain and contempt! Where you live in Nairobi speaks volumes about your status and class. For my level, it made sense to move to the West and keep off the East side. Walking in Nairobi streets, there was a constant reminder that, in the CBD itself, there's a distinctive line drawn between two Nairobi dwellers; that line is Moi Avenue . For analogy's sake, think of this as the Footscray for those in Melbourne or Albert Park if you happen to be in Durban or Harlem and Queens for my countrymen in New York. Welcome to Kenya, the land of the Haves and Have-Nots. 

Ladies and gentlemen, we aren't out of the woods yet. Not yet brothers and sisters. The election violence was a precursor to something bigger: a class war looms in Kenya. Yet, if we recognize this and put in checks and balances to contain the growing class divide, we might avert it. God help us, as the government seems not to recognize this growing divide. Emptying its purse, in the form of 400,000/- allowances to people who really don't need the money, only confirms that our government is out of touch with on-ground reality. There's reason to fear - really fear - my fellow Kenyans. 

The usual picture in Nairobi is that the Have- Nots live and work in Eastlands, River Road, Accra Road, old Nation House Road and neighbourhoods along those lines. Well, the Have-Nots' area is far larger than that now - it extends to Mathare, Kibera, Kawangware, Majengo, Shauri Moyo and Ruiru. Whilst the Have-Nots' periphery is growing exponentially, the Haves aren't tiring either; while in the CBD, they prefer to stick around Kenyatta Avenue, Kimathi Street, State House Road, Upper Hill, Harambee Avenue, Valley Road and their environs; residential neighbourhoods new and old fall before their onward march - Kileleshwa, Loresho, Westlands, Kiambu Road, Runda, Muthaiga, South C and Ngong Road have all seen explosive growth. This is where they speak in low tones of apartments going for KES 8M and rentals ranging between KES 50k and KES 150k. That could well be an annual income for blokes living on the other side.

 Kenya is ranked among the top 10 unequal societies in the world and is the most unequal in East Africa. According to a 2004 piece of research  from the Society for International Development, for every shilling a poor Kenyan makes, a rich Kenyan makes 56 shillings! What's happening in Kenya is what led to the famous anti-immigrant street battles in South Africa a few months ago. Having lived in South Africa for four years, I knew it was coming. The truth though is that the South Africans hade built their own competing empires of Haves and Have-Nots over the years; the anti-immigrant sentiments were an explosion by extremely frustrated Have-Nots. Same thing happened in France a few years ago when some French suburbs went ablaze in anger, violence and rage. Recently, a similar thing happened in Canada, in the Haitian neighbourhoods, though it wasn't given much coverage by the media. 

Comrades,  I am not being an alarmist here. God forbid that Kenya explodes again! Unfortunately, though, the rate at which the Haves are growing at the expense of the Have-Nots, gives cause for worry. When you still have people who can't afford to put food on their tables, we need to get worried. When we still have people walking to work because they can't afford matatu fare, there's cause for alarm. When we still have fellow Kenyans who can't afford basic health care, there's cause for panic. When we still have a section of our society that's looked down as poor, needy and wanting, ladies and gentlemen, there's reason to ponder and rethink what we need to do to contain the situation. Whereas distributing handouts is not - despite our politicians' best efforts to convince their constituents otherwise - the panacea to this growing class divide, we can do more. The latest attempt to pass a bill that would make healthcare a more affordable commodity is encouraging. Suffice it to say that we are making good inroads with free primary education - I am yet, however, to comprehend the concoction which high school boys and girls have been on lately.  We need to stretch our thoughts beyond healthcare and free primary education and pay more attention to job creation.  There's constant talk of creating jobs for the youth, but unfortunately I am yet to be convinced that this is really working when we still have young ones idling in streets and parks, and when we see graduates passing their time as messengers, matatu drivers and other meagre jobs. 

Ladies and gentlemen, fellow countrymen, there's a looming class war in Kenya, between the Haves and Have-Nots and only time will tell what's going to spark the first exchange of fire. The battle lines are drawn and the bunkers are built. When you invest in an electric fence or employ two more watchmen, think bunker. Without being controversial, what we need is not to employ more watchmen or move to higher grounds in search of security, but rather sit back and ask ourselves, what we can do for the Haves and Have-Nots to live together in harmony and narrow the gap. Kenya's no different from Brazil, France and South Africa, in terms of this great class divide. Rather than go their route, I pray and cry in my heart that as Kenyans, brothers and sisters, irrespective of tribe, class or race, we realize and recognize that there's a looming class war and we all need to join hands and contain it before all hell breaks loose. 

 

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James Muritu
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Kibaki, mafia, political suicide and hubris
written by Forwarder , September 08, 2008
Thursday December 15, 2005

Suicidal statecraft is hurting the nation
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By Imre Loefler

Arnold Toynbee, the British historian, has written about "suicidal statecraft", a process whereby a ruler or a government can destroy itself and can damage the state. Were Toynbee alive, he could use the example of President Kibaki and his government to demonstrate his point. Suicidal statecraft is usually due to incompetence and hubris.

Mr Kibaki is a nice man, probably the nicest man at the helm of any country, certainly the nicest African president. In terms of education he is among the elite of world leaders and in political experience he is also in the top ranks of the presidential and prime ministerial class. Nevertheless he appears to be an incompetent president. It is difficult to understand why his regime is such a failure and such a personal disaster. Could it be that he is simply not talented for governing? Or could it be, that the stroke he suffered in January 2003 has caused lasting incapacitation?

The presidential stroke was a setback for everyone, except the ring of people around him, who kept him out of sight for a long time and usurped his powers and established a modus operandi in which, apparently, the recovering patient acquiesced.

Cronyism and tribalism

The high ratings of Mr Kibaki were certainly not proportionate to his performance. He did not keep any of his election promises, he seemed to be unable to govern, he was unable to make his ministers to do their work, the purported economic growth benefited only the rich, he earned the attributes of cronyism and tribalism. He did not mix with people with ease and he seemed to be comfortable only among his community’s millionaires.

The apologists of presidential behaviour resorted to the time honoured excuse, they said that the President was given bad advice. To seek advice is wise, yet wisdom also recommends to choose the advisor well and to sift the advice. At the end it does not make any difference whether the bad ideas, the omissions and the blunders of Kibaki’s presidency were his own or were due to bad advice heeded by him. Taking bad advice is a form of incompetence. In addition, Kibaki’s advisors seem to be driven by hubris, the hubris of the elite, the hubris of the rich and even if he, personally, is not prone to hubris, the hubris of his advisors tainted him.

He allowed himself to be captured by the latter day Mau-Mau. The 21st century Mau-Mau did not have to endure the hardships of the Aberdares and did not have to risk their lives, neither were they poor, landless and humiliated, but their aim was the same: to establish supremacy. Instead of oaths Banana resorted to brainwash. Eventually just as the ultimate victims of the Mau-Mau were the Kikuyu, the victims of the Banana campaign were also the Kikuyu, the millions of God fearing, law abiding and hard working Kikuyu, who now find themselves isolated.

Cohesion threatened

Kibaki had his comeuppance. He took it badly, surily even and when he came on television after the referendum he tried to change the subject: shift attention from constitution to development. His short speech was strained and uninspired, he lost a unique opportunity, for if he said: "Kenyans, you told me your wishes, help me to lead you in that direction, I am proud of how you deported yourself, this is the kind of behaviour I was hoping for when I founded the Democratic Party!" Kenyans from every corner of the country would have gathered to give him another chance. Then Kibaki’s governing slipped from the bad to the worse. He does not seem to understand that the nation increasingly resents his friends and that trust in his word, not only in his judgement, is eroding fast – see the manner of bargaining for top jobs. If suicidal statecraft would hurt only Kibaki and his circle, one would say, so be it, they deserve it, but it hurts the nation, its cohesion is threatened yet again, institutions are further devalued, political morality is at its lowest point and development is postponed. Most ominous is the double oath ministers had to take: the oath of allegiance to the laws of the Republic and to Kibaki himself.

During the Banana campaign, Kibaki ignored the law and acted in contempt of court. Suppose he would do so again, which of the two parts of the oath will ministers be expected to uphold?

What undid the Mau-Mau was hubris: they underestimated the adversary and they overestimated the sympathy of the emerging nation. Then after the "change the constitution" group failed to prevent Moi from succeeding Kenyatta, their hubris cost the Kikuyu dearly. Banana was driven by hubris too, so is Kibaki’s post referendum behaviour and hubris ends in nemesis. If he is unable to change his stance, his employment must be terminated one way or other. He ought to realise that the 153 districts in the seven provinces, who said "No" to his designs did do so because of the lack of trust in him and his circles. The President’s nemesis must not become the nemesis for the nation.

The writer is a surgeon and social commentator

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war v rich
written by James , September 08, 2008
I totally agree. Indeed, what many failed to see was that the ethnic ethnic violence was also, essentially, a 'war' between the rich and the poor. Although largely masquaraded as a tribal, the resulting violence had several fronts, which included a clash between the classes in the Kenya society.
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Agree
written by JamoGuy , September 08, 2008
Kibaki is an admirable Manager but not a Leader. There's clear difference between the two. A Manager pays more attention to the office routine, whereas a Leader makes a connection between the office and its environs. This is a role that Raila is playing very skillfully. However for Kibaki's cronies;the Muthauras and Uhurus and Kalonzo's to start throwing mad at Raila, that makes me really unhappy. Raila had long been viewed in fear as a revolutionist. In my view, I think he's a good leader and he can play a good work in helping bridge the gap between the haves and havenots. Reason being, he seems to be more in touch with the on ground masses. Sitting back and reading about politicians now engaged more with 2012 elections than anything else, am even more worried..Ladies and gentlemen, there's cause for worry!
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it cannot be averted
written by jaya wardene , September 09, 2008
I wish to thank the writer for an article that goes straight to the heart of the matter. There is something sickening about the ever widening gap between the rich and the poor. There is something quite mental in the fact that a brother can be watching Sky satellite movies quite comfortably in his living room in Kilimani whilst just 100 yards down the valley hundreds of families have to share a single tap, if they are lucky enough to have running water.

I should remind James however that there are a bunch of us who believe that Koigi Wamwere has simply nothing to offer us today. His time in government was a totally wasted opportunity.

James, class war will not be averted by bringing down electric fences or hiring fewer watchmen. It will not be averted by opening a few clinics(desperately needed, I agree). Only swift and enlightened government action will save the day.

You mention in your piece that affordable healthcare is one thing that the gok can bring into being if it really cared about the society. I agree. There is much more that can be done. The planning and building non-regulations that have spawned many illegal settlements should be addressed. Affordable(social) housing should be top of the agenda. Decent accommodation should be a basic human right, yes or no, madame Wanyeki et al. City and Town Councils up and down the country must develop a sense of civic pride and clean up their acts.

There is nothing wrong with personal aspiration and our nation can grow driven by the energy of the emerging entrepreneurs. The government still has a role to play. Capitalism will never provide unfashionable services or those without the guarantee of fast returns. Only the government has the capacity to make a stand against rising food and fuel prices as they affect the poorest in our society. Any government that fails to recognise this is simply stoking the fires that will surely come.
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Agree once again
written by JamoGuy , September 09, 2008
Jaya, Koigi indeed is a good writer, but to what happenned to him, only God knows! He's a wasted talent that we will only be reading about in history books in years to come. As for the class war, indeed it's looming..
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Koigi and class wars
written by Kim G , September 10, 2008
The only reason Koigi is being denigrated is because he refused to join either of the two political factions in Kenya, that is: Pro-Kibaki or Pro-Raila. Had he joined the Kibaki faction, he would be in parliament now. If he had thrown his support behind Raila, he would be described as a hero.

On class war, its true that Kenya is sitting on a time bomb. If it wasn't for the legendary patience of Kenyans, what happened after the elections would have happened at least a decade ago. It was Kibaki's sheer incompetence that lit the fire, but the fuel for that fire had been accumulating for years.
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au contraire
written by Ngigi wa Kamau , September 10, 2008
Much as income inequality is a problem in Kenya I doubt that a class war is about to be waged in our glorious republic. Sure, income gaps between the uber-rich classes and the slum dwellers are obscene.

However, Kenyan socio-economic dynamics do not lend themselves to easy calcification between poor & rich. Why you ask? There are millions of Kenyans who are cash poor but asset rich. Land in Kenya stores immense value. However, due to various factors including small land sizes, lack of capital to exploit land, developmental bias in favour of urban areas they rural poor have been unable to develop their holdings. Result - Rural/Urban Migration.

If there was a class war seeking to overhaul material distribution in Kenya, everyone...including many slum-dwellers would be at risk of forced asset deprivation. This significantly reduces the desire for communism or associated economic experiments. This very reason is why ODM decided on a 41 versus 1 strategy. Limit the victims to the least manageable and let the madness set in.

There is also a tendency to view poverty & income inequality through urban lenses. Of course, the gaps between Mathare & Muthaiga, Kibera & Karengata, and Kawangware & Lavington are quite stark....but they house a maximum of 4 to 5 million people on any reasonable estimates.

The other 28 odd millions are distributed across various non-Nairobi urban & rural areas with policy makers & activists blind to rural poverty. It is much easier to survive in slums than in rural areas. Transactions are easier to establish in urban areas than in rural areas where subsistence dominates.

Unless we find a unity of purpose shared by the rural & urban poor we are not going to witness a class war soon.


Income inequality however is already producing a few nasty outcomes. Crime is rampant as opportunities for self-advancement are limited to the skilled. In sociological terms, there is an increase in anime - the dissatisfaction with the status quo among many young men in that they witness rapacious and conspicuous consumption by certain groups while they struggle to feed themselves. Crimes becomes partially redemptive. Jealousy & envy of course also have their part in this Kenyan tragedy.

If only we would examine how best to redress the imbalance. Firstly, we need to recognise that forcibly capturing property is not smart as it only replaces a bourgeois with another.

A focus on enhacing rural infrastructure, halting the spread of urban sprawl by zoning fertile areas as out of bounds to commercial development (think Ruaka, Banana Hill, Ongata Rongai....and virtually any place near Kajiado, Kiambu & Thika Districts). As it is, we are entrenching food insecurity and hence rural poverty by converting fertile lands to commercial building property leaving unskilled farmers to fend on ASAL lands.

Meanwhile, lots of space remains grossly under-utilised in Nairobi - The Zone between Mathare River and the Lunga-Lunga Railway line contained lots of free land that could be developed to provide superior affordable and spacially economical housing for the City's needs.

Ngigi





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interesting
written by JamoGuy , September 10, 2008
Ngigi, your arguement is quite interesting and very intriguing indeed. Can I suggest you do a bit of reading on Brazil and it's income inequalities and what the ramifications have been. That might shed some light on this looming class war.
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...
written by Masaa , September 11, 2008
I tend to generally side with Ngigi on many points. What I know for sure is that education alone hardly guarantees job security in Kenya. It is becoming extremely difficult for the youth from middle to low income families to rise to the top. What our country needs most as was said earlier in this thread is job creation opportunities. We have a mass of educated youth at home so that is a lesser pressing issue. Another aspect which comes with the improvement of job creation is decentralisation of services and boosting other towns in the rest of the country apart from Nairobi. Let's face it, Nairobi is accommodating a population beyond its capacity. The only viable solution is to make other urban centres (especially those in rich agricultural areas ) to ease pressure of all folks wanting to move to Nairobi and at the same time offering an opportunity for those in rural areas to gain access to basic services, ease housing pressures in the cities, and still keeping agriculture as a viable job creation sector.
Brilliant article by the way,

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written by Ngigi wa Kamau , September 11, 2008
Masaa,

What I know for sure is that education alone hardly guarantees job security in Kenya


Education does not guarantee job security. However, without education, there is little innovation - which is the continuing driver of entreprenuership. Without entrepreneurship, there are few jobs.

Contrast our casual approach to education with that of South Korea or Finland for that matter. In Finland, all teachers must have a Masters degree. In South Korea, primary school teachers are selected from the top 5% of graduates of a dozen elite universities. Result? Nokia is dominating the global phone business with new innovations - S. Korea is dominating the global consumer goods business due to innovation.

However, you hint at an important issue - whether the objective of government policy should be to ensure that everyone has the same amount of cash, or that everyone has an equal chance of making it in life. If one narrowly focuses on income inequality, we get caught in trying to ensure outcome equality - which can stifle innovation by reducing/eliminating incentives - rather than ensuring equality of opportunity.

The best way, at present, to enhance equality of opportunity is to enable rural masses to join the capitalist system. Rural infrastructure would singly boost Kenya's GDP growth by about 3% in my opinion since it would enable the efficient production & marketing of agricultural commodities.

Reduced food prices would lower inflation, thus lowering the cost of credit. Reduced credit costs would enable greater investment in agroprocessing & growth in related service industries (sales/marketing/wholesaling/distribution/transportation). Meanwhile, rural incomes would shoot upwards sparking a consumption boom thereby increasing industrial production & investment. All these would increase employment for rural youth...contingent on they having required skills. The potential is limitless.

JamoGuy,

Brazil's inequalities have a lot to do with history & culture. Portugal was a feudal kingdom by the time they colonised Brazil and they brought with them a strong sense of family & friend kinship. Thus relational networks played a significant role in determining what opportunties were available to individuals. This has of course been transmitted to present times although with technology, merit is increasingly a factor. However, even ignoring Brazil's peculiar history (slavery included - an esp important factor), there has not been a class war in Brazil. Much as Lula is said to have been a champion of the poor, his policies have been modest insofar as mediating the tensions between incomes of those at the top and those at the bottom.

However, during his tenure Brazil became the first country to produce an aeroplane (Embraer) capable of flight based solely on biofuels.

Modern Capitalism (cf. Laissez Faire free markets & feudalist systems) does not lend itself to class wars. I challenge anyone to name a country with the following features that has undergone a class-based conflict:

Regulated Markets & Regular Elections. Ancora Imparo - I am still learning.


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rant
written by Stephen Wanyama , September 11, 2008
While it is imperative that we pay increasing attention to the wide and worsening gulf between the rich and the poor, we mustn't either exaggerate its effect or pretend that there have not been moves to act against it.
random points,
a) decentralisation

There have been many efforts at this over the years ( I will focus particularly on two ODM cities Kisumu and Eldoret. Speaking to many people, I increasingly think the solution will lie in empowering local governments so that they can offer inducements to investors. The Kenyan government by itself directing public spending here or there does not help , there has been money flooding into constituencies since 1992, most of them have little to show for it. Unless private business takes off in a city, there is nothing the government can do for it. Trade and private investment, not singular large projects. Just think of Mumias or Busia or Webuye for example.
We also need to behave ourselves if we are to attract investment away from Nairobi. Kisumu and Eldoret for example, are not making too good a case as alternative sites for big business, not even with their airports and agriculturally productive hinterlands
On schools and clinics
Now, increased social expenditure seems to me unlikely by itself to decrease the gulf between the haves and the have-nots. As has already been pointed out by Zimbabwe and Cuba, or Northern Nyanza (see standard supplement on the greatness of Gem's intellectuals) you can have the most educated populace, the largest number of doctors and nurses and still be desperately poor. Worse, an economy that is not growing overall, will simply compel these experts into economic exile. All these geniuses are raised out of Gem for example to come and build Nairobi. For this reason, I am persuaded that investing primarily in these what I would call palliative services is good yes, but very unlikely to cure an economy like ours. On the contrary, it has two less than benign effects.
Firstly, the bulk of the contracts for building these schools and hospitals and supplying them will go to the haves, rendering them have-mores. Public contracts in Kenya always go to the connected, there is very little trickle-down. Secondly, if middle and lower middle class families are selling cows and land, and taking loans to educate children who are unlikely (percentage wise to ever make a return on that investment) then we are actually impoverishing the lower classes. I am not advocating parsimony towards these here causes, but rather an overall rethink of the role of government in Kenyan society. far too many Kenyans, as is visible in this thread, are waiting for goodies from government.
Such public monies would be better spent on roads, reducing the cost of energy and the internet and making supply more efficient, creating industrial and technology parks where all the talent we are pouring out of the universities can catch up with the real world, promoting R and D (very little of this in Kenya now and even worse support for those Kenyans innovating), increasing farm extension services and improving inputs available to farmers, and reducing the tax burden on business. In other words, let’s make employers happy. From this Kingdom all else is possible.
Inflation and High Prices
The government should do nothing about rising food and energy prices. These price increases are what will make us rethink our spending culture. Even more importantly, and this with Ngigi’s animadversion about the rural versus the urban in mind, these high prices which are getting Bunge la Wananchi on to the streets are decreasing rural poverty, decreasing the pressure on rural folks to move to the cities and overall reducing the gulf between the rich and the poor.
Increased fuel prices should also lead to more people walking or taking public transport, more people investing in alternative fuels, a lower import bill for cars, people being more careful with heir electricity consumption and also people putting pressure on government and private enterprise to put in place energy efficient and comfortable public transport systems. All things which are good for the environment. Oil falling to $100 is all good, but this pain, this confrontation with and investigation of loss and anguish coupled with hopefulness and resiliency will lay down the building blocks for future prosperity.
Admitting all the while that I have not a stats sheet to pull out of my pocket, the fact that sukuma wiki and ugali flour cost so much in Kibera ought to be a disincentive against moving there, and an incentive towards either increased rural production or urban food production (they do a lot of this in Cuba). Increased entrepreneurialism will come from the realization that wage labour is hurt most when inflation bites as it is doing now.
On Madame Wanyeki, etc

These Civil Society types bear no sympathy whatsoever with the poor. What a sad world it would be for them if there was no problem to put in those aid proposals. They love Kibera, look at how many NGOs populate these places, you want to get them out of their work? What other skill-set have they? Don't look to them for any help, that is a little unfair, like professional suicide.
On Le BB
His truly pathetic, unfocused, unenlightened (hence the second B) leadership style seems very popular with Kenyans, a people it seems yearning for tyranny. One weeps in one’s heart that there are intelligent Kenyans who see this busy-bodyism as a solution for Kenya. Why then did we not love Moi? Just because he was Kalenjin? The man BB is a prize A idiot. Even worse, like many Kenyans from the ‘marginal communities’ see Ntimama, he wholly depends on the impoverishment of Kenyans for his power. Keep them down and in control, show them another enemy and present yourself as the Messiah
The likes of the JamoGuy should go to Nyanza and see what Raila's leadership has brought there, and then tell us how he is connecting more with the poor. Look at his policies, and tell me you see this sympathy with the poor. Worst of all, I think he bears the distinction of being the only Kenyan politician at that level to steal directly from wananchi, i.e. campaign for collection of money, (Molasses Moolah) hereafter M&M’s and then pocket it for himself. Some sympathy that.
On Post-Election violence.
This meme about it being poverty related is truly irritating. Nowhere was there a greater rise in real incomes in the Kibaki years than in the rural areas of the Rift Valley, and no where was the violence more vicious.
The attackers did not attack the Odingas, the Gumos, the Mudavadis, the Kenyattas, the Kibakis, Njonjos or the Mois (these they saw as their heroes), they attacked the poorest and most vulnerable, mostly peasants and farm workers. This was not a resource conflict anywhere, granaries were being burned for heavens sake!! Victims were selected not for their wealth, but for their ethnicity. Where in the world are the champions of a revolution of the poor driven about in Hummers and flown in helicopters? How does an uprising of the poor get led by those who have become obscenely wealthy by stealing from those poor? Does this make sense in another language? This is not Chavez or Evo Morales, this is not Che or Fidel, read a book.
The leadership style of Le BB will actually lead to an increase in poverty. his moronic 40 bob a day offer would have had a Zimbabwe effect if implemented, Majimbo will further increase the size of the state, and the unproductive state at that. It will make a few thousand civil service jobs and demand a lot more in taxes, his hateful ethnic divisionism will lead to the migration of capital and talent (this has already happened in large parts of Western Kenya and the Rift Valley) and his attitude towards private property (price caps on land for example) betray a coming economic tyranny. Love him or loathe him, Kibaki and even the latter Moi ,has shown much greater awareness and for what ails this country.
But all is not lost; it may be argued that the Messiah is getting more civilized with time. His exhortation that people attend Equity Bank (one of the evil businesses to be boycotted) and take loans for business was partly redemptive, if not very late in coming. More and more ODM MPs and even Ministers are insisting that it is not the government’s fault that people are poor, they are admitting that his is a convenient and enslaving crutch for the locals.

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some links
written by Ngigi wa Kamau , September 11, 2008
1. http://www.economist.com/world...id=9989914

A summary of No. 2 below

2. http://www.mckinsey.com/client..._Final.pdf

The meat on bone No. 1

3. http://www.ifpri.org/PUBS/ib/ib32.pdf

On rural Infrastructure


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To Forwarder
written by ezz , September 11, 2008
Imre Loefler wrote that article in December 2005, (in the E.A. Standard I presume). By December 2007 Kibaki's good performance had been acknowledged world wide. The improvement in the economy/security/etc... over those two years was largely due to the absence of the ODM mob from government, (after they had kicked themselves out following the referendum). Before that, the mob had made it quite impossible to get anywhere by shooting down everything Kibaki tried to do to improve the lot of the people. The mob is back, having been forced down our throats by their sponsors. So we shouldn't expect much to be done.
The extreme poverty and gaps between the haves & have-nots was inherited from the Moi era, and Kibaki should not have been expected to get rid of it overnight. If what he managed to do over those two years had been allowed to continue unhampered we would be seeing some real changes and improvements for all.
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written by mchochezi , September 12, 2008
Comeon forwarder, truth be told. Kibaki's a non-perfomer and arrogant brut whose constantly failed to resonate with the citizenry. My respect for this bloke has dwindled over the years. Igniting the economy is good and keeping touch with the citizenry is more crucial. What do you say when the Murangaru's, Mwiraria's and Pattni's are walking scott free after gulping down their greedy throats millions of dollars. Honestly, a goliath mentality that makes one think he's infalliable is what has obsessed Kibaki and his cronies over the years. Kibaki's a good manager, but his policies have widened rather than narrowed tha gap between the haves and have nots. I might be over critical, but am currently not one of his big fans.
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