Lack of Imagination
written by observer , February 22, 2008

We in Kenya have a very limited and simplistic view of our selves. We have chosen to define ourselves in a very narrow and unimaginative inward looking context (ethnically) as opposed to an external broader regional and global context. We have made ourselves easy targets so that our politicians can exploit us by appealing to the very worst of our mangled politics of identity. We keep fighting a 21st century war with 19th century weapons.

Kenya ails from Stagnation
written by Kim G , February 22, 2008

Buy a Kenyan daily today. Next, go to the library and take a Kenyan daily from the 1980s. The same people that made news thirty years ago are still the same people making news today. Thats the reason Kenya is ailing. Just imagine what Britain would be like if people like Margaret Thatcher, Edward Heath, Geoffrey Howes, John Major, etc were still calling the shots?

There is lack of ingenuity in the country, a lack of ideas and a lack of dynamism. In this morass, it becomes easy for people to seek solace in the past. The ways of the tribe and the certainty of being close to people you are related to represent a golden past that is a sharp contrast to the changing world of today.

The people we call leaders have deliberately kept the younger generations from taking up leadership. They have failed to mentor future leaders. When ex President Moi said that we would never have another president like him, he meant it. He had done everything possible to ensure that no challenger ever arises during his lifetime and in the immediate future. That is why the leaders we have today look like blustering idiots running around in hoops. But lets not blame them for they cannot help themselves. They have to chest thump in order to be heard. They have to threaten and to kill in order to get taken seriously. Without it, they would disappear into oblivion their places taken over by more deserving Kenyans, such as ourselves.

...
written by Kenyan revolutionalist , February 22, 2008

A number unfortunate historical events have caused us to be in this stalmate, of not being able to move forward and enjoy complete liberation. Coupled our leadership is a small click of elitists who are selfish and really are concerned with me me me!!!. However I am enouraged there is a growth of new leaders who are trying to change the leadership style in our country. In every growing democracy there are road blocks created both by internal and external forces.
We do have veey intelligent and able individuals who can review our constitution, use the judiciary system to help come up with a solution. If we are to deal the international community a blow and say we are going to determine our own destiny and solutions (as echoed by Martha Karua and Moses Wetangula)then we have to eb ready to deal with ramifications. But those are the reminants of neo-colonialism. And we need to move away from being subjugated to neo-colonialism, by realizing that we have resources we can leverage and talent we can tap into locally. Of course the mentalilty of selfishness and me me me will have to be thrown out of the door!!
The events of December 2007 have changed our country forever...however we can come out of this stronger if we are all united, starting with our leadership all the way down to the common mwananchi.

not a PNU magazine
written by Stephen Wanyama , February 22, 2008

Dude,
Rest assured if the ODM was not preaching hate many people here, at least many of those I know would be very much anti-Kibaki. Please read the articles we have done in the past. We were the first Kenyan media organisation to carry the Kroll Report, we were the first to do a review of the Githongo tapes, we have done articles against privatisation, I even did an article titled 'Why I will not vote Kibaki.'Many here have politics on the opposite side of the political spectrum of Kibaki's!

I cannot speak for others, but I am not anywhere in the world near pro-Kibaki. Raila and the ODM are preaching the murder of Kenya, they are inciting people against the Kikuyu. There was a time when a Kenyan could innocently support the ODM saying he was supporting change, those who support the ODM today know very well what it is their supporting. I suppose many educated, middle-class people want little if anything to do with mass murder, or the destruction of Kenya, that may explain why we do not have many of them about here.

-------
Sophie,
Glad to have you back. You will forgive my prefacing my comment with the extenuation above.
As others have said, we are not yet free. I sympathise with the real obstacles in the way of many Kenyans, but for the middle class, and those with land, the obstacles are in their minds. There has been a wealth of opportunity in Kenya these last 5 years, and the fact that some people have refused to take it up says much more about them than it does about the country. We really need to set ourselves free from this enslavement to the government, the culture of expectation and endless jeremiads.

You are right
written by Nyabs , February 22, 2008

Right now, even among seemingly educated people, they neither stutter nor blush when they make generalizations about tribes.We degenerate after we leave school. Now if these are our intellectuals and elites, what about the masses? What kind of evil thoughts have been fed to someone deep in Nyandarua who has never interacted with someone from deep in Kajiado? We have vernacular radio in the rural areas, and this is the major source of information. It continues to re-enforce the stereotypes. Maybe Moi was on to something when he only had KBC in English and Swahili.

At the risk of being burned on the stake, I strongly believe we should ban ethnic radio stations. We really need to ask what value they add to Kenya. Personally, I see none.

re: You are right
written by Paul Kimani - Lugha , February 22, 2008

At the risk of being burned on the stake, I strongly believe we should ban ethnic radio stations. We really need to ask what value they add to Kenya. Personally, I see none.

That would be pretty dumb IMHO. So what do we do after that, change all our surnames to Smith as Michael Joseph once suggested in K24. You have to know that our languages are very near extinction. So we can make the decision to throw them out now and we all become Swahili and English speakers or to preserve them. If we are going to preserve them then we should not be minimizing exposure but increasing it. That means building institutions to teach them. They should also permeate into televised media and of course literature etc. The modern urban environment cannot be entrusted with this task. I for one would be pretty happy and proud to go and learn jaluo instead of German and French. What people don't seem to understand is that those languages are the last vestige of africanness that we have. Whatever cultures we had established, just did not survive the European assault. So rest assured that our languages will be jealously guarded. Instead of destroying them we should work towards having multi-ethnic language speakers.

re: not a PNU magazine
written by mkosakabila , February 22, 2008

Dude,
Rest assured if the ODM was not preaching hate many people here, at least many of those I know would be very much anti-Kibaki.

Right. Just look at his hairstyle!

well said
written by observer , February 22, 2008

At the risk of being burned on the stake, I strongly believe we should ban ethnic radio stations. We really need to ask what value they add to Kenya. Personally, I see none.

I agree, the government would have to pry them from the owners/listeners cold dead hands. The alternative would be to give the CCK the teeth that the FCC has in the United States to monitor and fine or close down organizations that engaged in activates that violate decency and human rights. Isn't it amazing the in the EU it is a criminal offence to deny the holocaust; while in Kenya leading political figures can make very public, rabid and inflammatory tribalist statements and out right calls for ethnic violence.

hate-speech and the stru*gle
written by Stephen Wanyama , February 22, 2008

Observer,
Even odder (and on the Holocaust denial thread) is the fact that while families grieve and try to understand the violence committed against them, there are those, 'human rights activists' who deny that the violence is at all on ethnic grounds, a euphemism must be employed, it is now 'political with ethnic undertones'. Undertones which must not be very hidden to Balala, Nyong'o or Raila as they keep inciting people against the Kikuyu. I am sure the spin masters the ODM employs will find a way to explain that Balala did not really mean that, I mean Lesotho is a land-locked country, cannot really be an island. Not one of the reports I have seen the busy bees writing has the adui comment either, or the admonition that mtalia when I get into office said in Meru (it was eeerily like Kenyatta's tutwasiaga speech in Kisumu wasn't it?

--------
Is this the right thread? About the movement idea, we could start by correcting the biases in the media, the lies they let the politicians get away with, and how they, this point has to be made, created this crisis. We must have a list of shame, with people like Dennis Onyango, Kipkoech Tanui, Barrack Muluka, Dominic Odipo and wahalifu wengine's names on it. Why was there such an uproar about the media ban? Is it not surprising that there was opposition to the ban on live media? And that this was portrayed as a human rights issue? I mean honestly!! Is there anyone who does not know that the media helped this along?

There must also be a list of shame for hate-mongers in the political world, and those supporters of crimes against Kenyans like Maina Kiai.

But it must not become a witch-hunt. For every single accusation we must provide back-up evidence. People here have proved supremely talented at sleuthing, finding these reports and books that disprove the politicians lies. We must also work as hard as possible on neutrality. Kibaki is not our friend, and he is in any case on his last legs. Uhuru Kenyatta is not our friend either, we must look for solutions and push them, bring as many people on board as possible so we are not just making noise, but so we actually matter. We must make proposals and put out papers on how to make these work, where have they worked before, new ideas which we can disagree on here and fine-tune. The Democrats in America are doing just that with websites such as the DailyKos, MoveOn and others, but we can do even better, we can become a think-tank, the day of the vijana who will be viongozi wa kesho. Just words it is true, but by going against the tribal wisdom we are already halfway there.This is the only place in Kenya where the Luo, the Kikuyu, the Akamba, the Maasai, the Somali, the Kisii and everyone else are coming together and rejecting the change that means destruction and the reward of the basest demagoguery. We are coming together to say yes, we want change, but we do not want to shuffle the cards, we do not want to burn our country-men, we cannot stand and tolerate hate-speech, we want to build a new and prosperous Kenya.

Let us take over the change agenda, it is ours and we are running with it now.

agreed, not a PNU magazine
written by Ndorobo , February 22, 2008

Wanyama, I agree with you. This is far from a PNU magazine. I never said it was a PNU magazine, I just implied that it was perceived to be so to make my point about Kenyans loving to box/classify people into categories.

I said:

For example, here at KI as much as we try to be objective, a casual reader will assume that we are PNU guys. We do get a lot of die hard dissenting views. A casual surfer will drop an abusive line occasionally but will not spend the time understanding most of the contributors to KI. He/she assumes he knows what we present, and we are Kibaki supporters. My take is that a majority of the people here are anti-violence. See beyond the Kibaki vs. Raila power struggle and see this as an important moment for the country and not for individuals. A good number have analysed the data from the elections. Have done a comparative analysis of Kibaki vs. Raila policies and effectiveness and come to the conclusion that we are better off with moderate leadership that embraces the entire nation and does not discriminate or hate-monger against others.

Ok, I might have taken it too far by implying that based on an analysis of Kibaki vs. Raila policies, the contributors have decided to take sides. I retract that specific word *policy*. However, we can at least agree that hate-mongering and discrimanation is deeply frowned.

re: You are right
written by Daniel.Waweru , February 22, 2008

At the risk of being burned on the stake, I strongly believe we should ban ethnic radio stations. We really need to ask what value they add to Kenya. Personally, I see none.

I agree. Smacks of authoritarianism, but it is almost certainly the way forward.

Nobody believes me when I say Moi was a nationalist (actually, people tend to laugh derisively), but, remember, he was anti vernacular-FM broadcasts.

You are right in principal but
written by Isindu Mwangaza , February 22, 2008

Right now, even among seemingly educated people, they neither stutter nor blush when they make generalizations about tribes.We degenerate after we leave school. Now if these are our intellectuals and elites, what about the masses? What kind of evil thoughts have been fed to someone deep in Nyandarua who has never interacted with someone from deep in Kajiado? We have vernacular radio in the rural areas, and this is the major source of information. It continues to re-enforce the stereotypes. Maybe Moi was on to something when he only had KBC in English and Swahili.

At the risk of being burned on the stake, I strongly believe we should ban ethnic radio stations. We really need to ask what value they add to Kenya. Personally, I see none.

While this form of action would have immediate effect on suppressing stereotypes, it would be insincere for a Nation that seeks to rise above its challenges for opting to go the easy route.

I'm struggling to comprehend both sides with an open mind. I spoke to My Mom this morning and her usual optimism and carefree nature that has allowed her to serve people without expecting anything in return was gone.

You see, in 1985, she resigned as an emergency room Nurse and moved to the rural area to offer her services with or without pay. She managed well, albeit with little funfair but plenty of the help from my late Dad.

She trained at "Russia" hospital in Kisumu and blended well into the environment even though she was not from the area. As it turns out, a young Asian Doctor of Kenyan descent who later became our family Doctors was interning there. Her graduation and that of her class coincided with the opening of the hospital built by Russians now known as Kisumu Provincial Hospital. On that day, Jomo Kenyatta was the guest of honor but he was stoned by crowds who believed he had undermined Jaramogi Odinga. This was right on the heals of a fallout between the two men.

Security forces killed several people that day at the grounds of the Hospital and my Mom, at only 19, managed to escape into the building. On that day, she treated many survivors of the violence that ensued and from then on, her life was changed and so were her views on Politics.

She has remained sceptical of politicians but never of friends of different ethnic make-up. She has always believed that one's ethnic background could not be used as a measure of one's character. She had reservations about women of a certain ethnic background but never allowed us to formulate any opinion until we were men enough to struggle with that issue.

As kids, she took us to soccer games when AFC Leopards was playing some Manchester City at Afraha Stadium and to Rugby games when the Kenya team was hammed by British Army. We managed to go to the All African Games and watch the final Match Between Harambee Stars & Pharaohs which ended in a 1-0 loss.

My point is, this is the environment she thrived in, a Kenya indivisible, one that allowed even a woman to have all these passions and little time to worry about what ethnic group she was from. She rarely spoke her mother tongue unless when to communicate where it was necessary. We understood this much and adopted her way of openness.

Ethnic Radio is essential to cultural identity and the diversity of who we are. We cannot suppress ideals but we can be better managers of these ideals. If a woman, as my Mom, was restrained in anyway or constrained to the usual stereotypes that go with women especially in the 70's, 80's, and 90's, she would have died inside.

That death, internal and personal has come, thanks to the Politician and their near-sightedness. Thanks to a situation that guarantees nothing of tomorrow, or a way out of the impasse, her spirit is gone. I think however, she is worried for us....she is worried we might see things from a politician's set of eyes.

Totally with you on this.
written by Nyabs , February 22, 2008

At the risk of being burned on the stake, I strongly believe we should ban ethnic radio stations. We really need to ask what value they add to Kenya. Personally, I see none.

I agree, the government would have to pry them from the owners/listeners cold dead hands. The alternative would be to give the CCK the teeth that the FCC has in the United States to monitor and fine or close down organizations that engaged in activates that violate decency and human rights. Isn't it amazing the in the EU it is a criminal offence to deny the holocaust; while in Kenya leading political figures can make very public, rabid and inflammatory tribalist statements and out right calls for ethnic violence.

But why? Recent utterances of senior politicians on continued isolation of a community and creation of a Kikuyustan have elicited absolutely no response even from church leaders who are trying to reinvent themselves after their shameful biases during the electioneering period.
These guys go around making utterances as if its normal politicking during normal times. For heaven's sake, the country is on the brink of civil war!

Topmost on the legislative agenda of parliament when it reconvenes should be laws that prescribe severe punishment of utterances that seek to cause disaffection and hatred against any Kenyan communities and either the outright ban of all ethnic radio stations or if this is not feasible, very tight control over their content and hefty fines and closures to any that seek to forward a ethnic hatred and divisionist agenda.

Then and only then we will end this culture of characterizing communities as domineering, thieving, or lazy.

And we will also effectively remove from the politicians a major campaign platform-ethnic bashing. Only those that are issue oriented will survive.

Makes you wonder: what will happen to some politicians whose have built by creating fear among their constituents of the big scary tribes who are out to dominate their constituents and against whom they must protect they constituents, once ethnic labelling and hatred is criminalized.

...
written by Mr. Vikii , February 22, 2008

Sophie, no country understands sovereignty better than the United states of America. Their insistence on Kenya being too important to be let go is day-light hypocrisy. They know we have the maturity and the right to chart our own destiny, but then again they, being the bully boys they have always been, have so much sectarian interests they want catered for that they can't sit back and watch as the Kibaki administration strengthens our independence and gives it true meaning. That is why Condi was dispatched to Kenya and instructed to lecture us on the need for real(as opposed to illusory) power sharing.

On the subject of KI commentators and ODM, I totally agree with Wanyama. Mwai Kibaki is not a darling of anyone who wants to see Kenya have a leadership that is in tandem with the demands of the 21st century. I voted for Kibaki in 2002, I did this knowing fully well that Michael Wamalwa would have been a better bet for the opposition. Ethnicity had to be exploited however and they settled for Kibaki. We did not have a choice but vote for him. But Kibaki does appear like an angel when we are forced to consider either him or Raila Odinga's war gang. Telling me to choose between a boring Kibaki or a warlord like Raila whose only agenda in politics is self aggrandizement is making the choice too easy for me. A leader who calls for the extermination of his opponent's tribe even when that tribe voted for him in a larger scale than his own did for the opponent, can only be leader unto hell.

What exactly is negative ethnicity? IMO that doesn't in way mean the languages we speak. The Gikuyu language, Dholuo, The Luyia language, The Maasai etc, are very important aspects of the Kenyan heritage that we do not want to get rid off. These languages are harmless.
The Kenyans on the street have no problem co-existing. The problem is the politicians. When a politician who is revered by his community tells them 'we have been sat on for far too long by tribe X', what do you expect? Why should a politician get away with threatening a whole community with words like "mtalia" just because they have refused to endorse his myopic world-view? Why should anybody label a community 'adui'? These are some of the things we should have in mind when reforming the ECK. Any politician who runs for office on the platform of ethnicity should be banned from ever holding any position of authority in the society. This is the language these fellows can understand.

How dangerous are vernacular radio stations? Royal media services for example owns Kameme, Mulembe, musyi and Ramogi. Does Ramogi demonise the Kikuyu or the Luo? Does Kameme really demonise the Luhya? Can Musyi FM really demonise the Kikuyu, the tribe of their proprietor? Our problems lie elsewhere ,peeps.

the politicians
written by Stephen Wanyama , February 22, 2008

The Achebe book, The Trouble with Nigeria, starts out with exactly what the problem with Kenya is. 'The trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a problem of leadership'. The just released Afro-barometer, shows off the following mind-boggling perceptions,

But it is too easy to dismiss voting intentions as a serious indictment of President Kibaki’s rule in recent years. Economic growth has been relatively robust since he took office in 2002, being above 6 percent in the last three years. Broad macroeconomic stability has been maintained as well. President Kibaki’s approval ratings were still very high in late 2007: 69 percent approved or strongly approved of the way he performed in the previous 12 months, while less than 10 percent disapproved or strongly disapproved (the rest neither approved nor disapproved). Unsurprisingly, likely Kibaki voters gave the highest approval ratings at 93 percent. But also among likely Odinga voters, Kibaki’s ratings were very positive with 47 percent approving or strongly approving, and only 15 percent disapproving or strongly disapproving. Even among people of Luo ethnic origin, approval of Kibaki’s performance stood at 44 percent, well above his disapproval rate of only 14 percent. People’s perceptions of economic conditions in the country reflect their appreciation of the incumbent’s record, with 51 percent reporting that the country was doing better or much better during Kibaki’s rule, compared to his predecessor President Moi’s period in office. Only 28 percent thought that the country was doing worse or much worse. And more people reported improving living conditions than worsening living conditions (45 to 33 percent). Even among likely Odinga voters, equal numbers thought the country was doing better than doing worse, even though more thought that their own living standards had worsened during Kibaki’s rule (but a quarter still reporting improved living standards).

It would therefore be wrong to conclude that current political tensions can be traced to objective indicators of rising poverty. Indeed, using a simple standard of living index based on the survey data (a wealth index, based on a score of 13 possible durable assets, such as radio, bicycle, fridge, telephone etc.) there is no difference in the standards of living between likely Odinga voters and likely Kibaki voters. Nor is there a significant difference in average wealth between Luo and Kikuyu.Approximate material equality exists across these main ethnic groups even though Nyanza Province, the traditional homeland of the Luo, has on average lower wealth, and more people with low levels of assets than the Central Province, the predominantly Kikuyu area. The differences between the regional and ethnic patterns can be explained by substantial numbers of Luo and Kikuyu living elsewhere in the country, including in Nairobi.

According to our survey, the perceived grievances of the Luo in Kenya do not arise from a generalized socio-economic disadvantage. Nor is there evidence in the data that this is an artificial result linked to the relative bias in our sample to voters of somewhat higher economic status.

So it is clear, especially considering just how Kibaki's pre-July approval ratings were, that it is the ODM's very successful hate-campaign against the Kikuyu that informed voting at this election, and not any of the Kibaki has not delivered nonsense from the ODM. There is no real reason for urban anger but incitement.

PDF Link here

Kibaki\'s incompetence
written by Daniel.Waweru , February 22, 2008

Wanyama,

I see you spotted that Afrobarometer survey too.

Anyway, Kibbs is, surely, an amazingly incompetent politician: how on earth did he manage to spend more than KES 5B on infrastructure in Nyanza, and end up with Kisumu ethnically cleansed of Kisiis and GEMA?

KI not pro PNU
written by observer , February 22, 2008

I believe that the reason Kibaki and the PNU he have been spared the kind of political critique that the ODM and Railia have received on this site is in large part because he/they has kept their mouths shut. Railia and the ODM on the other hand, never miss an opportunity to disappoint, the cases are too numerous to mention.

Poor and Unimaginative leaders
written by observer , February 22, 2008

The trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a problem of leadership

I read somewhere the there are now two election wining philosophies in the America. Philosophies which I think fit and apply very well with the type of political leadership we have in Kenya. The first is the Karl Rove way which appeals to extremist positions and wining by very narrow margins by the use of wedge issues. The second is a centrist majority rule employed by Bill Clinton that aims to appeal to the center and win by large margins avoiding extremist and partisan positions.

In Kenya our leadership lack the political sophistication and foresight to employ the Bill Clinton method and thus resort the Karl Rove way of wedge issues by appealing the very worst in us , our ethnic chauvinism and bigotry.

re: KI not pro PNU
written by benadede , February 23, 2008

I believe that the reason Kibaki and the PNU he have been spared the kind of political critique that the ODM and Railia have received on this site is in large part because he/they has kept their mouths shut. Railia and the ODM on the other hand, never miss an opportunity to disappoint, the cases are too numerous to mention.

You are right. It behoves Kenyans to be watchful of the silent ones too lest they get away with their share of blame in this sad affair.

I would estimate that their share of blame is just as big if not bigger. If we turn a blind eye to their sins, we will not be solving any problem by vanqushing the loud ones.

My plea is that we should identify new leadership in the country and support these leaders and empower them the way we are always willing to support the established and tainted ones. If we don't, the new leaders will soon be socialized in the same old ways of the current established leaders.

...
written by a guest , February 23, 2008

What I agree with you most sophie about us Kenyans as some of the response have cited is the way we vuew ourselves simplistically, in a manner that we question ourself of our capabilities in making our own destiny. It makes me wonder why oh why we need Condoleeza Rice or Annan for that matter to help us in realizing what is best for our country. Imagine that ! Why is it that us as a country with Kenyans who have studied from the various universities to be reckoned with ( Harvard, wharton, Yale , UC Berkeley, MIT ) need a mediator to facilitate what our dear Kenyans need. Is the solution such a mystery that we cannot by ourselves reach an amicable solution or is it we are subconciously still colonised not to think for ourselves?
It is eve apparent how we even here in Kenyan imagine we correct our grammar challenged individuals as if it really matters if some of us are eloquent and articulate at that than others ( first class colonial mindedness ). What does it matter if someone directly translates to luo , luhya or kyuk grammar. Why is it we do not point fingers to Jaoan direct translation. A s long as we continue thinking that we need to emulate American and UK style of polticiking, the faster we will fall. For once I wish Africans can formulate a way of solving a problem the way they know how rather than stealing ideas form Ghandi , Martin Luther and Kennedy if not Obama

...
written by a guest , February 23, 2008

Wanyama post: I agree with you about the so called freedom of speech. When everyone followed this slogan to the Z, did the media groups or media rights group whoever they are did proper researrch to know the weight they carried on their shoulders. Did they realize this is not just about registering radio statio or publications with all sorts of irresponsible reportings. I was one of the few Kenyans who had a problem with the half baked journalist who sprang up during Kibaki freedom of speech era who questioned the quality of press that were availed to the masses. If we are honest with ourselves on how we got theere, lets not only blame politicans but also the wananchi quest for uhuru for what did Uhuru really mean? Did we take it and ran with it with no fully meaning of the word? If youthink I'm just throwing jabs , try reading Robert Ruark"uhuru" and you will resonate as to what transpired in the 1950s and what we are experiencing now of wanting change and just as as then , do we really understand what change means?

...
written by manta ray , February 23, 2008

What truly ails Kenya is a virulent disease incubated in the years Moi lowered the expectations Kenyans should have of leadership and politicians, and who nurtured and propelled ill-educated thugs and buffoons to national prominence for political convenience, generally discouraged competence and ability and replaced it with loyalty and sycophancy, and rewarded this mediocrity with power, wealth and influence.
In other words, Moi demonstrated that you could get all of life's material comforts without really working hard.
The resultant effect was to completely change the dynamics of leadership in Kenya, making self aggrandizement the all encompassing goal of any aspiring politician.
A whole generation therefore has no idea what being truly free is i.e the ability to exercise self reliance and informed personal judgement on all issues including rejecting the offerings of snake oil salesmen like politicians.
Until and unless Kenyans learn to demand and expect better quality leadership, not just from politicians but also from the media, from civil society, from the religious leaders, from your business partner etc., Kenya will forever be burdened with inarticulate buffoons like Balala, the mendacity and dishonesty of Nyong'o and busybody mediocrities like Kiunjuri.
To instill this knowledge in the general populace will require the vernacular media to be used as inexpensive but efficient tools for disseminating information because these languages are the principal means of communicating in Kenya and cannot be wished away.

I don\'t get it
written by Nyabs , February 23, 2008

So it is clear, especially considering just how Kibaki's pre-July approval ratings were, that it is the ODM's very successful hate-campaign against the Kikuyu that informed voting at this election, and not any of the Kibaki has not delivered nonsense from the ODM. There is no real reason for urban anger but incitement.

PDF Link here

@ Wanyama, I have read the whole report and frankly, I don't get it. Given the approval ratings and reported well being of the people interviewed, I would have expected Kibaki re-election to have been a shoo in, a stroll in the park.

But you are pointing out that the hate campaign against the Kikuyu could have resulted into the type of voting patterns we saw, even in Rift Valley, where Kibaki's agricultural policies must have led to wealth creation and well-being.

So, are we saying then that the Kenyan voter who is not kikuyu is so kikuyu-phobic and ethno-centric that even when a government, whose president happens to be kikuyu, does improve his standard and quality of life, he would still go ahead and vote that government out? I would have thought that even with incitement, this voter would look at the inciters in the eye, and tell them, to paraphrase the blind guy who was healed by Jesus: " I really don't care that this man you are telling me about is Kikuyu and Kikuyu are bad, all I know is that I was poor and through this man's policy, at least now I have something I can call my own"

That this did not happen and that the region that did benefit most from Kibaki is the one that has systematically killed and destroyed properties those perceived to be pro-Kibaki, does call for more analysis.

All these leads to one conclusion: that the killers in the Rift Valley were on someone's payroll. There was no economic marginalization. The arrest of several councillors is particularly telling, when you consider that councillors are the ones who do the dirty work of politicians at the lower level.

I do hope that the government, assisted by the relevant international bodies and agencies, will get to the bottom of the killings. Because we do need as a nation to have answers to this question of ethnic animosity and murder.

re: I don\'t get it
written by manta ray , February 23, 2008

I have read the whole report and frankly, I don't get it. Given the approval ratings and reported well being of the people interviewed, I would have expected Kibaki re-election to have been a shoo in, a stroll in the park.

But you are pointing out that the hate campaign against the Kikuyu could have resulted into the type of voting patterns we saw, even in Rift Valley, where Kibaki's agricultural policies must have led to wealth creation and well-being.

Nyabs, as long as the mainstream Kenyan media is staffed by irresponsible, conniving, cynical, corrupt and non-investigative ignorant half-baked journalists like Dominic Odipo, the poster boy for the lows Kenyan journalism has reached; Journalists who do not understand or appreciate their role in educating the public to make informed decisions especially on politics and its practitioners, to look beyond the superficial and to expect and demand higher standards of leadership, Kenya and its people will in perpetuity end up with the kind of mind-boggling electoral results that are, in a nutshell,the stuff of legend!

Vernacular Stations
written by James Watt , February 23, 2008

At the risk of being burned on the stake, I strongly believe we should ban ethnic radio stations. We really need to ask what value they add to Kenya. Personally, I see none.

And then what? Ban people from speaking their mother tongues? Kill all the wonderful languages we have that are the only cultural identity we have? English does not make us Kenyans. It is the mkoloni language. Neither does Swahili, a mish mash of bantu and arabic that is spoken by every Tom, Dick and Harry. We should be moving forward not backwards.Anyone who tries to kill our languages, and removing vernacular stations, would be the first dangerous step, will find a united front against them.

re: Vernacular Stations
written by Daniel.Waweru , February 23, 2008

At the risk of being burned on the stake, I strongly believe we should ban ethnic radio stations. We really need to ask what value they add to Kenya. Personally, I see none.

And then what? Ban people from speaking their mother tongues? Kill all the wonderful languages we have that are the only cultural identity we have? English does not make us Kenyans. It is the mkoloni language. Neither does Swahili, a mish mash of bantu and arabic that is spoken by every Tom, Dick and Harry. We should be moving forward not backwards.Anyone who tries to kill our languages, and removing vernacular stations, would be the first dangerous step, will find a united front against them.

Boring slippery-slope argument. Requiring broadcasts to be in English or Swahili is not the same as banning vernacular languages.

Theres isn't, to my knowledge, any language called Bantu. That Swahili has derived lots of words from Arabic (and Portuguese, and English) doesn't make it any less a language. By that logic, neither English nor Gikuyu are languages in good standing, since English has grammar and vocabulary from Latin and French, and Gikuyu has borrowed words and grammar from Maasai (Ngai = Enkai).

Swahili is certainly a Bantu language; all those ngelis should be a clue.

Vernacular Station
written by James Watt , February 23, 2008

Boring slippery-slope argument. Requiring broadcasts to be in English or Swahili is not the same as banning vernacular languages.

Theres isn't, to my knowledge, any language called Bantu. That Swahili has derived lots of words from Arabic (and Portuguese, and English) doesn't make it any less a language. By that logic, neither English nor Gikuyu are languages in good standing, since English has grammar and vocabulary from Latin and French, and Gikuyu has borrowed words and grammar from Maasai (Ngai = Enkai).

Swahili is certainly a Bantu language; all those ngeli should be a clue.

My reasoning as you can see was based on taking this reasoning to the next level. When you come to the conclusion that all our ills will be cured by banning vernacular stations (incidentally reducing the freedom of speech, why shouldn't I be able to listen to radio in my own language and in my own country?), why not go a step further and ban those languages all together. BTW, I don't think it would be that hard to police these stations and put the laws in place that would guarantee that they are not misused. You don't even need that much manpower to do it. That to me is a the more responsible way to go. See you have to be able to look one or two steps ahead of every argument, like a chess player. When the US through NATO bombed Serbia in 1998, I was opposed to it. Not because they didn't have some good arguments for doing it but because it challenged the principle of sovereignty and non-interference. In case you don't know why that was important, you only have to look at Poland in 1939, when it was attacked by Germany. And sure enough when Saddam tried to pull the same bull in Kuwait in 1990, he felt the almost combined force of the world wrath. Now in 1998, NATO, incidentally with Kofi Annan as UN head, made a huge dent in the law of sovereignty. And 5 years later, the US in Iraq went to deal a crashing blow to that law. The reasons for going to war were even murkier but in reality were to advance the US national interests, still with Kofi as the head of the UN. As a Kenyan when you see this happening you just ask yourself, what happens when it is our turn. The reasons might be murkier still and what happens when the US is replaced by a more evil superpower which will site the Iraqi war as its own justification for carrying out its own agenda? Funny enough proponents of the Serbian war like Germany and France were at the fore front of opposing the war on Iraq and citizens poured out in droves onto the streets to protest the war.
I believe Kenyans can come up with better solutions than killing, what it is that makes us Kenyans in the first place, for without our languages and cultures we are nothing better than hollow and poorer version of black Americans. A people who had to create some sort of cultural identification from scratch, as theirs were ruthlessly taken away from them. About Swahili, I didn't say that it is any less of a language, I'd just rather identify more with my mother tongue than it. The more common, something is the less valuable it is Swahili is copper. Dholuo, Gikuyu, Luhya etc. are gold. What do vernacular stations do? They keep those languages alive.

re: Vernacular Stations
written by Nyabs , February 23, 2008

At the risk of being burned on the stake, I strongly believe we should ban ethnic radio stations. We really need to ask what value they add to Kenya. Personally, I see none.

And then what? Ban people from speaking their mother tongues? Kill all the wonderful languages we have that are the only cultural identity we have? English does not make us Kenyans. It is the mkoloni language. Neither does Swahili, a mish mash of bantu and arabic that is spoken by every Tom, Dick and Harry. We should be moving forward not backwards.Anyone who tries to kill our languages, and removing vernacular stations, would be the first dangerous step, will find a united front against them.

Alas, my worst fears have been confirmed! I am being burned at the stake. No, I would not advocate for the banning of the vernacular as spoken mother to child and within an ethnic community. It is a heritage that we should all be proud of.

Granted, vernacular radio stations do seem to provide an important service with news and information. But my question remains. How can we ensure that they are not used as tools for negative ethnicity? How to we make sure that they do not further the interests of ethnocentric politicians? What standards should we hold the broadcasters and preseters to, to ensure that they don't, whether intentionally or unintentionally, cause ethnic hatred and division?

We have to agree. Ethnicity is Kenya is strong, very strong. In my University years, I used to get amused at how people would form friendships within their ethnic groups and eat only at the tables where their tribesmen were eating. Then they would meet in the ethnic based district associations and even in class they would still bond with their tribemen and women. We have created a schooling system where a student can finish all their schooling years without ever having met anybody from another ethnic group, except the odd teacher. And when these guys are adults, we now give them ethnic radio stations as their primary source of news and information. And then we wonder why we are so ethnicised!

This is my question: to who do the vernacular radio pledge loyalty? The tribe or the nation? If it is coded into their DNA that their commitment is to national unity and cohesiveness, then they will pass on news, information and opinion in a balanced, none-ethnicised manner even if the same is passed in the kikuyu, kisii, luhya or kalenjin languages.

If on the other hand their loyalty is to the tribe, then you will have tribalists behind the microphone, shaping tribal opinions, perceptions and outlooks and using innuendos, stereotypes to create divisions and hatred between tribes. And rest assured, the politicians will do anything and everything to lay their hands on this tool that enables them to control what their ethnic constituencies think. And unfortunately, in the last elections, that is what exactly happened.

And James, I disagree with you. Tribes are exclusive in nature. Let me ask a question: how do you feel when your boss walks into shared office space, talks Kikuyu to your collegue and walks out? If you are not kikuyu, you feel isolated and left out. Your kikuyu collegue on the other hand feels he is one with the boss, almost a pal and he can get the boss to do things for you that he cannot do for you. See? Tribal bonding and exclusion at its best.

As a tool for passing on culture, local knowledge and communication at village level, I believe there is a role that vernacular can play in modern Kenya.

But at a national level, we all need a language that we can all use and understand. I don't think that language is English, but it should be kiswahili. And what this means is that any leader standing on a national platform or seeking to adress issues of national concern, even on an ethnic radio station, should do so in a language that we all understand to enable us understand what he or she is saying and enable us engage him in a debate. If a vernacular radio station producers wants to discuss national issues, then he or she must leave the comfort of his or her ethnic tongue, talk to all of us in a language we can all understand, so that we, also, can participate in the debate and clear any perceptions or misinformation that could have been broadcasted.

I am sorry James, I cannot accept a lower standard. We should by striving to create a nation called Kenya, not a conglomeration of 42 tribes living uneasily together, and ocassionally killing one another whenever there is a disputed election or any other divisive issue.

Tanzania does not have ethnic radio stations and open ethnicity and it does not seem to be worse of for it.

Still on the vernacular
written by Nyabs , February 23, 2008

Point well taken James.

Our problem is not that people speak Kikuyu or Kisii or Luhya. Our problem is that people identify themselves as such first, before they consider themsevles Kenyans. And this is the tragedy of our nation. In three words-strong ethnic nationalism.

We need to do all we can't to dilute the ethnic nationalism and build Kenyan nationalism. That way, we will not be calling Kiai and Wanyeki and Wangari traitors because they do not seem to agree with the "common stand" of "our tribe"

Off the top of my head, I think we need to reorganize our district boundaries, making them more multi-ethnic, relook into the schooling system and at the tender age of 14, move the kids around the country, which will force them to learn other languages and cultures and make friends across ethnic lines, encourage investment and ownership of property wherever one wills and of course, tame the vernacular radio stations.

And I agree. Apart for KI, I have not seen anyone condemn Anyang Nyong'o, Balala, Ababu and Raila on their utterances against that famous "community". This complicity in silence will be our undoing as a nation. They should be made to know, in no uncertain terms, that such talk is entirely untolerable.

I rest my case.

re: re: Vernacular Stations
written by James Watt , February 23, 2008

Alas, my worst fears have been confirmed! I am being burned at the stake.
Tanzania does not have ethnic radio stations and open ethnicity and it does not seem to be worse of for it.

The problem of creating the Kenyan nation by weakening the 42 nations that exist within it is that you will end up developing a counter movement that will destroy the very Kenya you are trying to build. Instead of spending all our energies building this Kenya you claim, which has little to offer in terms of cultural identity, we should instead acknowledge that we are a conglomerate of 42 nations and work it up from there. Solutions that ignore reality, will be no good in the long run. I do listen to a Kikuyu station every once in a while and I know for a fact that they don't spend their time hitting or stereotyping other tribes. In fact the other tribes don't even come into focus. And even if the language of communication is Swahili or English, it will still not stop people from having the views they have and communicating them. The solution is not to ban the stations but prevent people from uttering inciting statements in the first place. Even in a Swahili and English, Najib Balala can still utter that he wants to confine Kikuyu to an island like Lesotho and Ababu Namwamba can say that any community, codeword for the Kikuyu, who do not accept the popular mandate can ask for self-determination from the rest of Kenya. When Anyang Nyong'o says they will no longer allow one community to dominate them economically and politically, I imagine that he did that in Swahili not in Dholuo. This without any reaction from anyone. And regarding the politicians, let them speak in their own tongues if they want to. What we should have is more Kikuyu speaking Luyia, Kipsigis, Nandi etc and more Luo speaking Kikuyu etc, more Kalenjin doing the same. You get my drift. Then we should entrench the system of community policing. If we can't trust the Kalenjin, the Kikuyu or the Luo to report on one of their on then we should have other people from other communities reporting on that. You have to remember, security does not work in a vacuum and if you don't have the help of local communities, no amount of policing will help you. The example you gave of the Kikuyu boss ids no different from two Frenchmen speaking French in multi-cultural environment, where some people might not understand the language. Unless we only have one language in this planet, we are certainly not going to get around that and God did not want us to only have one language. Remember the story of the tower of Babel.

Responsible speech
written by observer , February 23, 2008

I think we understand the issue of freedom of speech (vernacular stations), what we haven't quite grasped yet is, freedom has responsibilities. Chief among those responsibilities is to guard every Kenyans rights to freedom of religion, association and private property.

Ones freedom of speech can and should never infringe on the rights of others to archive these things. If our politicians understood this very basic principle the they would know that the adui and Lesotho comments fly in the face of the very freedoms they claim to seek.

freedom is slavery to truth
written by Stephen Wanyama , February 23, 2008

Nyabs,
It helps no one if you decide to fore-sake your tribe, and then betray Kenya does it? Imagine you were a Kisii victim of the Rift Valley clashes, having suffered attacks in 1992, 1997 and again in 2008; will you be happy that Muthoni Wanyeki is pretending that there are no tribal clashes? That there is no ethnic cleansing?

Imagine that you were a disenfranchised female voter in Kisumu or Lang'ata, who had your vote card grabbed from you as you went to the voting booth, that you were denied kura yako, or that you were an agent of the PNU or of ODM-K and were not allowed into the polling station, would you be entertained by the fact that Maina Kiai has overcome his being Kikuyu? That he speaks as though the ODM is a phalanx of angelic do-gooders?

If you were Kikuyu terrified after the Lesotho speech, the endless barrage on KASS fm, the three year long two-minute hate and the unity of ODM in calling for the isolation of the ODM, what would you then think of Kiai's silence on this hate-speech? Warm and cuddly?

In a true post-tribal Kenya, we should not even think that we are going against our tribes. We should simply ask what is in the national interest, what is right, what is true. Looking to win plaudits by rebelling, or making a martyr of yourself does not help Kenya in any way. I have heard there are some Kikuyu folk who are still adamant in their support for Raila and the ODM, even funding them. Are they doing Kenya a service?

As Tim Norwood pointed out sometime earlier in response to Wambui Mwangi's article asking for Kikuyu folk to apologise for god-knows-what there is a great tradition of self-hating pioneered to great profit by the likes of Ayaan Hirsi-Ali. It is very rewarding, you win awards, exile, even jobs and money, but is ultimately injurious to everyone; the national interest and also the aggressor as they are led to believe in the righteousness of their crimes. It is oddest when you choose to go the extreme like Kiai and Wanyeki choose to do (living in a parallel universe even) or like Hirsi Ali (endorsing neo-conservatives).

Please note that Wangari Maathai does not even deserve a mention. 5 years in parliament and not a single bill? Not even with the prestige of the Nobel Prize? Not even a single nationally inspiring project outside of parliament? I suppose Kibaki's tyrranical government did not let her?

For examples on standing for the truth, even with threats from your own people look at the great examples of Akbar Ghanji and Shirin Ebadi.

Interesting Argument Wanyama.
written by Nyabs , February 23, 2008

@Wanyama, you totally missed my point. Let me repeat it: I condemn the death threats to Kiai, Wanyeki and Wangari because they are being issued because they are perceived to have gone against the tribe, a case of negative ethnic nationalism at its worst.

The work and utterances of Kiai and Wanyeki ( I will leave Wangari out of this), should not be seen through ethnic lenses. If I was a kikuyu, I would not be challenging them on the grounds that they have gone against the tribe. No. I will take them head on the basis that, despite all evidence next to their noses, they have chosen to ignore it and come to conclusions that make no sense to any rational person. I would not disagree with them on the basis of their ethnicity or mine, but on the basis of their professionalism.

And of course, if I was a victim of ethnic cleansing, regardless of Wanyeki's and Kiai's ethnic background, I would be very mad with their callous handling of this issue.

I always like to give this argument: say I was a Luhya and a bunch of 30 Luhya thieves broke into my house, beat me up, raped my wife and swept my house clean, would I take comfort and say " it is ok. At least it was Luhyas and not kikuyus who did these to us". No, rest assured, if I had means of self-defence, I would use it against them, regardless of whether they speak my dialect or not.

But, we seem to be happy when we have thieves in government stealing from us. We comfort ourselves that at least they are from our tribe. We even vote them back to continue stealing from us. A very illogical and irrational argument.

My point: we have to rise above our ethnicities. Wanyeki and Kiai would have been my heroes if they had admitted that we have ethnic cleansing in our hands, in addition to condemning the killings in Naivasha and Nakuru. They failed that test and they stand condemned in my eyes. The kikuyu community should also condemn them on this basis, but not on the basis of them being kikuyu. In ths context calling them traitors of a community is going too far. Since when were they representatives of their community in the job they were doing? The last time I checked, these were national level positions, not community leadership positions and it is as national human rights commissioners that they should be judged and condemned if found guilty, but not as members of the Kikuyu community.

re: Responsible speech
written by Isindu Mwangaza , February 23, 2008

I think we understand the issue of freedom of speech (vernacular stations), what we haven't quite grasped yet is, freedom has responsibilities. Chief among those responsibilities is to guard every Kenyans rights to freedom of religion, association and private property.

Ones freedom of speech can and should never infringe on the rights of others to archive these things. If our politicians understood this very basic principle the they would know that the adui and Lesotho comments fly in the face of the very freedoms they claim to seek.

Reckless conjecture is not immune to politicians especially in a society where the rule of law, pre-12/27 was subverted, ignored and even ridiculed by those who perceive themselves as above the law. we have a constitution that reeks of scorn the very moment it is applied.

Times like these need men & women of good will and we need them in the majority, from either side. Here is why;
You can neither deny the majority their will nor justice on the account of a few who would like to see things remain the way they are and they way they were.

What I am certain about is that most of us have been changed in profound ways by these events.

re: Still on the hate speech
written by aeichener , February 23, 2008

And I agree. Apart for KI, I have not seen anyone condemn Anyang Nyong'o, Balala, Ababu and Raila on their utterances against that famous "community". This complicity in silence will be our undoing as a nation. They should be made to know, in no uncertain terms, that such talk is entirely untolerable.

Maybe the government should negotiate tax free import quota for hemp ropes...

Alexander

re: re: Vernacular Stations
written by aeichener , February 23, 2008

But at a national level, we all need a language that we can all use and understand. I don't think that language is English, but it should be kiswahili.

Both are foreign languages for the vast majority of the country, languages that have been kenyanised and are now rooted. I see no preferability of Kenyan (!!) Kiswahili over Kenyan English.

What is needed, in contrast, is that Kenyans become better, deeper and more proficient in their primary languages - because THAT is where the shoe pinches in reality.

Alexander

anyone know of African Link?
written by Shaolin , February 24, 2008

Well they apparently awarded Raila world-famous Africa Link Solidarity Award for Champions of Democracy alongside Ghanaian President John Kufuor.

for more: http://www.africalink.ch/dsp_a...hp?name=53

Citation for Raila from Africa
written by Shaolin , February 24, 2008

Citation for Mr. Raila Odinga, Champion of Democracy

Born into privilege, you chose to cast your lot with the downtrodden masses and joined the struggle for democracy at an early age. In your trajectory through the worlds of engineering and technology in which you are trained, in your career in the public service and business, you made choices that consistently demonstrated your commitment to the development of your country.

Accused of involvement in a military coup, you did not take the option of flight into exile but chose to stay and spent a decade of your life in prisons of your country, not exactly famous for their five star treatment of their inmates.

At the inception of your political career, presented with the choice of a safe, ethnic rural seat in your native Bondo, you chose to compete for the urban, ethnically and culturally diverse constituency of Langata. You won. It is a tribute to your quality of leadership that no credible challenge has emerged to dislodge you from that seat.

In your choice of a principled and pragmatic approach to the resolution of political dispute, you have worked in the opposition; you have collaborated with the government in power and worked as a minister of government. In all capacities, you have been accessible to your constituents, and communicated openly with political friends and foes alike. You have often contributed to pulling your country from the edge of the precipice of conflict.

In your prime and maturity as a political leader, you have chosen the path of democratic dialogue in the resolution of your disagreements. As an ambitious political leader, you have recognized the preeminence of the national interest over and above your personal ambition.

Mr. Raila Amolo Odinga, Africa Link recognizes your contribution and through you the millions of your countrymen and women who are committed to a democratic and peaceful development of your country, Kenya. Africa Link awards you the honor of Champion of Democracy 2006.

re: re: anyone know of African
written by manta ray , February 24, 2008

My apologies, Shaolin. However, you could have simply said the words in the post were not yours, and that you were quoting the citation text verbatim. Nonetheless i am sorry if i upset you.

Voting and hate
written by mkosakabila , February 24, 2008

I have just read the brief of the afrobarometer survey (thanks for sharing) and prefer not to be excited by it. My only take is that voters dont always vote rationally, if rational here refers to perceptions (and realities) of economic well being and economic performance. I think we would be taking a great leap of faith if we concluded from this brief presentation of such an extended survey that voting patterns were a reflection of hate and incitement. Voting patterns did not seem to be a reflection of people maximizing their material well being, but more an affirmation of their identities and allegiance to tribe.

There is no guarantee that without the hate mongering people would have voted otherwise. 2002 was no different, all were shepherded to the ballot box by our respective, and at that time cooperating, tribal leaders. We saw more of the same in 2007, only this time around the GEMA were out of the tribal cooperation loop just as in 2002 the Kalenjin were not in. More, there is no guarantee that even if Emilios performance were unsatisfactory, the GEMA would have voted otherwise. So my interpretation of these survey results is that they simply reaffirm the notion of neopatrimonialism that one of its authors is so famous for advancing. Nothing unusual about that. It would help remarkably if we tempered our enthusiasm for a hate explanation, at least from these results, lest we also be accused of a tendency towards incitement. If our objective is to further a hate explanation, I suggest that we look elsewhere, perhaps in the reaction to the election result. The difference is not the same.

And maybe, if theres any tendency towards rationality (whatever that means), then it might be found among the Kissii and the Luhya. They could have been consciously hedging their bets, or they are just simply more sophisticated than the rest, giving expression to their internal heterogeneity. Who knows?

From the results presented, what worries me the most is that a fairly large number of people (65% for ODM and 35% for PNU) did not expect fairness in the counting and reporting of the vote. Their expectations were met. On the other hand, what is hopeful is that 67% of the people interviewed say that they and their communities had taken a clear stand against violence instigated by their politicians (some disaggregation of this would have been helpful). The threats of violence were equally likely among PNU and ODM supporters. I wish we had had access to these survey results prior to the general election!

Lastly, and I feel obliged to point out, this data appears inconsistent with prior data sets that show that there is a geographic character to levels of general well being and poverty in Kenya. This discrepancy can be explained. The results are aggregated at the national level and not necessarily by region.

Restating, I find it very hard, from the Dercon et al report, to conclude that ODMs hate campaign is at the bottom of the voting patterns that we see. I agree that there was a LOT of hate mongering going on, especially immediately prior to December 27. But I am not persuaded that that hate mongering caused the voting patterns we saw, which I dont find unusual at all. What I find extremely unusual is the targeting for killing, rape etc, of one community, across the board, with such intensity, after the announcement of the result. That is where I would look for the hate and not in the voting pattern as such.

I think also that, at this time, we should be pumping up our commonalities and things we can do differently to avoid this horror in the future. After all, we are in this boat together. Forget about Balala.

re: Voting and hate
written by Daniel.Waweru , February 24, 2008

mkosakabila,
thanks, as ever, for a perceptive response. I have quibbles.

Dercon admits that the sample is slightly skewed towards higher income groups. But that ought to make inequalities more, not less, obvious. That there's no significant difference in quality of life between Kikuyu and Luo, even when the sample is slightly skewed towards higher-income groups, only makes the survey findings more robust.

Regional inequality is the fashionable euphemism for ethnic inequality (I blame the Swedes). The purported equivalence is misleading, and especially so in cases where Luo and Kikuyu are being compared: mkoloni was spread both groups around Kenya, and they have remained so.

The survey finds, pace your claim above, that ODM was likelier than PNU to threaten and intimidate voters (see last page of the version of the report that's on Dercon's webpage).

The structure of your apparent argument looks flawed to me. You seem to wish to say that incitement was not a factor, because if it had been a factor, then it would have shown up in the voting behaviour. Since we have an alternative (better?) explanation for the voting behaviour, there's no need to appeal to incitement to explain voting behaviour. Since the incitement doesn't show up in the voting behaviour, we shouldn't expect it to figure in explanations for the post-election violence. Hence:

There is no guarantee that without the hate-mongering people would have voted otherwise. 2002 was no different, all were shepherded to the ballot box by our respective, and at that time cooperating, tribal leaders.

I'm not so sure. I think a case can be made that the voting could have been significantly more (instrumentally) rational. Certainly, the fall in Kibbs' approval rating, when he'd presided over an economic boom, which was widely recognised as such (strong approval ratings, even amongst those likely to vote ODM; wide recognition that the standard of living had improved). Both perceived and actual (pdf) poverty fell (thanks to a helpful editor for the citation). Dercon is convinced that the evidene rules out misrule or rising poverty as motives for the violence (see pp. 3-4). I agree.

To argue that incitement was not a factor in the violence, or in voting behaviour, one has to to be insufficiently inattentive to the nature of the incitement. See, for example, Chris Albin-Lackey's testimony before the House Subcommittee on African Affairs.

We were able to interview people from several different communities who directly participated in attacks on local Kikuyu families. The stories they told us were eerily similar. In community after community, we heard that in the days before the elections community elders, local ODM mobilizers and other prominent individuals called meetings to urge violence in the event of a Kibaki victory. In many communities people were told the same thing word for word; that if Kibaki was announced as the winner it must mean the polls had been rigged and the reaction should be ''war'' against local Kikuyu residents

The incitement thesis remains a live option (at least for some parts of the country).

Voting and hating
written by mkosakabila , February 24, 2008

Waweru, youve done a great job of muddling my thinking, but still, I hazard a response.

I am not arguing that incitement was not a factor in the violence. I am suggesting that the voting patterns per Dercon et al are not unfamiliar, and are not of necessity a reflection of the hate campaign.

To attribute the voting pattern to the hate campaign is stretching it somewhat. If at all there was an economically rational explanation to the voting, then why were our waKamba folk confined largely to the Kalonzo silo? Yet prior to that were happily in ODM? If there was hate in there (and not tribe), we should have heard and seem some of it, especially after miracle boy chose to cooperate with Emilio. Now, I understand this might not be the most solid example, since the Kalonzo types were not part of the hate campaign anyway. But it does point to tribe.

In order to isolate the effect of the hate campaign, I figure we would have needed an earlier data set that demonstrated that most people who were inclined to vote for Kibaki changed their minds somewhere midstream and largely because they had been told he and his GEMA affiliates were the enemy seeking to dominate them. Such data might be available. I dont know.

The passage you quote from Albin-Lackey supports my suggestion that the hate campaign is quite decisively reflected in the reaction to the election result.

I think the afrobarometer survey may have failed to ask a critical follow up question, the why question as follows Why is it that you are OK with Kibakis economic performance, yet youre still unwilling to reemploy him? Only then would we have had an unambiguous story regarding what motivated people to vote the way they did. But then again, such survey instruments are often highly structured and the purpose determined years ago.

My sense is that the link between voting and hating is decidedly tenuous. I think theres more evidence, in Dercon et al data and perhaps in prior voting to support the tribe rather than the hate. That does not mean that that there was no hating. In fact, what I would like to see is a content analysis of all the campaign speeches, laid bare for all to see. The think tanks took a lot of time to document who was getting what kind of media attention, they should have devoted some energy to analyzing the content of what people were saying.

Look, perhaps this exercise is an unnecessary distraction. My aim in starting the discussion was not so much to discount the hate, which I completely agree with, but just to point out the limits of our inferences from very good data.

Amendments
written by Daniel.Waweru , February 24, 2008

mkosakabila,
I mean to say this:

"To argue that incitement was not a factor in the violence, or in voting behaviour, one has to to be inattentive to the nature of the incitement"

re: Amendments
written by mkosakabila , February 24, 2008

I mean to say this:

"To argue that incitement was not a factor in the violence, or in voting behaviour, one has to to be inattentive to the nature of the incitement"

Sawa.
I rest my case.
I dont want to be perceived as a denier of ethnic cleansing and all that hideous hate campaign that, sadly, we continue to tolerate even today.

rational explanation?
written by Daniel.Waweru , February 24, 2008

mkosakabila,

Just spotted your latest response. Will need to think about it a little.

There's one prospective rational economic explanation for the voting patterns: increasing inequality.

If voters were doing reasonably well, but believed that they would have done even better had it not been for Kikuyu malfeasance, then it'd have made sense to vote ODM, while still believing that things were better.

But then it's hard to see how one can consistently hold both that Kikuyus have unfairly captured Kibbs-era economic gains and that Kibbs was doing a good job. Yet a significant majority of voters, even ODM supporters, believed the second premiss.

reaching out
written by Ndorobo , February 24, 2008

What truly ails Kenya is what truly ails each individual. We are too comfortable among our own. We sometimes assume that the social and economic groupings that we exist and socialize in are the only thing that exist. If we do not believe they are the only thing, then we believe that they are the right thing.

For example, here at KI as much as we try to be objective, a casual reader will assume that we are PNU guys. We do get a lot of die hard dissenting views. A casual surfer will drop an abusive line occasionally but will not spend the time understanding most of the contributors to KI. He/she assumes he knows what we present, and we are Kibaki supporters. My take is that a majority of the people here are anti-violence. See beyond the Kibaki vs. Raila power struggle and see this as an important moment for the country and not for individuals. A good number have analysed the data from the elections. Have done a comparative analysis of Kibaki vs. Raila policies and effectiveness and come to the conclusion that we are better off with moderate leadership that embraces the entire nation and does not discriminate or hate-monger against others.

Back to Kenya. It seems that we (most Kenyans) need to box and classify people for us to be able to relate. I remember my cousins from shagz vs. the town ones. Then we went to primary school and we grouped ourselves into estates. Then we went to boarding school and it was geographic groupings. Not tribal, but geographic. It was the guys from Nairobi vs. the guys from wherever. The Friday evening fights that we had were not tribal warfare, but geographic supremacy fights.

Right now, even among seemingly educated people, they neither stutter nor blush when they make generalizations about tribes.We degenerate after we leave school. Now if these are our intellectuals and elites, what about the masses? What kind of evil thoughts have been fed to someone deep in Nyandarua who has never interacted with someone from deep in Kajiado? We have vernacular radio in the rural areas, and this is the major source of information. It continues to re-enforce the stereotypes. Maybe Moi was on to something when he only had KBC in English and Swahili.

re: anyone know of African Lin
written by manta ray , February 24, 2008

Well they apparently awarded Raila world-famous Africa Link Solidarity Award for Champions of Democracy alongside Ghanaian President John Kufuor.

for more: http://www.africalink.ch/dsp_a...p?name=53

World famous? Why would a Swiss based newsletter that promotes mostly African[Nigerian?] interests in Switzerland be referred to as world famous? Who has ever heard of them? Of what universal significance are the so-called solidarity awards sponsored by the same?
Please note that ODM partisan journalists like Dennis Onyango are contributors to the same magazine.
The only reason i can think of that makes you think the awards are significant is that you suffer the same disease Raila suffers from, the cancer that makes you imagine that status and prestige is automatically conferred upon you through osmosis by the fact of mere association, in this case association with the Swiss[a first among equals in western societies] or with Obama[Raila proudly displaying a photo of himself with Obama at the airport VIP lounge on arrival from the US].

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Editorial mischief
written by mkosakabila , February 24, 2008

- it's academic stuff, you may have forgotten it -, Eds.)

Boo!

re: re: anyone know of African
written by Shaolin , February 24, 2008

Well they apparently awarded Raila world-famous Africa Link Solidarity Award for Champions of Democracy alongside Ghanaian President John Kufuor.

for more:

World famous? Why would a Swiss based newsletter that promotes mostly African[Nigerian?] interests in Switzerland be referred to as world famous? Who has ever heard of them? Of what universal significance are the so-called solidarity awards sponsored by the same?
Please note that ODM partisan journalists like Dennis Onyango are contributors to the same magazine.
The only reason I can think of that makes you think the awards are significant is that you suffer the same disease Raila suffers from, the cancer that makes you imagine that status and prestige is automatically conferred upon you through osmosis by the fact of mere association, in this case association with the Swiss[a first among equals in western societies] or with Obama[Raila proudly displaying a photo of himself with Obama at the airport VIP lounge on arrival from the US].

Why am I under attack pray? All I said was or rather asked is whether anybody knew about them. That doesn't mean I am for or against. so keep your hair down.
You see he was given this award on a platform of lies and that's why I am wondering why anybody would have wanted to heap so much praise for him if not to give legitimacy to the present status of him having won the elections. Get it??

misspoke
written by Daniel.Waweru , February 24, 2008

Sawa.
I rest my case.
I dont want to be perceived as a denier of ethnic cleansing and all that hideous hate campaign that, sadly, we continue to tolerate even today.

I don't think my claim implies that you're a denier of ethnic cleansing; certainly doesn't entail it. That's not an inference I drew, and I would be dismayed if anyone did draw it.

Apologies if that's the way it came across.

Political rationality, perhaps
written by mkosakabila , February 24, 2008

You're right, I guess. When economic rationality fails, politics might help.
Lock out the dominating Kikuyu, the enduring impediment to the grandeur of yore.
Have one of your own in power. Do even better, as larger crumbs might fall closer your table. The risk or threat is reduced because its one of your own, anyway. Just a hypothesis. But then the Kalenjin and others?
Will think about it even more. If carefully combined with other sources of evidence, as you've you've just shown, it can be pulled off. The hate thing.
Then you see, the Dercon et al queries, at least those in the report, didn't talk about governance. They focused on growth, I thought.

Strange things do happen
written by Nyabs , February 24, 2008

mkosakabila,

Just spotted your latest response. Will need to think about it a little.

There's one prospective rational economic explanation for the voting patterns: increasing inequality.

If voters were doing reasonably well, but believed that they would have done even better had it not been for Kikuyu malfeasance, then it'd have made sense to vote ODM, while still believing that things were better.

But then it's hard to see how one can consistently hold both that Kikuyus have unfairly captured Kibbs-era economic gains and that Kibbs was doing a good job. Yet a significant majority of voters, even ODM supporters, believed the second premiss.

Strange things do happen in voters minds. My simplistic conclusion as to why voters who have benefitted from economic policies of Kibaki, then proceed to vote against him boils down to one thing: a campaign founded and executed on the fear of the Kikuyu and the successful potrayal of Kibaki as a kikuyu first, whose primary objective was to extend kikuyu political and economic dominance.

Voting against a guy whose policies ensured that you had money in the pocket after 24 years of misrule that even made the most resilient poorer, cannot have any other rational explanation.

Which is why we really need to remove the tribal factor from our politics. A good starting point would be criminalization of hate speech and attempted isolation of a community. Once we criminalize this, politicians will have no option but to focus on the problems facing their constituents, without resorting to the Sisi tumefanywa maskini na hawa wageni ambao wanatunyanyasa katika biashara na kuchukua mashamba yetu. Wakitoka tu, sisi sote tutakuwa matajiri" In a nutshell, they will not have someone else to blame for their failures of leadership, and will be forced to come up with economic solutions that improve the quality of lives of their constituents.

It is only after dealing with the tribal problem that we will be able to get into issues based politics.

anyone know of Afr
written by mkosakabila , February 24, 2008

My apologies, Shaolin. However, you could have simply said the words in the post were not yours, and that you were quoting the citation text verbatim. Nonetheless i am sorry if i upset you.

I think he did. He only just quoted the CITATION.

(Shaolin did indeed.
However he or she did not do so properly. We do not know whether anybody ever taught you how to properly quote and cite - it's academic stuff, you may have forgotten it -, but the lack of form may explain Manta Ray's true or purported misunderstanding. Eds.)

vernacular radio
written by Daniel.Waweru , February 24, 2008

Nyabs, Watt, et alia

Thanks for some interesting thoughts on vernacular radio stations. I started to write a response, but it quickly ballooned out of comment-box length. I'll now ask the editors to publish a revised version on the front-page in a day or two. Cheers.

Over intellectualizing
written by ken Thumbi , February 25, 2008

Truth be said leaders are a true reflection of the people... Greed, Arrogance, Insensitivity, stupidity, divided, Ignorant, confused, tribal... look at your leaders and you will see yourself...

Well, I was going to add 'Partisan' but decided against as I could not determine what all those political parties mean and stand for, anyway there are no real political parties Kenya but merely dugout canoes sailing to a 600K plus job!

Kenyans are quick to blame everyone for their own folly and will never accept responsibility for their flows...

re: re: re: anyone know of Afr
written by Shaolin , February 25, 2008

My apologies, Shaolin. However, you could have simply said the words in the post were not yours, and that you were quoting the citation text verbatim. Nonetheless i am sorry if i upset you.

I said it was from AFRICAN LINK, or whatever name these clowns go by, Me think its mean to say that I wasn't taught how to quote editor. Everything is clear from the title. and if it was my article I would have put my name, i thought??? when you apologise you should just apologise without justification otherwise it doesn't mean anything. Any let's move on, this is a small thing that we shouldn't waste too much breath on.

Waweru
written by mkosakabila , February 25, 2008

Would it be easier to understand the voting if we rephrased this:

But then it's hard to see how one can consistently hold both that the Kikuyu have unfairly captured Kibaki-era economic gains and that Kibaki was doing a good job. Yet a significant majority of voters, even ODM supporters, believed the second premiss.

Like this:

The Kikuyu have unfairly captured Kibaki-era economic gains because Kibaki was doing a good job

So no denying that he did a good job, just the distribution of the gains (real or perceived) are at contention. I don't know, nina kisia.
Someone here in KI (as did Prof. Wangari Maathai) once said that perception matters in politics, and I would add, especially when information is not readily accessible for whatever reason. Sawa?

ps: didn't mean to rehash a bygone, just liked the conversation. This kindly if pedantic editor would request that in keeping with the general seriousness and lack of broken windows here, we desist from such terms as Kyuks, Kales, Lunjes, Jang'os, Odieros, Mirros, Bakks, Kibbs and so on. There are those reading who will not understand these terms. Note that your comments are now used for reference. Thank you, Ed.

No need to intellectualize
written by dr.Phil , February 25, 2008

Too many complicated issues about a simple fact.Kenya's problem is that we have a segment of our population still languishing in a dangerously backward way of thinking and want to share power at no matter what cost.And holds the country on ransom with threats of unleashing their primitive savagery to wedge a bloody conflict on innocent hard-working people. Moderated, Eds.

ODM
written by Dr.PHIL , February 25, 2008

Advocating for an executive Prime Minister is a very reckless path to take on the part of ODM. It is just no-brainer that two centres of power is not the solution to Kenya's problems and this cannot work in a polarized nation such as ours. If they were seeking ways to empower the parliament to neutralize some of the president's powers then this could make a lot more sense.
ODM is just breaking down the country under the guise of seeking justice and democracy while instigating violence as means to achieve their sadistic interests.

BALALA
written by DR.PHIL , February 25, 2008

His comments about dividing boundaries and making a certain community landlocked like Lesotho are not only ridiculous but treasonous.

mkosakabila
written by Daniel.Waweru , February 26, 2008

mkosakabila

The Kikuyu have unfairly captured Kibaki-era economic gains because Kibaki was doing a good job

Interesting move. But I'm not seeing that it'll do the trick. For if one thought Kibaki was doing a good job of growing the economy, but that all the gains were going to Kikuyus, then it's unlikely that one would think that Kibaki was doing, simply, a good job. After all, distribution is as much his responsibility as production. If one thought Kibaki wasn't doing a good job as such, then it's easy to see how one would vote against him. But a large (69%) majority seem to have thought he was doing a good job; even amongst ODM supporters he had a 47% approval rating. It's not, then, clear how one could hold both that Kibaki was doing a good job, and that all the gains were going to Kikuyus. One of those ought to be given up.

You're right about the importance of perceptions in low-information scenarios.

re: mkosakabila
written by a guest , February 26, 2008

mkosakabila

The Kikuyu have unfairly captured Kibaki-era economic gains because Kibaki was doing a good job

Interesting move. But I'm not seeing that it'll do the trick. For if one thought Kibaki was doing a good job of growing the economy, but that all the gains were going to Kikuyus, then it's unlikely that one would think that Kibaki was doing, simply, a good job. After all, distribution is as much his responsibility as production. If one thought Kibaki wasn't doing a good job as such, then it's easy to see how one would vote against him. But a large (69%) majority seem to have thought he was doing a good job; even amongst ODM supporters he had a 47% approval rating. It's not, then, clear how one could hold both that Kibaki was doing a good job, and that all the gains were going to Kikuyus. One of those ought to be given up.

You're right about the importance of perceptions in low-information scenarios.

spares us all these lies ati what economic gain to be precise? kenya has never been so poor.you must those lucky few peopl who benefited from kibaki etc he gave you a job on basis that you are a kikuyu.Kneyans have suffered enough under kibaki regime in fact it better to have dictator than a drunkard as head of state.

mkosakabila
written by Johnny B. Goode , February 26, 2008

spares us all these lies ati what economic gain to be precise? Kenya has never been so poor.you must those lucky few people who benefited from Kibaki etc he gave you a job on basis that you are a Kikuyu. Kenyans have suffered enough under Kibaki regime in fact it better to have dictator than a drunkard as head of state.

Who to believe. One person comes and presents facts and figures another comes in to make nothing but mere allegations backed by absolutely nothing.
This is the problem of elections. How do you win an election if the other guy has done a good job. You belittle his success. You promise the moon and the stars. Bigger and better. If he managed 6% growth, you'll offer a 20% percent. If the CDF programme introduced under your opponents government was 2% of GDP, yours will take 60% to the mashinani, quite forgetting that there are national interests that need funding too. Healthcare, education, Infrastructure, security etc. You pick on the negative. You embark on the demagogic. Oh the price of sugar, maize, milk etc has tripled. Forgetting that at the other end of the equation is a Kenyan farmer whose reaping the benefits. There is no sugar is grown in central province, btw. Something on yesterdays Nation or is it the Standard. The government is moving ahead with a slum eradication program in Kibera slums. In fact the first phase of the program is near completion and the first beneficiaries in place. Believe you me they are not all Kikuyu's, contrary to perception. And the ace. Divide and rule. This b.t.w works everywhere! Blame the others, they are reaping all the Benefits. Always works in Europe or America when unemployment rises. It's the damn foreigners taking all our plum jobs!