Old Wolves, New Tricks
As I posted earlier, the country of my adolescence, Kenya, had elections this December. The backstory is the 24 year regime of one Daniel Arap Moi, a benevolent dictator of sorts that began well enough but went down a slippery (and ever increasing in speed) slope down the path of economic turmoil.
Kenya has been a stable country - a sharp contrast to some of its neighbors (with the exception of Tanzania). Directly to the west Uganda, my country of passport, endured a misanthropic dictator (Idi Amin), a corrupt dictator (Milton Obote), and a civil war before settling down in the late 1980s. To the north lies Sudan, whose civil war of 20 years coupled with sinister things like slave trading have put the state of the country beyond adjectives like 'ravaged' or 'hopeless'. Eastward lies Somalia - sans BlackHawk Down many a story could be told about the chaos that is that country. Dead American soliders were dragged through the streets as the 'only superpower' lost its resolve to bring humanitarian relief and quickly skirted in humiliation out of the conflict.
The guise of this stability was a single party system. Guise in the sense that many of the conflicts I mentioned have their roots in ethnic differences and it therefore sounds like a reasonable structure, but guise indeed as the structure was basically a spoils system of astronomic proportions. Words invented in the west like cronyism cannot imagine a system in which political candidates are killed or tortured publicly while a select few live in wealth not even western presidents can concieve.
Of course, the west is not so stupid; after all, this level of corruption was common knowledge. But the interests of 'stability' in addition to the political ability to play superpowers against each other in the cold war era allowed many a dictator to survive quite well in economic debauchery.
But the costs were to great and the greed was too obstinate for this ignored treachery to continue. As I entered high school Kenya began rumbling with the stirrings of desired change. As it did, foreign aid was brought to a trickle as incentive for the government to have multiparty elections and true democracy. This battle was long and many suffered (and died) in the process but eventually, this December - a good decade since I finished high school on the outskirts of Nairobi - Kenya successfully elected a new leadership with a new president and a new political party. Can it be true - a happy ending to an African story?
Alas.
Imagine, if you could, President Bush in a public Jim Baker style break down - a break down in which he admits he's been wrong and becomes a Democrat, shirking the reigns of the Republican party. As he shudders he talks in nearly unintelligble utterances about how homosexuals need rights, how tax cuts for wealthy Americans alienate 'working folks' and how abortion is (blows nose) a woman's right to choose. As Bush begins to subside Dick Cheney begins to sob, begging for forgiveness too therein starting a chain of emotional 'conversions' as Donald Rumsfeld, Condi Rice and Colin Powell follow suit.
Would you smell something odorous? I would.
The leader of NARC, the new party, Mwai Kibaki, was a politician within the power holding KANU (even a Vice President) for many years - while his exit was about a decade ago and therefore with some shreds of credibility most other NARC politicians had their conversion recently, as soon as they could see the power shifting against them. There are some politicians in Kenya who have been defecting from party to party in search for a winner. In just one province there were 400 such "defections" come election time.
So this story is very much an African one - corruption and the politics of power as opposed to the politics of principle. There is good news to be conceded though: the story is not yet over. It is often in the worst of times that the most opportunity presents itself. Kenya is still one of the most peaceful and stable countries in East Africa. Kibaki is an educated man (a well respected economist, point in fact). And change produces hope and empowers the people of Kenya to know that they can move the immovable with the right political will. As disdainful as I am about Africa's future, I felt good when I heard the news - I felt hope.
6:22:56 PM 
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