President Kibaki has made new friends in a quiet shift of ideology — a move causing disquiet among Kenya’s traditional Western allies, The Standard can reveal.
Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and his newfound friends, (clockwise) Chinese President Hu jintao, Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi.
The exposure of a series of deals discreetly cut between Nairobi and Tripoli illustrates how close Kibaki has become to Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi.
State House also started courting China, Iran and Eastern European backers following strained relations with Western allies appalled by spiraling corruption and bad governance.
Under Kibaki, China and Iran’s diplomatic and economic influence have risen, converse to falling relations with the West.
But it is Gaddafi, whose latest ‘incursions’ into Kenya has touched off alarm bells. Tripoli’s activities have created the worrying impression of a ‘takeover.’
Kenya’s traditional western allies are jittery over the ideological shift….[MORE >>]
It may sound like a bad joke, but the sad truth is that Africa’s short-lived experiment with democracy faces hard times.
From Nigeria to Zimbabwe, Kenya to the Ivory Coast and Uganda to Cameroon, the writing is on the wall. The experiment with democracy has sadly taken a dangerous nosedive.
Recent political events point to a crisis of honest, committed and democratic leadership. This ironically, is in spite of the advancements in education and intellectualism. It is also in spite of the influences of globalisation and the new understandings that have evolved about state power and how it should be managed for the benefit of society.
The continent’s so-called democratic leaders are openly subverting the people’s will and disregarding national constitutions as they continue in the bad ways of wild corruption and unaccountable leadership. The celebrations that heralded democratic change in the 1990s have gradually faded into muffled cries of despair. Increasingly, ordinary people find themselves removed from the centres of power, marginalised and reduced to helpless onlookers as political leaders; their friends and families enjoy power.
It is simply absurd to see Zimbabwe helplessly held to ransom by Mugabe’s adamant refusal to accept an electoral verdict handed him by the people through an open and fair election process. The 84-year-old is not about to give up the reins of power even as his country sinks deeper into economic ruin.
The recent elections in Zimbabwe revealed that African politicians demonstrate little or no sense of dignity and respect for political transition. And since they bring little or no dignity to public office, they are mortally fearful of transitions.
In Kenya, the results of a presidential poll last December were manipulated. The electoral commission remains in office despite calls for them to step down and allow for thorough investigation into the vote tallying process. Recent calls by civil society groups, for Kivuitu and his team to resign have fallen on deaf ears.
In Uganda, Museveni forced himself into a third term despite the country’s constitution providing for only two terms. His close associates have since continued to campaign for a life presidency for him.
Elsewhere in Cameroon, President Biya is seeking to extend his term. He has been in power for the last 25 years, within which period he suppressed any dissenting voices.
Early this year, the country’s security forces crushed protests against his bid to stay in power. Opposition voices have been hunted down and crushed or intimidated into silence as Biya and his cronies continue to savour the trappings of power.
In Nigeria, former celebrated president Obasanjo now faces charges of abuse of office during his term. A court was recently told that he slept with his eldest son’s wife in exchange for lucrative government contracts. These and many other cases clearly illustrate the depth to which Africa’s political leadership has sunk.
In all, the recent events in Kenya, Cameroon and Zimbabwe also illustrate another baffling side of African politics. That the more we talk about change the more things remain the same or probably get worse. The signing of the power sharing accord between Raila and Kibaki last February was seen by many as heralding a new beginning. However, recent developments point to reluctance, particularly on the part of the Party of National Unity, to share power as clearly spelt out in the national peace accord.
Into the first decade of the 21 Century, contrary to expectation, Africa is reluctant to make bold steps towards strengthening democracy. Instead it is taking calamitous steps back into the Dark Age of misrule, lack of accountability, despondency and totalitarianism. Its leaders have forgotten that they preside over whole countries and communities and not just a few cronies and friends intent on eating off the state.
The fear is that the new century may be lost for Africa, if its leadership will not quickly embrace new values that are in sync with the dictates of the modern world. The 21 Century global reality has no place for visionless leadership. Africans will need to raise their voices against complacent and non-democratic leadership if any change at all is to come.
Societies that cannot stare the truth in the eye and call it by its correct name will perish. They will pack up under the burden of dishonesty, hypocrisy and multiple standards. For one hears, today, a cacophony of insincere passionate pleas from just about everybody to President Kibaki and to ODM leader Mr Raila Odinga.
The entire world is asking them to “sit down and agree on the formation of a Cabinet”. The truth of the matter is that all these pleas are founded on anything but sincerity. Why, I must remind you again of the great poem by E G White, on the greatest want of the world. For E G White wrote:
The greatest want of the world
Is the want of men
Men who cannot be bought or sold
Men whose hearts are true and honest
Men who call sin by its name
Men whose conscience is true to duty
As the need is to the pole
Men who stand for the truth
Though the heavens fall.
Then I have to remind you of the novelist Ahmadou Kourouma of Ivory Coast, where he has written about the naked truth. He says in the novel Waiting for the Beasts to Vote that nakedness and the truth are two things society cannot squarely face up to. We know you when you are naked. Away from the trappings of fine linen and stuff, we see you as whom you truly are; the naked you. The world is most uncomfortable with this. “The world is for clothed peoples. We cannot enter this world unless we clothe ourselves, unless we abandon our nakedness,” he says. And so we dress up the truth in lies.
We fear the truth in the same degree that nakedness embarrasses us. The only time we accommodate either, is in private whispers. No wonder someone coined the expression “the naked truth”. Those who do not hide either become the mad men and women. Society simply has no place for them. That is why we must go on listening to tired songs about Raila and Kibaki needing to “sit down and give Kenyans a Cabinet.” The naked truth is that President Kibaki is the problem. He is increasingly coming across as a deficient leader. Worse still, you don’t know whether to trust him.
Someday, in Emanyulia village, a man was crying that another one had stolen his chicken. “Why fight over a chicken?” the elders asked the two men. “Kill it and share the pieces equally. Eat it together,” they advised.
They both agreed. The one who was alleged to have stolen the bird plucked off the feathers, pulled off the beak, removed the crop and the entrails and laid them side by side with the rest of the pieces. He counted and saw that they were all 40 pieces, including the feathers (which were counted as one piece). He now divided the pieces into two sets. He offered his friend the set with the beak, the feathers, the intestines, the crop, the diaphragm, the gall, the gullet, the spleen and stuff.
Need for bloated a cabinet
“So that is why you wanted us to have 40 pieces and not 26?” asked the other. “You just wanted them to be many so you could take the real chicken and give me nothing!”
Whatever Raila’s other sins may be, the naked truth is that President Kibaki is not being fair or trustworthy. He wants a bloated Cabinet so that he can keep the real ‘thing’ and give Raila and ODM nothing. Men and women of conscience must call this naked truth by its name. They must call the sin of political deceit by its name. Our dishonest churchmen are, as usual, pretending about this. Instead of asking Raila and Kibaki to “sit together and give Kenyans a Cabinet” they should be asking President Kibaki to be an honest and honourable statesman. They should ask the President to draw up two lists of Cabinet portfolio which, in his perception, are equal. They should be so equal that he would willingly close his eyes and pick up either and be completely happy with it.
When he has prepared his two lists, he should invite Raila to wherever and say to him, “My brother, here are two Cabinet portfolio lists. Pick one and I will take the other. It does not matter which you take.”
That will be a stately, dignified and responsible president. For now, President Kibaki can only increasingly take on the aura of a supercilious old man with regal and monarchical inclinations. He would care least that there are those who actually believe that he stole the election, regardless of the facts. Worse still, there is the perception that the national throne has been sprinkled with the blood of over 1,000 Kenyans.
But beyond this, Kenya needs men and women who can neither be bought nor sold, people whose hearts are true and honest, people who call sin by its name, people whose conscience is true to duty, as the needle is to the pole, people who stand for the truth, though the heavens fall.
The country should distance itself from untrustworthy leaders, such as the ODM-Kenya brigade in PNU. They are beginning to sound like the sycophants they used to be, under the oppressive Kanu regime. Such men belong to the law courts, where they embrace not the naked truth, but the robbed up and veiled truth that is the hallmark of most lawyers and all liars.
About The Author: Barrack Muluka (okwa...@yahoo.com) is a publishing editor and media consultant with Mvule Africa Publishers.
Peter Anyang’ Nyongo is a Political Scientist and Economist, and the current member of parliament(MP) for Kisumu Rural constituency in Kenya.
Born in 1945, Prof. Anyang’ Nyongo has an extensive resume (see below).
Prof. Anyang’ Nyong’o was appointed the Minister of Planning and National Development of the Republic of Kenya in 2003. He specializes in the area of socio-economic and pro-poor policies. He was the Chairman of the Public Investments Committee from 1994 to 1996.
Prof. Anyang’ Nyongo was awarded the Africa Brain Gain Award from the Kenyan American Professional Association and Career Nation for his contribution to reversing African’s brain drain.
Prof. Nyongo is currently the Secretary General of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), the principle opposition party in Kenya, and is a member of the “Unity” cabinet which was recently constituted after the election fiasco of December 2007.
PROFILE SUMMARY:
Date Of Birth: Wednesday October 10, 1945
Employment History:
1977-1981: University of Nairobi, Lecturer and Senior Lecturer 1982-1984: El Colegio De Mexico Visiting Research Officer 1984-1986: University of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Associate Professor 1987-1991: Head of Programs - African Academy of Sciences (1987 - 1991) 2002-2005: Minister Of Planning
Primary Education: Ndiru Primary School, Kenya (1953-1961) Secondary Education: Alliance High School, Kenya (1962-1967)
University Education:
- Makerere University College, Kampala, Uganda 1968-71
- B.A (1st Class Honours, Political Science & Philosophy); University of Chicago, 1971-77 (M.A, Political Economy (1974) - PhD, Political Science (1977)
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In the last two weeks, two ministers of the expanded Cabinet trotted into Washington DC, US, to attend to various matters.
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Kenyans cheered and danced as they witnessed the opposition leader Raila Odinga and President Mwai Kibaki signing a power-sharing agreement in Nairobi. Read the full story
Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and his newfound friends, (clockwise) Chinese President Hu jintao, Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi.
Peter Anyang’ Nyongo is a Political Scientist and Economist, and the current member of parliament(MP) for 
