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KENYANS BREAK FREE FROM A CORRUPT PAST

By Professor Makau Mutua, a professor of law at UB and the chairman of the Kenya Human Rights Commission, is on a research sabbatical in Kenya.

1/4/2003

MOMBASA, KENYA -- On Dec. 27th, Kenyans overwhelmingly voted for democracy and regime change in a historic election that ended the 24-year reign of President Daniel arap Moi, one of Africa's last Cold War autocrats.

The president-elect, Mwai Kibaki, and his reformist opposition group, the National Rainbow Coalition, scored a runaway victory with two-thirds of the popular vote. But even with this democratic triumph - and Kibaki's commitment to political and economic transformation - Kenya faces a treacherous and uncertain future.

The election, the first in postcolonial Kenya in which an incumbent president did not run, pitted Kibaki against Moi's handpicked successor, Uhuru Kenyatta, the scion of the late Jomo Kenyatta, the country's founding president. Kenyatta, a 42-year-old political novice, was unable to shake off the popular perception that he was a puppet of Moi and the corrupt elite that runs the Kenya African National Union, the party that has ruled Kenya since independence from Britain in 1963. Kenyatta, despite Moi's patronage and the use of enormous state resources to prop him up, ran a lackluster campaign.

The significance of the election - in Kenya and abroad - is that it marks Kenya's entry into the community of democratic nations and a break with Moi's corrupt government. On Moi's watch, Kenya went from one of the most promising and respected African states to an economic basket case and a brazen dictatorship.

Since 1978, when Moi took over, the nation's economy has contracted and its infrastructure virtually collapsed. Official graft and corruption have come to define Kenya, leading to the flight of investors. Transparency International, the respected private organization, ranks Kenya the sixth-most-corrupt country in the world. More than half the population lives below the poverty line. AIDS is a public health emergency. Once the nation's pride, the agricultural sector has been destroyed by the looting of the public purse and an incompetent bureaucracy. Crime, insecurity, and lawlessness are endemic. Kenya's corrupt judiciary lacks rudimentary independence.

But Kenya's fall from grace has been compounded by international terrorism, which has found a soft spot in this gateway to Africa. In the last three decades Kenya has been subject to as many terror attacks. In 1998, Al Qaeda terrorists struck the American Embassy in Nairobi, killing more than 200 Kenyans and 12 Americans. Last month the same group struck again, this time in Mombasa, the heart of the Kenyan tourist industry. Although the targets were an Israeli hotel and a commercial jetliner, 10 Kenyans and three Israelis were killed. This body blow to the nation's economy, psyche, and confidence will take time to repair. Only a competent, democratic, corruption-free government can be equal to these challenges.

The failure of Kenyatta's campaign was partially attributable to Moi's unenviable legacy. It was implausible to many Kenyans that Moi, the architect of the country's demise, was qualified to choose an able successor. An overwhelming majority of Kenyans, according to polls, believed that Kenyatta was not his own man and that if he won, Moi and the clique around him would continue to rule.

But the biggest threat to Kenyatta came from the euphoria that has swept the country since Kibaki was named the opposition flag-bearer several months ago. Kibaki, a respected economist and former vice president, is sober, clean, and an astute politician. Last week I met with him at his Nairobi residence, where he was convalescing from injuries sustained in a road accident a month ago. Radiating the confidence of a winner, he assured me that he was committed to forming a government of national unity, a government based on merit, not tribalism or cronyism.

Kibaki said that his government would form a South Africa-style truth and reconciliation commission to look into past wrongs - economic crimes, political murders, government-instigated ethnic clashes in 1992 and 1997, and other egregious human rights violations. He has said the truth commission will not spare those of his colleagues implicated in past abuses. Kibaki spoke convincingly on the need to revamp the country's ailing institutions, restore investor confidence, and allow merit to rise to the top.

The task ahead for Kibaki is enormous. It will not be easy to reverse a culture of official graft and incompetence cultivated over one generation. He will have to sideline - and even force into retirement - a generation of politicians, public officials, and judges who cannot be reformed. He must also enact into law a new draft constitution that will be the basis for a new government. He has the good will of civil society and the majority of Kenyans. But Kenyans alone cannot reform the country without international help in this era of globalization.

The West, led by the United States, can play an invaluable role in the reconstruction of this key and strategic ally. The crippling debt incurred by the outgoing government should be forgiven. Washington should also signal to bilateral and multilateral donors the need for fair and equitable investment, trade, and aid to jump-start the economy. Otherwise this wonderful opportunity for genuine reform will be squandered.