Kenya's Ongoing Issues
by Shannon Geis
Although President Mwai Kibaki, Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka, and Prime Minister Raila Odinga have agreed on a compromised government, the issues that have caused extreme violence in the country recently are still lingering. In December, President Kibaki was accused of stealing the presidential election from his opposition Raila Odinga. The battle between them soon spread to the people of Kenya and violence erupted all over the country.
It wasn't until February that Kibaki and Odinga were able to agree to a compromise with Odinga taking on the role of Prime Minister. By that time, the violence among the people had been running rampant for over a month. At least 1,000 people were killed in the violence and 350,000 people were displaced. Most of the displaced were members of Kibaki's tribe, the Kikuyu. Their farms and homes were burned to the ground.
While the government boasts of its compromise and the promise of future success, the people of Kenya are still dealing with the aftermath of the violent attacks. Many of the people involved in the violence are still living in tents, unable to start anew due to lack of funds.
The coalition government that has been created has quelled the violence for now. It has set up a stable government when Africa's strongest democracy was on the verge of collapse. But there are many critics who claim that the progress being made is only superficial and in time will crumble again.
This is a justifiable critique considering that many of the issues the top three Kenyan officials have been dealing with in the last few months have been disputes between each other. They cannot agree on who is given the privilege to speak first at official events, where each sits, or even whose limousine should drive up first.
A perfect example of how Kenyan officials are more concerned with their own arbitrary problems than with the issues of Kenya as a whole is a question that was very recently raised dealing with stipends for each of the top officials' wives.
It was proposed that the Vice President and Prime Minister's wives receive a $70,000 stipend per year in addition to whatever they make independently. While this is considerably lower than the salaries of most political officials--the president makes $300,000; the first lady makes $100,000; legislators make $120,000-it is alarmingly larger than the average income of normal Kenyans, which is $1,300 a year.
Kenyan government officials are paid more than government officials in almost all other African countries but why is money being spent on government when people displaced by the election violence are still waiting for $100 grants promised to them to help rebuild houses and farms? It is true that the economy has started to get better as tourists have started coming back to the Safari Camps where Kenya gets much of its revenue, but should government officials be concerned about their spouses' financial concerns before those of their citizens?
This is a significant indicator that tensions remain high between the leaders of the country. They are not dealing with the underlying issues that caused the violence in December. The ethnic problems and divisions are not being addressed. Instead, there are arguments between officials over arbitrary issues.
The people of Kenya are, understandably, not happy about the political situation. There are large ethnic divides between people and the government is not stepping in to help ease the situation. The people in the areas most affected by violence don't see any change at all. This means that the chance of violence starting again is likely.
Many say that the constitution needs a complete overhaul. It gives too much power to the Presidency and local government does not have enough. Both Kibaki and Odinga have promised to work on revising the constitution. But with the current situation, the likeliness of that happening is slim. Right now the government is just biding its time until the next eruption of violence takes over.
