Come What May, I Must Vote

For the first time in Kenya’s history, Kenyans living in the Diaspora, will have an opportunity to cast their votes at select voting stations wherever they live. This is one of the perks that Kenya’s new constitution allows for and which Kenyans are and should be very proud of. Today marks the start of the voter registration process in Kenya. I will be exercising my right to vote for the first time in my life in the next elections and judging by trends on social media, it is becoming imperative that Kenyans, and especially us the youth, must exercise that right in masses.

The official statistics as of December 2011 show that 40% of Kenya’s population is unemployed. Unofficial sources have indicated that this figure may be as high as 62% with the majority of the unemployed being the youth. This is a ticking time bomb, and one which the current leadership have shied away from tackling. Most of the popular presidential aspirants (most from the upper population age groups) have not offered a concrete plan of action on how they intend reducing this rate of unemployment, and the use of emotional tactics to reach to this vulnerable section of the electorate have mostly been employed. I must vote so that I can give a chance to a President willing to work to change this state.

A few weeks ago, public servants and specifically health and education professionals were on a prolonged strike with both groups demanding both higher wages and better conditions of employment. It is very embarrassing and utterly unacceptable that some public hospitals (the only source of health care services for a majority of Kenyans) do not have basic equipment and supplies like cotton wool, swabs and test tubes. Again, it has not been priority for government to ensure key professionals are adequately remunerated and that their conditions of service are improved. Instead, Kenyans watched in horror as senior government officials struggled to take responsibility and deal with the issues. I must vote so that scenes like those stop being the norm in Kenya.

Many Kenyans still do not have access to water and electricity, especially those that live in rural Kenya. Every election season, these Kenyans are bombarded with visits and messages of change from aspiring leaders. They are given money and other short term benefits yet the next they see those they elect is the next election season. It is not right that in the 21^st Century and with the kind of technological advances the world has witnessed, we should have children studying using paraffin lamps or in the dark. It is not right that there are still communities where children have to wake up early in the morning before school to walk long distance in search of firewood and water for the day. I must vote to ensure that each child is given an equal opportunity to play time, quality education and access to basic services.

Very often whenever we have Kenyan gatherings in South Africa, an odd person walks up to me and questions my tribal affiliation in Kenya. It is common practice that people do not view themselves as Kenyans/ Africans first but rather Kikuyu, Luo, Kamba, Kalenjin or whatever other tribe first. Leaders in the past and present have used tribalism and ethnicity as campaign tactics; they have used unacceptable language and rhetoric that has had very costly consequences. Thank goodness for a new constitution where leaders are now being taken to task for using inflammatory language. I am an African and I will remain as such till the day I die. It is because of tribalism and ethnicity that the world watched as Kenyans were killed during the post election violence in 2008. Tribalism and ethnicity have resurfaced in recent ethnic clashes, which have left hundreds dead in parts of Kenya. I am going to vote because I want to send a clear message to leaders that I will not partake in politics that perpetuate tribalism.  I must vote because we have to start appreciating and exploiting all the wonderful diversity and strengths that each Kenyan regardless of tribal affiliation brings in a bid to advance Kenya and the continent.

The ills of corruption, bribery and patronage have plagued Kenya for decades. I have witnessed cases where public transport operators have publicly bribed traffic police. I have heard of instances where Kenyans have been denied the right to access key and basic services like education, health care, and even the right to have a birth certificate, identity document or passport because they have had no money or have refused to bribe government officials. Kenyans have watched as scandal after scandal has been unearthed; taxpayers’ monies have been diverted into projects that benefited only the mighty, wealthy and politically connected; money meant to support free primary education has been used to enrich education officials and countless other cases. I must vote because I want a future where meritocracy is the key to accessing gainful employment. I must vote because vulnerable groups in society must have the same rights to access basic services. I must vote because children that are not born out of wealth must have access to the best schools. I must vote because the consequences of corruption, bribery and patronage are human rights issues.

The Kenya I have always dreamt of, the Kenya that I know is possible to attain, the Kenya I wish for, will only start to take shape if I and other young people in Kenya exercise their rights to vote come March 2013. I must vote, come what may because I want to be part of change. I must vote, come what may because I want to be part of the generation that changed the course of history for Kenya and the continent. 

Is this the Education our Continent’s Forefathers Dreamt of?

The last couple of months have been awash on the South African media with images of Section 27 representatives, the Department of Basic Education and other experts discussing how the South African education system has failed the child in Limpopo province.

It all started when Section 27 took the Basic Education Minister, Angie Motshekga to court to order her to ensure the department provided textbooks to schools in Limpopo. These learners have been without books and teachers without teaching materials since the beginning of the school year.

In Swaziland, a public sector strike for the last 5 weeks has meant that children have been without teachers and access to education for that long. It has meant that some teachers have been illegally fired for engaging in strike action, in effect removing access to those children affected by this.

In late 2009, Kenya was rocked by a major scandal (not the first in the education ministry) where Ksh3.2billion could not be accounted for. This money had been lent to Kenya by a number of donor countries including the UK to assist with the rolling out of the free primary school programme announced by President Mwai Kibaki in 2003.

And these are not isolated incidences in the continent. Media archives and current media coverage continues to bring to the fore great inefficiencies and maladministration regarding basic education for the African child.

And it is not just any African child that is affected by this. It is the poorest of the poor black African child who also has no other option to access education. Our black African led governments have continuously failed the black African child.

During and after the struggle for freedom in Africa, many of the continent's founding fathers including Kwame Nkrumah, Julius Nyerere, Jomo Kenyatta and Robert Mugabe passionately preached and encouraged Africans to empower themselves by accessing the best education thatthey could. Our founding fathers entered into agreements with the West that ensured education programmes for the African child were rolled out. During the struggle, many Africans were in exile accessing the best education that would ensure an efficient transition into freedom, in terms of governance and administration of governments.

And for a while after the advent of freedom, many African education systems were overhauled to provide the best possible education to their citizenry.

In the late 20^th Century and current 21^st century, things have changed and our forefathers must be turning in their graves when they see the quality of education the black African child is accessing. It must be a real let down for them when they see how good education plans and policies often fail in the implementation phase.

It is the poorest of the poor black African child that has had to suffer from the corruption and maladministration that has crippled the African education system. It is the poorest black African child that has no access to a feeding programme when the money is siphoned by a bureaucrat.

It is the black African child that has to travel by foot kilometres and kilometres everyday to reach to school because funds to build a new school next to his/her home or provide transport have gone to build a politician’s million dollar mansion.

I am angry! I am angry because our politicians did not all start out wanting to siphon money from the public coffers. I am angry because they have turned to animals that continue to produce illiterate people from our schooling systems, who are unable/ struggle to compete on the world stage.

I am angry that the black African child whose parent is a politician continues to access the best private school education within and outside the continent, a private education that very few can afford.

I am angry because the emerging middle class in the continent are being forced to divert money that could otherwise have been used to building wealth for the continent for their loved ones can access the best quality private education.

I am angry that the King of Swaziland, just by a mere pronunciation that the public strike should end in Swaziland and without any further negotiations in sight, the unions order teachers to go back to class. To go back to class to teach when they are not satisfied with their conditions of services and their remuneration benefits. What kind of an education can we expect these teachers to provide to Swazi learners that have already missed 5 weeks of school?

We, the citizens of this continent, just like Section 27 and other civil society movements, must begin to hold our governments accountable.

We, the citizens of this continent, need to fight for the rights of the black African child to access the same education as anyone else.

Because if we do not stand up for these children, the future of this continent, they will continue to be failed, and the continent’s prospects will be curtailed significantly

Somalia: the Complexities

Somalia has had no central government since 1991 and that has led to displacement of many people, internally and externally. Since 2006, there has been renewed armed conflict in the country and with the rise of Al Shabaab, the situation continues to worsen. Displaced Somalis have fled to neighbouring countries, Kenya and Ethiopia, and are mostly accommodated in the Dadaab (20 years old in 2012) and Bokolmayo refugee camps respectively. Within Somalia, the Afgooye camp has continued to house fleeing Somalis from Mogadishu, where fighting is a daily occurrence. But of course other neighbours in the East and Central Africa region (Tanzania, Uganda, Djibouti, Rwanda, Burundi, Sudan etc) have also continued to receive many refugees from the country.

Many African countries that have had instabilities have gone through mediation and conflict resolution processes that have ultimately led to ‘peace’. But with Somalia, it would seems like the classic mediation processes have continued to fail and many people wonder why this is the case. The Somalia conflict is a very complex issue and a number of factors have led to the crisis (the list is not by any chance exhaustive):

1. The clan structure

Most of Somalia is arid and its people have been pastoralists for centuries. Most of these communities are clan based and ruled by traditional elders. When Somalia descended into civil war, a huge number of small arms were seized by different clans and these were used to fight each other. Also, in the advent of multi-party democracy in the country in the late 60’s, most of the political parties were formed along the clan system. This has made reconciliation amongst the different clans very difficult.

2. Competition for resources

Since time in memorial, Somali clans (and due to their pastoralist nature) have clashed over resources (pasture, water and livestock). Traditionally, these disputes were settled by clan elders but as people moved into urban areas, the types of resources needed also changed. There was a quick realisation that whoever controlled government, would control the recruitment process for government employees, disbursement of foreign aid, and government resources (Elmi and Barise, 2006). Corruption, use of the military for to solve clan disputes, political patronage in appointment of government officials soon became rampant, and the overthrow of President Barre was fuelled majorly by this.

3. The Ethiopia element

Somalia and Ethiopia have had a long running conflict since time in memorial. They have both been used by the US and Soviet Union in the Cold War, have engaged in war over the Ogaden region and other conflicts (in fact, these two have been at it in 1899-1905, 1964, 1977-1978, 1982, 2006-present). There is no doubt that Ethiopia has provided arms and other machinery to rebel clans and groups to assist in fighting each further destabilising Somalia. So long as Ethiopia keeps meddling in the peace process, Somalia may remain a stateless country for a longer time to come.

4. Warlords and Al Shabaab

Since Somalia exploded, factions led by clan warlords, terrorist groups (of particular mention, Al Shabaab), proxy armies and other armed groups have determined to continue intimidating Somali civilians and using violence to detract from peace. Al Shabaab, for instance, controls the entire of southern Somalia. These groups are constantly fighting each other for control of resources and continue to destabilise the country.

Given the above, it is very difficult to claim that any one solution is required to solve the problem. Many have indeed argued that there can be no Somalia solution that assumes that Western methods will work without taking into consideration the root causes of the problem and I would support this notion.

There can be no peace in Somalia without considerations of the role of informal groupings i.e. clan systems, and incorporating these in any peace accord. Maybe a central government in Somalia must be inclusive of all the clans and perhaps local government should be based on the clan system.

Maybe resources mobilisation and use should take into consideration the best possible way of making sure that all groupings benefit from such resources.

Maybe it’s time for Somalis in exile and those at home to focus on finding a solution to the crisis that is not led by Western powers.

The Chairperson of the Somali expatriate group in South Africa was interviewed on Africa360 (eNews Channel in South Africa) a couple of weeks ago and he said that there can be no progress on the implementation of recommendations from conferences so long as these conferences are held outside Somalia, the agendas determined by non-Somalis and implementation expected to be done by Somalis. And he is right, in my opinion.

Reference

1. Elmi AA and Barise A (2006) The Somali Conflict: Root causes, obstacles, and peace-building strategies http://www.issafrica.org/pgcontent.php?UID=8319

Further Information

1. Wars between the East African neighbors of Ethiopia and Somalia http://www.historyguy.com/ethiopia_somali_wars.html
2. Roots of the Crisis (Somalia) http://www.enoughproject.org/conflict_areas/somalia/roots-crisis
3. The issues in Somalia http://www.givethemshelter.org/get-involved/the-issues-in-somalia

Somalia: a Brief History

Map of Somalia
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/maps/africa/somalia/  

The war and instability in Somalia has been going on for a long time- 21 years in 2012 to be exact. I was only a few years old when it all exploded and remember vivid pictures on TV (my parents still had a black and white TV then) of American soldiers that had been killed being paraded on the streets of Mogadishu. And things have never been the same since. Many atrocities have been committed by a number of groups and very often (because of the prolonged war) a lot of people are unaware of the real issues surrounding the crisis in Somalia. I am going to write a series of blogs that provide some information and sources of information on the crisis in Somalia. 

For those geographically challenged (please raise your hands if you have watched the KONY2012 video and heard the narrator talking about Uganda being in Central Africa!), Somalia is the easternmost country in East Africa in a region often referred to as the Horn Africa. It is bordered by Djibouti to the northwest, Kenya to the southwest, the Gulf of Aden with Yemen to the north, the Indian Ocean to the east, and Ethiopia to the west. It has the longest coastline on the continent, and its terrain consists mainly of plateaus, plains and highlands. Hot conditions prevail year-round, along with periodic monsoon winds and irregular rainfall.

Somalia was colonised by both Britain and Italy and gained independence in 1960 although it was under the rulership of Britain in 1941-1950. Prior to this, Somalia was split into British Somaliland, Italian Somaliland (both on the Coast), and the Dervish State (controlled by Muhammad Abdullah Hassan in the interior). In 1960, all these regions amalgamated into one, the Somalia Republic which would be led by a Civilian government. In 1961, the country adopted its first constitution resulting from a nationwide referendum  

In 1969 Abdi Rashid Ali Shirmarke, Somalia's second President, was assassinated and in the following days a military coup, led by Major General Muhammed Siyad Barre, gained control of the country. In 1970 Barre declared Somalia a socialist state successfully ending any hope for a multi party democracy. Somalia had always wanted to claim all the other areas in neighbouring countries that had Somali populations (Kenya, Djibouti, and Ethiopia) and it’s a move to reconcile with Ethiopia over this issue that led to this military coup (Somalia has since reconciled with Kenya and Djibouti over this issue). Somalia and Ethiopia have been enemies since the 16th Century and as we will see in future blogs, this animosity has somewhat contributed to the instability in Somalia.

The regime of Barre proved to be unfriendly to opposition parties, ethnically divided and the excessive use of the military to protect interests of the regime were evident. By the 1980’s, Somalia had engaged in another conflict, to seize the region of Ogaden from Ethiopia but had lost the war and intensified the animosity between the two countries. During the cold War, the Americans supported Somalia in another conflict with Ethiopia aimed at protecting its territory in the West. By the late 1980s wars had broken out in the Northern region of the country (between ethnic groups and government forces), many ethnic groups had armed young men to fight the Defence Force and with continued looting of the national treasury by Barre and his ‘kitchen’ cabinet, the economic collapse of Somalia was evident.

In 1991, a coup, by opposing clans, overthrew Barre and this was the beginning of the end of any form of governance in Somalia. The country has had no central government since then. Various negotiations have led to the institution of transitional national governments (at one point this government was fully based in Kenya), many international conferences have been held to discuss how to resolve the crisis, food insecurity, economic collapse and vulnerabilities within Somalia especially for the poor have intensified, and the situation has worsened for many that are unable to leave the country. Yet, in 2012, the international community (including Somalis in exile) has been unable to resolve the crisis. But is it the international community that should be solving the crisis or is it Somalis in Somalia? And if the latter, do they have enough capacity to resolve the issues?

Somalia is indeed plagued by a myriad of problems, and needs a myriad of solutions as we will see in future blogs.

On the next blog, we look at the big issues in the Somali Conflict!

For more background information on Somalia’s history:

1. Somalia Profile http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14094503
2. Somalia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somalia
3. Background Note: Somalia http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2863.htm
4. Somalia: a country in Turmoil http://www.mtholyoke.edu/~jmroth/index.htm

Things That Fascinate me about My Culture

I have to start this article with a disclaimer, lest I be condemned for being un-African. I am an African and very proud of that fact but in my life, I have taken those bits of my African heritage that suited me and adopted them as part of my lifestyle, and decided to let those that I could not stomach lie. I have been very blessed in my life to be able to weave in and out of various cultural experiences, and in my day-to-day life engage with friends, family, acquaintances, colleagues and other people that continue to teach me their cultures and ways of life. Since I have been back to the land of my birth, Kenya, I have engaged, once again with the culture that I was raised in and this article summarizes some of the things I find strange as well as wonderful about my culture:

Appraising Kibaki’s Government

Ongoing road construction on Thika Road in Nairobi

In 2002, there was a landslide election in Kenya that toppled the one time dictator, Daniel Arap Moi and a rulership that was so detrimental to Kenya’s development and growth for 28 years. This election victory resulted from a coalition of a number of political heavyweights who had had enough of Moi’s rule and had selected the current President, His Excellency, Mwai Kibaki as the official opposition leader. Mr Kibaki has been in power for just over 9 years and I thought it may be a good idea to write my thoughts on his leadership.

Nairobi will Remain the Main Hub in Kenya for a while

I have very often listened to many politicians in Kenya, who always talk about the need to diversify and decentralise the business, administrative and political activities from the Kenyan capital, Nairobi to other parts of the country. Political reforms that took place last year, and that led to the formation of rather devolved governments (the litmus test for this will be after the general elections scheduled for next year, 2012), have yielded some benefit in exposing other regions’ (like Kitui) potential to contribute to the growth and development of the country. The only concern that one would have is that the services that are available in Nairobi may not be accessible in any other parts of the country.

Disillusionment in the Land of my Birth

This last Sunday, I boarded a plane on a journey back to the country of my birth, Kenya. As you all know, I have rumbled quite a lot about the state of governance in Kenya. On the plane, I had the privilege of sharing a seat with a gentleman that was also Kenyan but that worked for one of the reputable banks in Africa, had lived out of Kenya for a long time in other African countries, and just like me, was concerned by the state of the Kenyan nation. There are a two things he mentioned that were absolutely interesting and I thought to share:

I am an African

When the former President of the Republic of South Africa, Mr Thabo Mbeki, delivered the ‘I am an African’ speech in 1996, I was barely in my teens and did not know that over 10 years later, I would be so interested in the affairs of this continent. I also did not know that there would come a time when I would define myself as an African rather than being affiliated to a particular country in the continent. Very often I have been asked by numerous numbers of people where I come from and I always say to them that I am an African after which they look at me dumbfounded. It was not until I decided to understand and confront my identity demons that I realized I was a child of many formations and could not necessarily be affiliated with one country. I am deeply passionate about the African continent, I find myself asking a lot of why questions about Africa’s past, and have so much optimism about the continent’s potential.