KENYA SOCIALIST DEMOCRATIC ALLIANCE (KSDA)
WHY PRESIDENT MWAI
KIBAKI IS AN IMPERIALIST STOOGE
By Okoth Osewe
The governments of the United States, United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Germany and other Western powers have a long history of recruiting African leaders
to act as stooges to safeguard their political, economic and strategic
interests. Today, President Olesogun Obasanjo of Nigeria, Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, James Kabila
of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DCR), Levy Mwanawasa of Zambia and Mwai Kibaki of Kenya are some of the most visible stooges of
British and American imperialism in Africa. After he took power, President
Robert Mugabe used to listen to British imperialism
but after his authority was threatened because of growing landlessness in Zimbawe, Mugabe broke up with
imperialism to get an opportunity to seize land that was grabbed by white
settlers to try and sort out a crisis that was threatening his authority.
Current imperialist attacks against Mugabe are based
on his rebellion against his former master which wanted Mugabe
to maintain the status quo on the question of land. In Africa, President Muammah
Ghaddaffi of Libya stands out as having
maintained a consistent anti-imperialist position since he seized power in
1969.
Here, we
are more concerned with President Kibaki of Kenya because although he came to power
sixteen months ago on a platform of change and transformation, political
actions on the ground confirm that the President is in power to safeguard
British and American interests. A clear understanding by Kenyans of Kibaki’s role as a watchman of Western interests and
facilitator of exploitation of Kenya’s resources by imperialism will put to an
end any hovering illusions that Kibaki and his crisis
ridden Narc will transform the lives of Kenyans to
the better.
One major
indicator that Kibaki is an Imperialist stooge is his
constant dealings with IMF and World Bank,
imperialist economic weapons whose illegal operations in Kenya since 1963 have contributed more to
the exploitation and plunder of Kenya’s resources than to National
development. In the last five years, imperialist countries posing as “major
donors” have looted Ksh 500 billion from Kenya. Between 1998 and 2002 when money
was being looted from our country by multinational companies, Kenya’s direct imports from
industrialised countries amounted to a whooping Ksh
1.2 trillion. Both President Jomo Kenyatta
and dictator Daniel arap Moi failed to develop Kenya with IMF
and World Bank loans whose repayment is currently consuming 60% of the
country’s GDP. Why should Kenyans continue to support a government headed by a
known stooge who is making the same mistakes that have failed the country since
the colonial revolution in 1963?
President Kibaki, despite his experience, has allowed the government
to draw up development plans worth billions of Kenyan shillings whose
acquisition is pegged on “foreign donors”. While stating publicly that Kenya is broke, the new President has
requested the West to help Kenya with Ksh
700 billion to finance an ambitious infrastructure and social spending program
that the government has drawn. At the same time, Kenyans have been told that
the repair of the decrepit road Network in the country needs Ksh 100 billion, cash that Raila Odinga (Minister of Roads, Housing and Public Works) said,
should come from the “private sector”. Raila added
that the country will need another Ksh 10 billion
from donors for the annual maintenance of the roads. The government budget has
a deficit of Ksh 65 billion which the “donors” are
supposed to fill.
The free
Primary Education program has been surviving through hand outs from Western
imperialism. The 150,000 houses per year Narc
promised Kenyans during elections is supposed to be funded by OPIC (Overseas Private Investment Corporation), an arm of
the US government used to align governments to follow US foreign policy.
Deepening this culture of perpetual dependency is important for imperialism
because it is the key to maintaining the hook on Kibaki
and to put constant pressure on the new President to ensure that the West
controls the politics, culture and economy of the republic of Kenya with Kibaki
playing the role of a stooge.
The Oil industry
Oil
business is one of the most lucrative in the world. In Kenya, the main distributors
of petroleum products are multinational oil companies which Kibaki’s
bosses in the West expects him to protect by ensuring that these companies have
majority market share at all times. Caltex, an
American company and one of the biggest oil distributor
in Kenya, deals in refining, manufacturing and
marketing of petroleum products in the country. The company has a refinery and
a grease plant at the port city of Mombasa while it has more than 300 service
stations across Kenya which sells gasoline, diesel,
lubricants and other convenience products. It has 20 terminals and depots and
provides aviation services at International airports in Nairobi and Mombasa. With the government having no role
to play in the distribution of oil, all oil profits in Kenya are going back to the West with no
profits invested locally. This is just one way of how money made in Kenya is getting its way to Europe and America.
Another
major oil company is the British-owned Shell/BP alliance which has a 30% share
of the market. The company has 160 distribution stations across the country.
Shell has two major terminals in Nairobi and Mombasa and reseller deports in Kisumu, Nakuru, Eldoret and Nanyuki. At the
country’s Airports, Shell has six airfield refuelling stations and a lubricating
oil blending plant in Mombasa where crude oil arrive
from abroad to be sold in Kenya. Another major foreign company engaged in the
oil and gas industry in Kenya is Agip-Kenya
controlled by the Italians and which has 90 service stations, three depots and
three filling plants in the country. Other private companies involved in the
appropriation of oil profits in Kenya are Total, Kengen
and Kobil. Activities of the state owned National Oil
Corporation of Kenya (NOCK) were made irrelevant in 1994 when the government
acceded to IMF/World Bank pressure and deregulated
the oil industry so as to open ways through which more profits could be
repatriated abroad through private companies. As an imperialist stooge, the
work of President Kibaki is to maintain this balance
of exploitation.
The Banking industry
In the
Banking industry, there are approximately 43 Banks in Kenya out of which the
Kenyan government has an interest in only six Banks, the rest being under
foreign control. The National Bank of Kenya (NBK),
Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB), Kenya Post Office Saving
Bank, Cooperative Bank of Kenya and the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) are the only Banks under government control. As a
result of pressure from IMF and World Bank, President
Kibaki is planning to privatize the National Bank of Kenya and the Kenya Commercial Bank in
exchange for loans which will end up being looted by politicians. If this
happens, the government will lose control of all the major Banks in a situation
where the dominant Banks like Barclays Bank, Standard Chartered, City Bank,
Diamond Trust Bank, First American Bank of Kenya, Giro & CFC Bank, Korea
Exchange Bank, Stanbic Bank, Paramount Universal,
Credit Bank, Chase Bank, and Middle East Bank are all economic structures used
for exploitation of Kenyan workers by agents of International capital.
How do
foreign owned Banks contribute to the repatriation of wealth from Kenya? Out of an approximately 43 Banks
in the country, five foreign owned Banks led by Barclays Bank and Standard
Chartered Bank control 70% of the market. Traditionally, commercial Banks have
reaped profits from interest-based incomes but as poverty increased among the
working population and the number of unemployed Kenyans swelled to 14 million
over the last decade, the Banks shifted their sources of profits to commissions
and fees imposed on petty Bank services. Last year, Barclays Bank raked in Ksh 5 billion in fees and commissions (34% of total income)
while Standard Chatered Bank raked in Ksh 7.4 billion in profits out of which Ksh
4 billion (28% of total income) was realised through fees and commissions.
Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB), which is up for privatization, realised Ksh 750 million with Ksh 3.6
million being realised through fees and commissions. Once it is privatized, the
fees and commissions will most likely be increased by the new buyer for maximum
profits - thanks to President Kibaki.
To
understand the level of exploitation of Kenyans by banks in the country, one
needs to go deeper. To operate a current account at Diamond Trust and Victoria
Commercial Bank, a minimum balance of Ksh 50,000 is
required, money that is 10 times the wage of an ordinary impoverished worker.
At Stanbic and Habib AG
Zurich, the current account deposit is Ksh 30,000. At
Standard Chatered Bank the amount is Ksh 20,000 while Kenya Commercial Bank charges Ksh 10,000. To process a cheque at Barclays Bank and
Standard Chartered Bank, Ksh 370 fee is imposed on an
operation that takes less than 10 minutes. A telex service at Standard chartered
costs Ksh 1,345, local fax Ksh
100 while international faxes at the same Bank costs Ksh
500.
Kenyans are
being fleeced through ATM withdrawals, standing order charges, Ledger fees and
counter withdrawals that, in some banks, costs as much as Ksh
500. Some Banks have introduced a 0.15% charges on every deposit while others
are charging Ksh 1,000 for access to Bank balance
through the Internet. In the advanced capitalist countries where opposition to
capitalism is also growing especially among the youth, deposits and withdrawals
at many banks attract no fees with banks making money out of interest from
loans and trading with depositor’s money.
In the
banking industry, Kenyans are exposed to super-exploitation, not only because
of President Kibaki’s official status as an
imperialist stooge but because the deformed capitalist system in the country is
itself is in deep crisis. Under section 44 of the Banking act, the Central Bank
of Kenya has powers to regulate bank charges in the
interest of both share holders and depositors. This same section stipulates
that commercial Banks seek approval from the Finance Minister before
introducing new fees and commissions. But in real life in Kenya today, this rule does not apply
because imperialism must have its way.
When
Finance minister Mr. David Mwiraria tried to
intervene, he met stiff resistance from IMF and World
Bank which warned him that tampering with operations of the Banks could lead to
“controls” that had been wiped out during the Moi
dictatorship. Because of its status as a beggar in front of IMF/World
Bank, the government simply retreated and abandoned official rules in the
interest of imperialist interests. This is the same government that was elected
to change Kenya. In political terms, Narc government exists to facilitate the overt robbery of
Kenyan depositors by the Banks with President Kibaki
acting as a puppet to supervise the whole process. A change of the situation
will require a change of the system and this is where, KSDA
believes, the element of a Socialist revolution will have to be discussed at a
serious level by Kenyans interested in real change in our country.
Nairobi Stock Exchange
In the capitalist world, whoever controls the Stock exchange controls
the national economy and, by extension, the sitting government. The Stock Exchange is a capitalist
institution where the main wealth grabbers speculate with billions of Kenyan
shillings which should be invested in housing, construction or industry to
create jobs to change the lives of idle youth engaged in crime in urban areas.
Out of the 53 companies listed in the Nairobi Stock Exchange, 95% are foreign
owned. In other words, at the centre of the Kenyan economy is a powerful
foreign dominion far much beyond the reach or control of the government.
This is
where you find George Williamsson, Car & General,
Kenya Airways (which was privatised by Moi), Lonrho Motors, Marshals, Nation Media Group, Standard
Newspapers, Uchumi Supermarkets, CFC Bank, Diamond
Trust Bank, Standard Chatered Bank, B.A.T Kenya, Bamburi Cement,
Dunlop Kenya, Firestone East Africa, East African Breweries, Total Kenya, Unga Group and a host of other foreign companies that
literally control the government. By stating that President Kibaki is an Imperialist stooge, this classification is not
to undermine our new President but to pin-point the main axis where the
political and economic crisis of Kenya rotates. The Constitution is not the main
problem. It is time for another revolution in Kenya and if citizens do not understand
the genesis of the crisis, it will be difficult for them to support the idea of
a Socialist revolution to overthrow a rotten system of government where less
than 10% of the population owns 90% of the national wealth.
In the
capitalist world, the insurance industry is one of the main investment areas
where a company in business makes money without selling any commodity directly
to the customer. The industry is based on “risk taking” and involves regular
payment of a specific amount of money to the insurer in expectation of
compensation if the risk the customer has insured against becomes a reality, an
act that can, in many cases, take years or even fail to take place. We don’t
have to name the thousands of private insurance companies operating in Kenya and fleecing millions of citizens
out of their money every month through organized advertisements and “package”
proposals. The point is that 95% of these companies are private owned with the
State having no role to play in the situation. As a consequence, billions of
Kenyan shillings generated through the industry and which could be invested in
the country for national development is ending up on the hands of “private
investors” through whom profits from the industry are repatriated abroad. The government is begging from the West
because it has abandoned wealth generating activities to international capital.
This arrangement is being sustained because the man at the top – President Kibaki – is an imperialist stooge whose job is to maintain
the status quo under the ideology of neo-colonialism.
Narc corruption scandals: Imperialism unlikely to
suffocate their stooge
What does
President Kibaki and the Kenyan ruling class get back
for selling Kenya to foreign interests? Privileges,
luxurious lifestyles, a fleet of Mercedez benzes with body guides hanging around like flies around a
wound, power over helpless citizens, endless trips abroad on “official
engagements”, multiple residential houses around the country, permanent
presence in the capitalist media, a stream of Kenyan slaves seeking financial
help MPs, a million salaries accompanied by huge unimaginable perks,
investments abroad, opportunities to change the rules of the game through
Parliament in the interest of the ruling class among others. The strategy of imperialism
in Kenya is to create a wealthy ruling class answerable
to nobody but themselves and with endless opportunities to loot the state in
the name of serving the people. What we have in Kenya is a small committee calling itself
government and having at its disposal tax money of millions of poor workers. As
an imperialist stooge, President Kibaki presides over
this looting by the ruling class with little interference from imperialism
because he is delivering to the West what he is bequeathed to deliver.
President Kibaki does not have a “hands off policy” towards politics.
He has an “I don’t care attitude” towards the ruled because he knows he cannot
change Kenya since his hands are tied by imperialism. For
this reason, Kibaki is presiding over a government
that is becoming even more corrupt than the previous government because he
knows he will not return to power in 2007 and that his regime has five years to
loot. Corruption is not a cancer that has suddenly infected the Narc government. It is part of the system Narc took over from KANU and
which the previous ruling class used to loot the economy. For Narc, the main concern is not to fight corruption but to
hide it whenever it pops its ugly head. The capitalist ruling class has a
culture of protecting their members and for this reason,
no one from the old regime has been prosecuted for corruption even though the
amount the former regime looted from the economy stands at Ksh
300 billion. New corruption scandals in the current regime are not attracting
legal action because every member of the ruling class is involved in looting at
different levels and the fundamental issue is how the wealth grabbers can
protect one another’s backs.
Moody Awori, Kenya’s Vice president, has been linked to a Ksh 2.2 billion corruption scandal involving tenders linked
to the printing of Kenyan passports but Kibaki has
not commented on the matter neither has he taken any action. In the deal, the
government is set to lose US $22 million after the contract was awarded to the
highest bidder - Anglo Leasing and Finance Company - which is also black listed in Kenya. The company has a record of fraud
and embezzlement of funds during the Moi
dictatorship. Although Anglo Leasing quoted US $12 million as compared to De La
Rue of the United Kingdom which quoted US $7 million, Kibaki’s men inflated the Anglo Leasing figure to US $ 34
million thereby creating an opportunity to loot US $22 million from the tax
payer. Instead of putting pressure on his Vice president to resign, Ambassador
Francis Muthaura, the Head of the Civil Service,
issued an order gagging civil servants on information leakages. This order came
from a government that won elections promising transparency and accountability.
In fact,
the name of President Kibaki has been mentioned in
the Goldenberg Mega scandal where, according to the Goldenberg commission
currently sitting in Nairobi, the President was one of the share
holders of the Pan African Bank (PAB) which collapsed
with billions of Kenyan shillings during the Moi dictatorship.
As a share holder, Roire Investment company that belonged to the President was allotted 2,500
ordinary shares on August 28th 1987 while Moi
was allotted 5,000 shares. PAB collapsed along with Ksh 5.3 billion tax payer’s money that had been injected
into it from the Central Bank of Kenya.
With this
kind of background, Kibaki is himself too tainted to
continue holding office as the President of Kenya, leave alone swearing to
fight corruption in the first place. Although imperialism could warn Kibaki about corruption in his regime, they cannot
suffocate him out of power because as a stooge he is delivering the wealth of Kenya to his masters, sacking poor
workers from their jobs as ordered by IMF/World Bank
and has promised massive privatizations to sell profitable state enterprises to
foreign interests.
Who needs the rotten system of
capitalism in Kenya?
To
demonstrate the rotten nature of capitalism in Kenya, one has to look at the example of
Professor George Kinuthia Muthengi
Saitoti, the Minister of Education. In “Corruption
popularity” in the former regime, he rivals only former dictator Moi (who has US $3 billion in foreign bank accounts) and
Mr. Nicholas Biwott, MP for Elgeyo
Marakwet whose group of companies owes Kenya Ksh 25 billion looted through Goldenberg International.
Despite his name having featured a thousand times in the Goldenberg scandal (in
which the tax payer lost more than Ksh 68 billion)
and evidence about his link to several corruption scandals during the Moi dictatorship, Saitoti was
appointed a Cabinet Minister in the Kibaki
administration.
In the
latest case involving Saitoti after his appointment
as Minister of education, a former Permanent Secretary told a court in Nairobi
that Saitoti was linked to an illegal deal of Ksh 300 million involving importation of hundreds of
“London look taxis” in Kenya during the Moi
dictatorship. The money was siphoned from the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) which later entered into serious financial difficulties
due to irregular transactions.
When he was
in charge of Finance during the Moi dictatorship, Ksh 4 billion was illegally wasted on the construction of
the Eldoret Airport as the government authorised the
spending of Ksh 3 billion on a controversial Presidential
jet at a time when Primary school children did not have books in Kenya. Apart from the Goldenberg scandal,
Saitoti is remembered for having been in charge when,
in 1996/97, the government spent Ksh 1.2 billion
illegally, up from Ksh 900 million in 1995.
The
Professor is best famous for having presided over the loss of Ksh 8.7 billion from the Central Bank of Kenya following the collapse of four
political Banks that owed money to CBK. Kenyans have
not forgotten the US $80 million Eldoret Bullet
Factory that was constructed illegally under the very nose of Professor Saitoti and at a time when Kenyans were starving in North Eastern Province. In fact, Saitoti’s
record of corruption is a huge and shameless catalogue that disqualifies him
from holding public office. It is only an “I don’t care” President ruling under
a rotten system of government that can sustain corrupt and rotten politicians
in positions of authority before turning around to tell voters that the
government is serious on tackling corruption. Charity Ngilu,
the Minister of Health, cannot explain how she used Ksh
30 million to organize an Aids seminar recently but the government is still
quiet. Professor Anyang Nyongo
has been implicated in a corruption scandal involving crane tenders at Mombasa while the notorious Karisa Maitha, a Cabinet Minister
literally wallowing in corruption, is still in office. Are Kenyans still cheering
Narc been mesmerized by government propaganda based
on an anti-corruption crusade that is a farce?
In a
country where Kipruto arap Kirwa, Minister of Agriculture, says that 4 million people
are facing starvation, Dr. Chris Muranguru the
Minister in charge of internal security, says that he needs Ksh
50 billion for the next five years for the improvement of the police force at a
time when the Minister is said to have ordered 1 million hand cuffs in another
top level conspiracy with the Treasury. How many people can Ksh
50 billion feed in 10 years? Where are the Pattni
video tapes that Kenyans were told, captured politicians in the present and
former governments receiving bribes? Although Kenyans were told that these
tapes would be made public, there has been no word from State house, silence
that confirms that Kenyans have a lying government and where leaders treat
voters like a herd of sheep which should not know where they are coming from or
where they are going.
Kenyans
should celebrate the fact that Narc ended 39 years of
the KANU dictatorship. The dilemma facing the nation
in the next face of struggle is not the defeat of Narc
government but the overthrow of a defective political system that allows
leaders like Kibaki to be converted into imperialist
stooges once they emerge from the opposition to seize power after riding on the
backs of the working people and the impoverished poor population hoping for
change. From our view, the urgent issue is not even the Constitution but the
replacement of a political system of government that guarantees the
repatriation of the wealth of the Nation to foreign lands as the country is
milked by both a tiny ruling class and agents of Western imperialism.
It is a
brutal system in which thousands of poor workers are sacked from their jobs
because of imperialist pressure thereby destroying the lives of families left
with no way to earn a living. Who needs a system where more than half of the
population is living on less than a dollar a day while MPs who should change
the situation have themselves become millionaires by robbing the tax man? Without
Socialism, Kenyans are suffering and this is why KSDA
will intensify plans to set up a Socialist party in the country, not just to
challenge capitalism but to help bring about the Socialist revolution in Kenya.
Published by Kenya Socialist Democratic
Alliance (KSDA)
email: harakatips@hotmail.com
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