Kibaki’s
By Okoth Osewe
When President Mwai Kibaki left Kenya on October 3rd for a three day visit to
the United States where he had been invited on a State visit by the American
government, he left behind a Ksh 30 billion budget
deficit which the government has been hoping to bridge through a $ 240 million
IMF/World Bank loan that was suspended by the two imperialist institutions
during the Moi dictatorship. The free Primary
education program, which is the government’s flag bearer in the list of
election promises so far fulfilled, is running on borrowed money from abroad
and hand outs from friendly governments in the advanced capitalist countries
seeking to spread their economic tentacles in Kenya. It is estimated that the
Program will cost the government Ksh 11 billion
annually, money that must be obtained as loans to be repaid with huge
interests. In fact, Kibaki’s
In July, Mr. Robinson Githae,
Assistant Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs told Parliament that
Kenya inherited a debt of Ksh 630 billion in a
country whose annual budget is estimated at Ksh 117
billion. “Mr. Speaker, we inherited a debt of Ksh 630
million and we are actually living from hand to mouth”, Githae
told Parliament. For millions of poor unemployed Kenyans, real starvation is
daily knocking on the door with relief agencies sending signals about looming
famine especially in
On the political front, the President also left behind a serious crisis within his ruling Narc Coalition which is currently split down the middle because of Kibaki’s failure to honour a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) allegedly signed by Coalition members before election. Aggrieved MPs from the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) have promised to block every bill the government brings to Parliament (including bills that could help release funds from the IMF and World Bank) if the MoU is not honoured. President Kibaki may return home in a dilemma in case Bush gives him an ultimatum to honour the MoU which has become a destabilizing factor within the ruling Coalition. Kibaki has publicly declared on two occasions that he will not allow for the creation of the Post of Prime Minister as stated in the MoU because he is opposed to the creation of two centers of power.
The writing of a new Constitution, which Kibaki had promised, would be in place within 100 days after taking power, has been postponed until November with no clear cut time table when the money guzzling process will end. After 280 days with Narc in power, the new Constitution is not yet in place while a new tug of war as to whether or not the document should be subjected to a referendum has began between two major factions in Narc. At the Constitutional conference being staged at Bomas of Kenya in Nairobi, delegates are more interested in the amount of allowances they are getting per day than in seeing the Conference wound up. The Conference is itself riddled with disagreements and controversy especially on the question of Prime Minister, a post which LDP MPs say, should be created in the Constitution according to the MoU and handed over to Mr. Raila Odinga, LDP leader.
The animosity between the warring factions in Narc was demonstrated more callously on 14th September when Dr. Odhiambo Mbai, a leading member of the Constitutional Review Commission also allied to LDP, was assassinated in his house by gangs suspected to have been hired by the “Mount Kenya Mafia” which LDP MPs have accused of running the government through the back door. Mr. Norman Nyaga, the Government’s Chief Whip, has been named by MP Peter Pwidi in Parliament as having financed Mbai’s assassination, a development which only served to deepen the crisis within the fragile Coalition. In extreme cases, Kibaki hawks have advised disenchanted LDP MPs calling for the honouring of the MoU to quit the government and join the opposition, the same strategy former Dictator Daniel arap Moi used when he needed to silence criticism from within KANU party.
When he boarded the plane to fly to Washington, International condemnation of the new regime had reached fever pitch after the arrest of three journalists whom, the government said, had published a story in the bourgeoisie controlled East African Standard detailing witness accounts during police interrogation of how Dr. Odhiambo Mbai was assassinated. The verbatim report that was gleaned from a video tape of police interrogations was so graphic that it left the reader in no doubt about the possible involvement of the government in the Don’s assassination. Although the Narc politician who was named by key witnesses as having financed the assassination was never named in the Standard report, it was clear that the “naming of names” session by LDP MPs was just a matter of time. As Kibaki was busy with dinner at the White House, his MPs were almost exchanging blows at the corridors of Parliament over the Mbai assassination.
However, the worst news that broke out as Kibaki’s Washingtom began was the
revelation by an anti-corruption Committee in
News about corruption within the Judiciary was worsened by another report by
Transparency International to the effect that
A major lesson that is emerging out of the rot being
witnessed in the new Kibaki government is that
corruption is part of the capitalist system and it doesn’t matter who is in
power. So long as the system is in place, corruption will be part of it. Our
position is that the system needs to be overthrown and replaced with a
democratic Socialist system in which State officials can be deprived of privileges
which is a major driving force behind corruption within the ruling elite.
Expectations that the new President Kibaki will end
corruption through the formation of several anti corruption bodies are
illusions that merely serve to camouflage the root cause of corruption and to
postpone a permanent solution. Lots of sweet talk on how corruption will be
ended in
Published by Kenya
Socialist Democratic Alliance (KSDA)
email: harakatips@hotmail.com