KENYA

Reports on Ethnic Relations  /  Rapports sur les relations éthniques

The following section is consisted of part, full or summaries of articles from diverses sources (newspapers, newsletters, etc...).
La section suivante est constituée d'exraits, de la totalité ou de résumés d'articles provenant d'origines diverses (journaux,bulletins, etc..).

01 / 29 / 2003

IRIN

The Article: "Women leaders angry over constitutional review delay"

A section of women leaders in Kenya has accused members of the country's constitutional review team of trying to delay the review process "for personal gains" after commissioners called for the rewriting of the draft constitution.

The Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA-Kenya Chapter) and the League of Kenyan Women (LKWV) said in a statement that such a move was an unnecessary waste of time particularly when Kenyans had invested so much hope in the important process.

A group of commissioners within the Constitution of Kenya Review Commission (CKRC), said at the weekend that the new draft contained many mistakes because its writing had been pegged to the December 2002 elections.

The group, led by CKRC vice chairman Idha Salim, said the commission needed more time to incorporate the many recommendations it had received since the draft was released last September.

FIDA chairperson Jane Kiragu and LKWV executive director Cecilia Kimemia said that the decision by the commissioners to "disown" the draft, especially at a time when Yashpal Ghai, the commission's chairman, was out of the country, was a sign that the commissioners had been compromised.

"We recall that those who are now casting doubts on the draft were party to its finalisation before it was presented to Kenyans for scrutiny and debate. To tell Kenyans that the draft was done in a rush and is therefore not representative of the views of Kenyans is to be dishonest and opportunistic," the statement said.

The draft constitution has been a subject of controversy ever since its release. It proposes, among other things, the drastic reduction of the powers of the country's president and addresses the legal loopholes that exist in the current constitution, which was drawn up at independence from Britain in 1963.

01 / 21 / 2003

IRIN

The Article: "Review of 2002 election result"

The 27 December 2002 elections and the smooth handover of power that followed was historical in many ways, and was praised globally as an example of democratic maturity in an African country.

After 24 years at the helm Presdient Daniel arap Moi, whose Kenya African National Union (KANU) party had ruled the country since independence in 1963, lost an election for the first time. The subsequent transition was the first time in the country's history that an incumbent stepped down for a new leader, and also the first occasion on which an opposition leader had won the country's presidential race.

Mwai Kibaki won a landslide victory in the presidential race, beating his closest rival, Uhuru Kenyatta, also Moi's preferred successor in KANU, by a wide margin.

Moi, who was barred from contesting the presidency after completing his two five-year terms as stipulated in the country's 1992 multiparty law, handed power over to Kibaki at Uhuru Park in Nairobi, where a number of African heads of state and hundreds of thousands of Kenyans had turned out to witness the occasion.

Kibaki's victory, under the banner of the reformist National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) party, has set the stage for long-awaited changes in the country's political, economic and social sectors in the coming year.

However, there are tough challenges ahead. The new NARC government inherits a country beset by economic, institutional and social failures. In addition, Kenya was recently ranked the sixth most corrupt nation in the world by the international corruption watchdog, Transparency International.

Challenges ahead

Kenyans will, in the coming year, be hoping to see changes in the leadership style of government, and will be looking out for results on the ground that make a positive impact on their lives. If it is to be successful, the new government will have to face up to the challenges of rising poverty, unemployment and corruption, analysts say.

According to Denis Kabaara, the chief executive officer of the Nairobi-based Institute of Economic Affairs, Kenya is lagging at least 20 years behind where it should be in terms of development. "The last two decades have been a period of systematic failure. It was marked by the gradual running down of institutions, and the rule of law went out of the window," Kabaara told IRIN.

The new government will have to focus its energies on rebuilding institutions, and developing a meritocracy in which Kenyan citizens can feel empowered, according to Kabaara.

The analyst says he views Kibaki's newly-appointed cabinet of ministers as an impressive team of reformers who have the ability to turn around the economy and the institutions that have suffered as a result of neglect and corruption. But, he warns, good results will not come easily.

"We need to undergo a social transformation, we want to see a different type of behaviour from our leaders. We need to have a government that socially and ideologically wants to enable and compete with the private sector," Kabaara said.

Donor relations improving

There are also signs that relations with donors, which have soured in recent years, are already improving, according to Kabaara.

However, World Bank officials have already expressed concern over plans by Charity Ngilu, the new health minister, to scrap the donor-backed system of cost sharing in government hospitals, replacing it with free healthcare. "The donors will want to talk issues. But the new team also has its own ideas. We expect that they will take the Kenyan position and bring in donors as a balancing element in their plans," Kabaara said.

Although the Kenyan economy performed poorly during his rule, Moi's supporters have credited him with keeping the peace in an otherwise turbulent part of the world.

Human rights under scrutiny

According to Phillip Kichana, a political analyst with the Nairobi-based Institute for Education in Democracy (IED), many people are also looking for a vast improvement in the human rights situation in the country, and for alleged abuses of the previous era to be thoroughly investigated.

Of all the forms of alleged violations, torture was the most severe, Kichana said. "The human rights situation was gross. If you look at the basic freedoms of assembly and press, they were constantly violated. Police beat up people in rallies. But torture ranks among the most severe, " he said.

The new government should, in the coming year, reform the judiciary to ensure that ordinary Kenyans feel they get justice, Kichana pointed out. "If the institutional reform does not happen by the end of this year, then I am afraid we will be doing the same things as in the past. The emphasis has to be on building institutions. If this is not done, nothing good will happen," he added

Kibaki, a former vice president and finance minister, has already stated that, while he is committed to fighting graft by replacing corrupt government officials with new people of integrity, he is not interested in pursuing a policy of "retribution" to dig into past political and economic crimes.

However, pressure is already mounting within the human rights community, which wants the new government to investigate alleged abuses.

In a statement released to the media on 9 January, the Kenya Human Rights Commission, which has documented alleged human rights violations, notably cases of torture, extrajudicial killings and the land clashes that rocked the country between 1992 and 1997, urged the Kibaki government to establish a "truth and reconciliation" commission.

It is only by fully confronting the past, and completely accounting for it, that Kenyans can create a solid and legitimate basis for the democratic development and economic renewal they are seeking, the Statement argued.

"Kenyans cannot simply forgive and forget the abominable crimes of the past. The victims of past abuses may only contemplate forgiveness after a full public accounting and justice has been done. But they must never forget because national amnesia for past abuses invites their recurrence," it added.

Mungiki threat

The new government is also faced with the tough challenge of restoring security in urban areas, where police operations have often been overwhelmed by heavily-armed criminals.

For example, the Mungiki, an outlawed movement made up of dreadlocked ethnic Kikuyu youths which began in the late 1990s as a cultural sect, but which has grown into a major security concern in many parts of the country, will need to be tackled.

The sect has been accused of promoting retrogressive traditional practices such as female circumcision, violence against women whom they deem to be indecently dressed, and even the carrying out of ritual murders in some parts of the country.

In recent weeks, the group has been reported to have gone on the rampage in a number of urban areas, spreading terror and attacking unarmed civilians in their residences, killing more than 70 people. The Mungiki activities have raised a public outcry and brought the efficiency of the country's police force into sharp focus. The new government has, however, promised to take firm action against the group, and has begun to crack down on its activities.

Women's Issues

The year 2003 is also likely to be an important one for women in Kenya. A total of eight women were elected to parliament on various party tickets. Out of the seven slots set aside for its nominated MPs, NARC selected five women, while KANU nominated two, bringing the total number of women in the country's ninth parliament to 15.

Although this number is still small in proportion to parliament's total of 210 seats, women leaders are still happy that the NARC government has already shown signs of commitment to improving the status of women in the country, with three women being appointed as full cabinet ministers.

A new draft constitution, which the NARC government has promised to adopt within the first 100 days in power, includes proposals for affirmative action for women and minority groups in government leadership structures. This could mean that at least 70 seats in parliament would be reserved for women.

Adelina Mwau, a leading women's rights activist is one of NARC's women parliamentary nominees. She looks forward to playing a key role in bringing gender issues into parliament. "This is exciting for me. I have a good grasp of the issues that affect women and men in this country, young and old. I hope to make a difference in the lives of women by directly making laws," she says.

Under the previous government, Mwau says, the work of women activists like herself was frustrated by a lack of commitment by the government to enact laws and develop institutions that promoted women's interests.

01 / 06 / 2003

IRIN

The Article: "10 killed by Kenyan cattle rustlers"

A group of suspected Kenyan cattle rustlers at the weekend attacked two Ugandan villages, killing at least 10 people. They also drove away between 700 and 800 head of cattle.

According to media reports, some 200 armed Pokots crossed from northwestern Kenya into Uganda and raided over 20 homes in the villages of Namalu and Takora, in Nakapiripiti, some 500 km northeast of the capital Kampala.

Peter Lokeris, the minister in charge of the Karamoja region in northeastern Uganda, confirmed that 10 people had been killed in the attack. He said he hoped the new Kenyan government, which was sworn in on 30 December, would be more effective in cooperating on peace and security issues along the common border with Uganda.

According to Lokeris, this was the second attack in two months in the area, where previously communities had lived in relative peace for years. "This an issue that will be dealt with by the two governments," he told IRIN.

The incident has sparked fears of more attacks in the Karamoja region, which since early last year has undergone a government-sponsored disarmament programme.

The Karamojong, a traditionally pastoralist group living in northeastern Ugandan districts, have often been accused of raiding neighbouring districts, causing displacement and human suffering.

The Ugandan government initially supplied weapons to small groups of "home guards" within the Karamoja subregion, on the grounds that the Karamojong were under threat from cross-border raids by Turkana and Pokot pastoralists from Kenya.

01 / 03 / 2003

IRIN

The Article: "Peace talks to resume as planned"

The rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) on Friday said it was expecting the next phase of talks aimed at ending their country's 19-year civil war to resume on schedule, despite the recent hiccups, with the two warring sides accusing each other of breaking the terms of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) they signed in November.

Samson Kwaje, the SPLM/A's senior spokesman in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, told IRIN he expected the negotiations, convened under the auspices of the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), and adjourned in Kenya's southern town of Machakos in November, to resume in mid-January as planned, even though the Khartoum government was "polluting the atmosphere" of the peace talks.

Under the MOU, the parties agreed, among other things, to a countrywide ceasefire coinciding with the duration of the talks. However, both sides have recently accused each of attacking the other's positions during the agreed period of tranquillity. "I do not think this should affect the negotiations unless the fighting escalates - then I don't know what next," Kwaje said.

Sudanese officials have accused the SPLM/A of killing three workers at a construction site and injuring an unspecified number of government soldiers in an attack in the oil-rich western Upper Nile region (Wahdah State), according to media reports.

Gen Muhammad Bashir Sulayman, the Sudanese army spokesman, said the SPLM/A on Tuesday morning attacked the road between Ler and Bentiu, a government-controlled oil-producing town some 750 km south of the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, the Associated Press agency reported

SPLM/A has, however, denied attacking government positions, and instead repeated earlier assertions to the effect that government soldiers had on Tuesday attacked rebel positions in Tam and Reang, both in the western Upper Nile region. "As far as we are concerned, it is the Sudan government that has violated the ceasefire by attacking us," Kwaje said.

On Thursday, a senior Sudanese diplomat in Nairobi, told IRIN that the SPLM/A's accusations had themselves constituted a violation of the MOU, which expressly prohibits both sides from engaging in media campaigns. Muhammad Ahmad Dirdeiry, the charge d'affaires at the Sudanese embassy in Nairobi, said a communications committee had been set up in Machakos during the talks, through which such grievances could have been channelled and discussed.

Kwaje, however, said he had been forced to release information to the media, because the Sudanese government had taken advantage of the long Christmas and New Year holiday period to attack rebel positions, despite the ceasefire. "It was a long holiday. There was no way the committee could meet during that period. So they took advantage of the holiday," Kwaje said.