Kenya in 2006

Kenya in 2006

Area:' 582,646 sq km (224,961 sq mi)
'Population (2006 est.): 34,059,000
Capital: Nairobi
Head of state and government: President  Mwai Kibaki

By the middle of January 2006, 3.5 million Kenyans were believed to be affected by the widespread drought that began in the latter part of 2005 and created acute food shortages. In the north, where the drought persisted until late in the year, there was considerable loss of livestock, which gave rise to cattle rustling and fighting between rival groups of pastoralists. Meanwhile, in coastal districts and in the region bordering on Lake Victoria, the drought was followed by heavy rains that caused serious flooding. Responding to accusations of inactivity from an official of the World Food Programme, the government said it would try to provide £225 million (about $400 million) to ease the situation but admitted it would have to rely on humanitarian agencies to meet any additional needs.

The government also faced continuing allegations of corruption, fired by the circulation among Western donor countries of a damning report prepared by John Githongo, formerly head of Kenya’s Anti-Corruption Commission. The report had been submitted to Pres. Mwai Kibaki late in 2005, but Githongo claimed that no action had been taken. In February, however, the situation began to change when Kibaki ordered the publication of a report on the long-running Goldenberg financial scandal, which had cost the government hundreds of millions of dollars. The report implicated former president Daniel arap Moi and six of his aides. A few days later Finance Minister David Mwiraria resigned, protesting that corruption allegations made against him were false. His resignation was followed by that of two other cabinet members—Kiraitu Murungi, the energy minister, and George Saitoti, the education minister. On February 17 Chris Murungaru, a former cabinet minister and close friend of the president, appeared before the Kenya court charged with involvement in corruption. At this point the IMF announced that promised aid of 23.5 billion Kenya shillings (about $325 million) had been withheld because of the ongoing corruption charges. Nevertheless, Kenya, unlike many other African countries, continued to service its foreign debts meticulously. Late in March, Andrew Mullei, head of Kenya’s central bank, faced calls to resign, and there were demands for an investigation into claims that Vice Pres. Moody Awori had misled the parliament over a fraudulent tender.

Kenya’s reputation for press freedom was called into question in February when an article in the Saturday Standard newspaper claiming that Kibaki had secretly met Kalonzo Musyoka, an opposition leader, led to the arrest of three journalists. Then, at midnight on March 1, police raided the Standard offices and those of the associated KTN television company. The raid was condemned by the U.S. and U.K. embassies in Nairobi, while the World Bank added press freedom to the conditions the government would have to meet before the freeze on credits amounting to 19 billion Kenya shillings (about $260 million) was lifted. Later investigations revealed that the report of the president’s meeting with Musyoka was false. So too was a later report of Kibaki’s having secretly met two of the ministers who had resigned. Three members of the Standard’s editorial staff were suspended by the directors of the company, who also refused to renew the contract of Tom Mshindi, the paper’s chief executive officer and a leading critic of the government’s action against the press.

These developments took place against a background of power struggles, both within and between Kenya’s political parties, vividly reflected in a May report that no fewer than eight members of the recently created Orange Democratic Movement, led by Raila Odinga, had announced their candidacies for the presidency in the 2007 elections. In June Kibaki himself launched a new party, the National Alliance of Kenya, which quickly won three out of five by-elections created by the deaths of five members of the parliament in a plane crash. In November fighting took place in a Nairobi slum between rival gangs, and hundreds of people fled their homes. The government was further embarrassed by new accusations of corruption and money laundering by some officials.

Kenneth Ingham