A perspective on Kenya's from Mike Rainy, Ol Kanjau, Amboseli

We are now experiencing a tragic resumption of what's reported as ethnic fratricide. In such circumstances a lot remains unclear, especially as regards causes and contexts. What is clear is that each day in the month since Kibaki installed himself on the 30th of last month as the winner of the extremely flawed electoral process of the 27th December election is that approximately 40 Kenyans have died each day. Many of the initial deaths were the result of police violence.

That precipitated retaliations principally directed at Kikuyus living outside of their cultural homeland in Central Province. In the wake of attempts of African and international groups to make peace between Kibaki's party and ODM in the last few days, we have a dramatic resurgence of revenge killings of non Kikuyus in the same areas. This started a few days ago in Naivasha and is now spreading, particularly in the Western and Rift Valley Regions, but also in the slum areas of Nairobi.

You haven't heard from us because we have been totally committed to keeping guests at our Ol Kanjau in Amboseli busy with two African Wildlife Photographic Safaris over a 19 day period. We have had only one cancellation and one postponement so far, but the tourist industry has been virtually shut down. Yesterday in Amboseli National Park at what would normally be peak season, our 4 guests from Boston encountered only two other tourist vehicles during 6 hours in the centre of the Park. Thousands of Kenyans who normally work hard to provide services to visitors have been laid off. Many hotels are closing and airlines are reducing flights. Horticultural produce is piling up undelivered, and billions of shillings have been lost with more to come.

I want to remind all Friends of Kenya that this sort of thing, as tragic as it is, has happened repeatedly in the past, and has been a major challenge to anyone trying to maintain a peaceful and accountable system of governance in this country since the run-up to Independence in 1963, as well as in the previous decade of the 1950's during the so-called Mau Mau Emergency that was declared for a decade by the outgoing British rulers, whom, we must recall, did deliver decades of the Pax Britannica.

Since those dark days, Kenyans have had their "own" government, but it has been hardly representative or accountable. We hear on the BBC that there are deep seated ethnic tensions exacerbated by decades of futile efforts to gain a larger part of resources centred around the question of agricultural land, particularly in the fertile regions of the so-called white highlands. It should be recalled that people from Central Province, particularly Kikuyu, under Kenyatta were the first beneficiaries of land vacated by departing settlers. We should all recall that at that time our population was one-seventh of what it is now, and that the people now killing and being killed are mainly young men whose age is hardly 20 years. Thus they were born in the late 1980's during the last 16 years of the Moi Regime that succeeded Kenyatta in 1968. Throughout the 16 years of the Kenyatta regime whenever there was a challenge to Kikuyu domination, a small but powerful segment of the Kikuyu leadership permitted a re-awakening of the oathings that had characterised the fight for independence.

The forces of passionate violence are hardly unique to Africa or Kenya. Americans have just celebrated the triumph of the Civil rights Movement led by Dr. Martin Luther King, assisted by Lyndon Baines Johnson in the 60's when many of us put other goals aside and came to Africa to assist in the educational development of post independent Kenyans, Ugandans, and Tanzanians. When Dr. King's temporal vision was silenced in 1968, Detroit, Washington and Watts exploded and now 40 years later an American black man with deep Kenyan roots, Barrack Obama has a better than even chance of being the 45th president of the United States, and is being heralded as man whose vision has linked to the visions of Lincoln, Roosevelt and Kennedy to restore a widely shared sense of national purpose. My point is that human rights only strengthen when they are denied. We fully expect that historical trajectory to be true in Kenya too.

I want to share our thoughts of what's gone wrong and to put the current violence in some perspective.

The colonial empires after WW II did a cost benefit analysis and decided that they could not deliver goods and services to their hundreds of millions of colonial subjects, principally in India and Africa, and so embarked on a deliberate strategy to quickly end their obligations of providing civil governance.

In the late 40's after Freedom at Midnight, the new Indian independence movement split in the fratricide between Muslims and Hindus into modern day Pakistan and India.

In those countries periodic fratricides are a tragic norm. Their cause is an interaction of aspirations for a better life truncated by the great returns that accrue to leaders of weak governments. This is particularly so in Kenya where after decades of Western subsidy to stay out of the eastern bloc, Kenyan leaders were forced to fend for themselves by literally feeding extravagantly on the national cake at the expense of our own citizens. We should recall that in 1992 when the first challenges to oligarchic rule occurred with the first multiparty elections in Kenya, that Moi and his cronies claimed that African Democratic governments were a dream that would degenerate into ethnic violence. The fomenters of ethnic violence were hired in and they were only called off when Moi resumed leadership with only 1/3 of the popular vote.

In 1997 five years later, Kenyans died again, this time also in Mombasa and Narok in tragically similar circumstances. During those experiences extreme elements from the Kikuyu community permitted and devised "The Many" or "Mungiki". These were young Kikuyu men who allowed their self deception of how to quickly regain a share of governing leadership to be misled into once again killing Kenyans.

Mungiki has been a periodic trump card for those who would cling to leadership primarily through instilling fear amongst their own community as well as in neighbouring communities. Although they were used, they were never invited to participate in the wake of successful electoral manipulation. Instead they were kept on the back burner principally by being able to intimidate the matatu owners of our vast, private, mass transportation system and allowed to enrich themselves and their membership by millions of daily shillings gained through opportunistic extortion.

When Kibaki became the president in 2002 his government made great efforts to end the carnage on our roads by demanding new licenses, speed governors, passenger limits and seat belts because, prior to that time, an average of 14 or 15 Kenyans were dying on our roads every day principally to pay back the funds that were being extorted by Mungiki and its members. As they became successful, the Mungiki leadership made various opportunistic efforts to transform their organization's image into one that was more socially widely accepted. There was a time when they became Muslim. When that became uncomfortable they morphed into born-again Christians and did whatever they could to sanitize thuggery. They were in fact used in the run-up to the 2002 election, but were once again denied even the lowest hanging fruits of victory. They continued to practice their lucrative extortion on a daily basis.

It is beyond interesting that in the run-up to the December 2007 election that Michuki, Kibaki's Minister for State Security, unleashed a brutal but extremely effective campaign against Mungiki. You may recall weeks of international reports of Mungiki perpetrated beheadings directed at recalcitrant members of their own community. During that time hundreds, perhaps as many as 2000 recalcitrants were identified, rounded up, and disappeared. Very few people in Kenya, including very few members of their own ethnic group, shed any tears. Instead, they carried on riding matatus, briefly freed of extortion. In fact, guys that we routinely use as daily drivers in Nairobi, most of whom are Kikuyu, celebrated their new sense of security in getting to and from their homes without problems.

Kibaki and his cohorts reaped the benefits for briefly restoring order, but even if you eliminate a couple of thousand you still have "The Many". It's not at all surprising to hear in the last few days, and to confirm in texts and mobile phone calls, that Mungiki has once again gone on the rampage. For example, they have been paid and transported to Naivasha and other population centres where they preach the life saving necessity of inciting those who share only their language to retaliate against non-Kikuyu. They thus demand that true Kikuyus come out and fight their battle, or die. They do this with impunity, often being watched by the same police forces that brutally suppressed and killed them only a few months ago. There is a clear malevolent strategy here for the government to pay for the incitement and mayhem.

Our own Nobel Laureate, Wangari Maathai, has in the last few days lost her bodyguards because she dared to speak publicly that it was the government's responsibility to protect the lives of Kenyans. Having hijacked the vote, having installed themselves in power, the new coalition between Kibaki (PNU) and Kalonzo his VP ( ODM-Kenya) want to prove that a coup after balloting is 'the devil that we know' and far better than ethnic fratricide. They want our citizens to simply give up the naive dream of better governance. This is not likely.

On a more positive note, many newly elected MP's on both sides are responding positively to reply to the clear call for MP's to return to their constituencies to demand that they work together to effect a stop to the killings, however, wherever and whenever they occur. This call has been made by Hon.Ngaissery who is our MP in Kajiado Central, where many constituents share Maasai and Kikuyu intermarried ethnic origins of many generations.

Please be aware, as the international media responds to instant deadlines, that millions of Kenyans are aware of what is happening and are determined to end the violence and get on with their lives and livelihoods to continue to work for better and more peaceful days. We are all talking and the words for stopping the killing are being listened to. We are dismayed, we are hurt, but we are determined that that day will soon come. Please pray that it will be sooner than later. Please also help get the word out that their is substance and determination of good will that goes will beyond the time slots for sound bites. Be prepared that as peace returns it will not be as newsworthy as atavistic mayhem.

Please by all means keep in touch. We value the opportunity to send these statements of what appears to be the case at the end of the first month of the new Kibaki regime. He and his cohorts must be told that the aspirations of Kenyan people can not be dashed and once again sat on.

There are international calls to end developmental support, but we should not forget that Kenyans are now generating, through their hard work and taxes, most of the money that can now be either used for their own development or be stolen. It shouldn't be hard for many of us to recall that American independence was founded on the notion of no taxation without representation.

Very very best wishes for a happier new year soon.

Love, Mike and Judy

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				A Kenyan Perspective, January 2008
				A personal perspective from Mike and Judy Rainy of Ol Kanjau, Amboseli on 30 January 2008. Reproduced in full with kind permission. For direct contact go to http://www.olkanjau.com/ For further updates on Kenya and advice to clients...

A Kenyan Perspective, January 2008

Kenya's Tragic Circumstances One Month after the Hijacked Election 30th December 2007

Kenya's Tragic Circumstances One Month after the Hijacked Election
30th December 2007