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Headlines : InternationalIt’s business as usual for the rich as the poor kill each other
This is a commentary on the violence in Kenya. Much of what is written in the media about this problem has described it with terms such as tribal conflict and ethnic divisions. While it is true that there are these ethnic conflicts, as the British created Kenya by drawing a line around 42 different groups that speak different languages and dividing some, like the Maasai between multiple countries, they do not often talk about the economic and political issues surrounding the violence.
[Posted By azaro]Republished from The Daily Nation
Publication Date: 1/8/2008
I have been frequenting my local despite all the post-election chaos around.
Even when violence had reached crazy levels in the slums, not too far away, I found life pretty much normal.
At the shopping centre, typical of middle-class Nairobi, the beer was flowing, everybody was catching up with the news on TV, when not watching English soccer, and the car-wash and the outdoor roasts were doing their thing.
In the pubs, politics was of course the main conversation. While some may have a liking for specific joints, everything is pretty much multi-tribal. The barrel I sit around could be shared by a Kikuyu, a Kamba, a Luo, a Kalenjin, a Somali, a Maasai or any other person that makes it a microcosm of Kenya.
AND BETWEEN THE BEER AND THE banter, there is absolutely no tribal animosity even as the TV brings up images of ethnic violence hitting the poor all over the country, while their wealthy leaders fight by proxy over the spoils.
Posted by azaro
See also, from the WSWS Kenya: Social disintegration in country touted as African ‘success’ story by Chris Talbot.
Kenya has proved to be attractive because of its cheap labour and deep-water port. The Financial Times has warned that the crisis in Kenya will hit profits…Not only Kenya but its neighbours will be affected. African investment funds raised more than US$5 billion dollars last year.
...Kenya’s recent economic boom has had no impact on the poverty that the vast majority of the population faces. But it has whetted the appetites of businessmen and an entrepreneurial layer at the top of Kenyan society. In that way it has played a part in destabilising the political situation.
It is from this venal group, bickering among themselves over the spoils of Kenya’s new investment opportunities, that the finance was raised to put together both Odinga’s ODM and Kibaki’s Party of National Unity (PNU).
Both parties are squabbling alliances of politicians who have been around since Moi’s era, together with some new hopefuls. The ODM was put together in 2005 to campaign for a “no” vote in on a constitutional referendum. It succeeded in preventing a constitutional change that would have allowed Kibaki to consolidate his power.
The ODM’s main purpose is to demand a bigger share of the profits from economic growth for the elite of the Luo and other tribal groups excluded by Kibaki. Kibaki’s PNU is based on wealthy Kikuyu businessmen who are said to run most of Kenya’s economy.
Both groups whipped up tribalism during the election campaign. Neither the ODM nor the PNU has any social programme that can resolve the problems facing the majority of the Kenyan population. The only way they have been able to build up support is by scapegoating other tribes. They have brought Kenya to the brink of a civil war in order to advance their selfish interests.