When I was in
Italy I bought The Economist (issue of 22 Dec 07) to read on board of all my trains (I also bought a French tabloid magazine that I hid inside it, but its articles are of less interest for this blog. Except the one on Sarkozy and Bruni, but that’s another article).
Its ‘Leaders’ section had an article titled “for all its flaws, an example to others” on the Kenyan elections, which optimistically concluded that “but if a country as complex and poor as Kenya can hold genuine elections without civil strife, then any country in Africa can. This is its chance to set an example”.
I sighed and scratched my unshaved beard. The author must be high on Christmas punch - that’s not the way it works, my friend.
Now, we have a full-blown humanitarian crisis, a health crisis ‘within days’, people burning others to death.
What happened in these elections? We’ll never know for sure - but we can give educated guesses.
On one side, Ladies and Gentlemen, in the blue shorts: outgoing president Mwai Kibaki, 76, from the largest ethnicity of the country - Kikuyu - with a tight grip on power, including, well, the media and the judiciary. Pretty.
On the other side, in red shorts: Raila Odinga, 62, from a minority tribe (the Luo), a wee bit of a populist but still apparently more appealing to the Kenyans than Kibaki.
Kibaki is declared the winner. Anything else would’ve surprised me. A few fiery political speeches afterwards, with each candidate declaring they won, it’s time for violence, yippee! And it’s not just political - it’s also ethnic. And that’s more scary.
The world is not very proactive, but well, as proactive as they can be for an African country (RIP, Rwanda...). the US sends their Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs (do we remember how useful the person was in Rwanda? Hmm? Well, he was pointless.) the UN Sec Gen digs up the dialing code of the Kenya and speaks to both leaders.
Kouchner, in an expression of how wrong he is for the post of French minister of foreign affairs, bluntly states that the elections are rigged, then goes back to jerking off. (they may be rigged, but a MoFA shouldn’t shout it like a fat kid at the sight of a cupcake…)
Now that we have 180.000 displaced people, people burning in their houses, spreading violence - hellooo, humanitarian crisis.
Gosh I hope this isn’t the model for Africa we’ve been hoping for.
Why do I feel that a country this ethnically heterogeneous is bound to be a political mess?
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