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Kenians hope for a better future
Arap Moi, president of Kenia, is about to leave the political stage. Many Kenians dream of the brighter future
From: World Bank Press Review , Nov. 19.2002
As Moi Prepares to Leave, Many Kenyans Dare to Dream
For nearly a quarter-century, Daniel arap Moi has ruled as Kenya's omni-president, the vessel for the hopes, promises and disappointments of Kenyans, the Washington Post reports. The reign of one of Africa's longest-ruling Big Men will come to an end when parliamentary elections are held on Dec. 27 and Moi, 78, steps down.
From rural farming villages to the bars of Nairobi, Kenyans say the end of Moi's rule is the most important turning point in the nation's history.
Widely viewed as a beacon of hope and opportunity in the days after Jomo Kenyatta led the country to independence from Britain in 1963, Kenya has descended into poverty, corruption and crime under Moi, the piece says. Moi's mansion looks out over the tin roofs of Kibera, Africa's largest urban slum. Crime in the capital is so widespread that the city is nicknamed Nairobbery. Africans who used to flee here from war-torn countries like Sudan and Congo are now afraid to even visit. Kenya ranks as one of the most corrupt nations in the world, according to the watchdog group Transparency International.
The young professionals can quote chapter and verse the economic indicators that showed Singapore and Kenya on equal footing in 1971 and show them starkly disparate now. Today, according to World Bank figures, the average Singaporean makes $19,500 per year while the average Kenyan earns just $350 -- the same wage as when the country became independent.
Sixty percent of Nairobi's 2 million people live in slums, mostly in tiny rooms with no electricity. There is no garbage collection, so rottingfood, human waste and shreds of clothing are burned in piles, steps away from where fresh vegetables are sold.
The average slum resident earns the equivalent of $6 a month, according to the UN Human Settlements Program. Kenyans blame government mismanagement and corruption for the increasing poverty and resulting crime. Young and educated people in Nairobi say they can't find jobs because only those with connections to Moi's tribe or those willing to pay hefty bribes can get hired. Those who do find jobs often feel pressure from family members to take bribes to augment their meager wages.
The World Bank and other international institutions have withheld hundreds of millions of dollars in loans because of high-level patronage and bribery, much of which is funneled to Moi from family members and friends. Last year, Nairobi City Council officials found that hundreds of "ghost"workers -- many of them distant relatives of Moi or friends with connections -- collected city paychecks but were not officially employed.
A mission of the IMF concluded a 10-day fact-finding mission [to Kenya] late last week, as it grew certain that only a new government was likely to attract funding from the fund, the Nation (Kenya) reports meanwhile.
Samuel Itam, the senior IMF resident representative, told the press in
Nairobi last Friday that apart from evaluation of the government's fiscal performance, the mission would result in technical support to manage the deficit in view of projected revenue shortfalls.
