US President Barack Obama’s ‘prophetic’ speech

US President Barack Obama speaks Saturday during press conference at State House in Nairobi. [Photo: AFP]

The inhibitors of Kenya’s growth flagged out by President Barack Obama in his 2006 University of Nairobi public lecture, continue to stand in the way of the Kenyan dream nine years later.

Where attempts have been made to rid the country of them, they have been half-hearted or sucked into the vortex of political confusion, conspiracy and intrigues.

In retrospect, the August 28, 2006, speech by the then Illinois Senator, titled “An honest government, a hopeful future” reeks of a prophesy, which has been turning true with every spin of the Kenyan story.

The issue, which irked government the most at the time was corruption. Obama (above) spoke passionately against corruption, saying it was threatening the freedom the Kenyan forefathers bitterly fought for.

“Here in Kenya it is a crisis - a crisis that’s robbing an honest people of the opportunities they have fought for, the opportunity they deserve,” he said.

So passionate was Obama that he demonstrated practical implications of runaway corruption saying: “It is painfully obvious that corruption stifles development, siphons off scarce resources that could improve infrastructure, bolster education systems, and strengthen public health. It stacks the deck so high against entrepreneurs that they cannot get their job-creating ideas off the ground.”

Almost a decade later today, with Obama in the country, corruption remains a thorn in Kenya’s flesh. Five Cabinet secretaries, the top most positions of public service, remain suspended on corruption related allegations.

A host of other top State officials are either on suspension or facing investigation over corruption issues in their respective dockets. The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, the lead agency in the anti-graft war is being assailed at all levels by politicians, bureaucrats and business leaders.

Key State agencies like the National Youth Service are entangled in corruption and fraud web. County governments too, are reeling under devolved corrupt networks.

“Corruption also erodes the state from the inside out, sickening the justice system until there is no justice to be found, poisoning the police forces until their presence becomes a source of insecurity rather than comfort,” Obama said in his 2006 speech.

Despite undertaking drastic reforms including ongoing vetting, the image of the police force in Kenya, by and large, remains in bad shape. Multiple incidents of police and other security forces involved in graft or other acts of misconduct have been the order of the day in Kenya.

The Judiciary has, however, made tremendous steps from the 2006 period and restored some measure of hope among Kenyans. “Corruption has a way of magnifying the very worst twists of fate. It makes it impossible to respond effectively to crises, whether it’s the HIV and Aids pandemic or malaria, or crippling drought,” Obama said in 2006.

A review of our security forces responses to Westgate Shopping Mall and Garissa University attacks left a lot to be desired. In Westgate, security forces were caught live on camera helping themselves with goodies from the mall while in Garissa, unexplained bureaucracy saw elite officers arrive a little bit late for a rescue operation.

“What’s worse - corruption can also provide opportunities for those who would harness the fear and hatred of others to their agenda and ambitions. It can shield a war criminal-even one like Felicien Kabuga, suspected of helping to finance and orchestrate the Rwandan genocide-by allowing him to purchase safe haven for a time and robbing all humanity of the opportunity to bring the criminal to justice,” Obama said.

He also linked terrorism to corruption, a link, which was cited in post-Westgate inquiries. He said terrorists “like those that have shed Kenyan blood and struck at the heart of the Kenyan economy” are facilitated by corruption at customs and border points. He talked of “police forces so crippled by corruption that they do not protect the personal safety of Kenyans walking the streets of Nairobi”, adding that “forged documents are easy to find in a climate where graft and fraud thrive.”

Obama said terrorists could also take advantage of the “collective exhaustion and outrage that people feel with official corruption” to offer the promise of purification through acts of terror.

Kenya is currently struggling with radicalisation. Many Muslim families are in agony following the disappearance of their sons and daughters who are suspected to have joined either Al Shabaab or ISIS.

The Garissa University attack was led by one such young man, Abdirahim Abdullahi- a budding lawyer.

“Elections are not enough. In a true democracy, it is what happens between elections that is the true measure of how a Government treats its people,” Obama said in 2006.

The euphoria of 2010 Constitution and 2013 elections - the latter whose stakes were raised by the International Criminal Court involvement in Kenya, have all died.

Parliament is already finding its independence footing just like the devolved governments continue asserting their place in the new governance structure. Kenyans across the political divide are demanding better services. “The Kenyan people are crying out for real change, and whether one voted orange or banana in last year’s referendum, the message that many Kenyans seemed to be sending was one of dissatisfaction with the pace of reform, and real frustration with continued tolerance of corruption at high levels,” Obama said of the 2005 referendum.

Bloated bureaucracy

Obama also talked of the importance of cutting down the bloated public service. He said a bloated bureaucracy creates more avenues and desire for corruption. Last year, the Jubilee government commenced a job evaluation exercise whose results are not clear to-date. Obama also talked strongly against “ethnic-based tribal politics.” He said they are rooted in “bankrupt idea that the goal of politics or business is to funnel as much of the pie as possible to one’s family, tribe, or circle with little regard for public good”.

The Kenyan political class of the moment cannot escape this charge. The 2013 election was approached from both sides of the divide on similar tribal terms. Jubilee’s “tyranny of numbers”, an alliance of two populous tribes beat the Coalition for Reform and Democracy, an alliance of three major but less populous tribes.

The results of this approach are best captured in Obama’s hypotheses: “It stifles innovation and fractures the fabric of the society. Instead of opening businesses and engaging in commerce, people come to rely on patronage and payback as a means of advancing. Instead of unifying the country to move forward on solving problems, it divides neighbour from neighbour.”