Travel bans must spur reform agenda

Propagandists of pre-2007 lovingly described the country as a beacon of hope and an ‘island of peace in a sea of turmoil’.

That assessment was to rapidly change when neighbours turned on each other following the announcement of the results of the General Election on December 30, 2007. The intensity of hate speeches and viciousness of the attacks proved once and for all that most people had been living a lie. The election result was the excuse rather than cause of the vicious confrontations that hurled Kenya onto world television screens — and for all the wrong reasons.

African Union chairman and Ghanaian President John Kufuor was first to drop by to intercede with the hostile combatants.

He was followed in quick succession by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, President Museveni, and former Heads of State who are members of the African Leaders Forum: Presidents Joaquin Chissano, Kenneth Kaunda, Mkapa, Ketumile Masire, former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and former South Africa First Lady Graca Machel.

An alarmed international community refused to stand idly by and see Kenya collapse. What followed is now in the annals of history as co-ordinated international support from the AU, UN, European Union and the major world powers, sought to stop the bloodletting.

Chaperoned by Dr Annan, there was a cessation of violence and a collective sigh of relief in the region and beyond the seas.

Deep-seated rivalries

Roundtable discussions established that Kenyans were hurting, but they wanted peace.

There commenced dialogue and mediation that established the country had merely been navigating through a minefield littered with historical injustices, inequitable distribution of the national cake, deep-seated ethnic rivalries, an oppressive police and moribund justice system.

To add to this litany of woes was a partisan Executive, afflicted by the Big man Syndrome, an emasculated and compromised Parliament working with weak and outdated laws revealed hitherto unheard of Cabinet disagreements and party infighting. Failing agricultural fortunes, a creaky infrastructure and volatile international financial system gelled into a lethal mix.

The country had been ripe for judicial, institutional, social and political reforms for a long time. Unfortunately, no one had heeded the restless populace.

The Annan-led negotiations gave Kenya a fresh start, a new beginning and a get-out-of jail-free card. But on one condition: Fix the system!

Timelines were drawn up and positions shared out. Expensive commissions were set up and so were taskforces to find the path of best fix.

Unfortunately, one and-a-half years later, corruption has remained a fact of life, governance has remained rooted in the Middle Ages, old boy networks seem to be adding flesh to their ageing skeletons and poverty seems to be a way of life.

The chain links holding the contract between the governors and the governed has slowly been wearing thin. So has the patience of development partners. Yesterday, one of the main actors, the US, fired one of many salvos of this year by banning 15 Kenyans, including Cabinet ministers and MPs from travelling to its soil.

Empty rhetoric

Government, of course, dismissed this as "activism diplomacy", and rightly so perhaps because it has only been empty rhetoric so far.

The US ambassador has not taken the next step and publicly naming the individuals concerned. Neither have many of their ill-gotten property and business interests abroad come under scrutiny.

Kenyans are equally angry and frustrated at widespread corruption and the lack of action to root it out. Who will captain this derailed reform train and doggedly effect the agreed constitutional, parliamentary, electoral, judicial, police and land reforms?

One thing is for sure, anonymous travel advisories just won’t do the trick. Just listen to the laughter that greeted the good envoy’s message from the world’s most powerful nation.