THE UPDATE OF REFORMS IN KENYA
Kenya remains genuinely appreciative of the kind of support we have continued to receive from the Canadian Government and her generous and compassionate peoples, in restoring our institutions of public governance, rule of law and economic efficiency and growth, which had eroded over a long period of time.

We also sincerely acknowledge the well wishes by Canadians of good –will in our efforts to consolidate our new found –democratic dispensation and our forward march on comprehensive reforms path on wide –ranging socio-political and economic issues.

While it is unfortunate and highly regrettable that the long-standing –stalemate in the constitutional review process in Kenya has recently led to unnecessary confrontations between in incited members of certain sectors of public, and law and order maintenance organs, owing to the grandstanding and brinkmanship on the part of some politicians, both in the government and in the opposition, and certain elements in the civil society, it saddens us the more when we read written pieces which, without any slight sense of intellectual compunction, manifest incredible lack of understanding of the intricate, dynamic, and obviously complex nature of Kenya’s political transition and reform dispensation.

Ordinarily, we would not feel particularly compelled to submit a rejoinder to a newspaper story, if it was a news item, any measure of distortion, inaccuracy or spinning notwithstanding, of say running battles in the streets of Nairobi over the controversial constitutional review disagreements.

We however, only do so with utter restrain, and positively too as a way of enlightening our hosts, when a few choose to arrogate to themselves self-proclaimed postures of being experts on Kenya, of African affairs for that matter, and send out through respectable media, a “critical” piece, so deemed, that is totally misleading and low in both calibre and quality of content and analysis process.

“Kenya’s great expectations thoroughly dashed”, with a caption “New hopes born after fall of dictator have led to nothing” by Stephanie Nolen, which appeard in the local The Globe and Mail Newspaper dated 21st July, 2005 is one such unfortunate piece that not only misleads, and erroneously paints a picture of despondency and hopelessness in Kenya, but clearly shows how superficial and almost naïve some of the so called African analysts and experts present to their captive audience the complexities of the problems in Africa, and how Africans themselves try to solve them. shouting from the comforts of roof-tops and changing goal-posts for deliverables, is one thing. Understanding what really goes on and appreciating what it takes is completely a different ball-game altogether.

Ms. Stephanie Nolen must have happily with vigour celebrated the “fall of the dictator” and rightfully shared with other Kenyans the basking in the euphoria of the miraculous “great expectations” with which the change was received after the historic democratically held elections, including a constitutional change in 100 days.

But it may not be difficult for anyone to dispute her and her ilks” naivete` in grasping the enormity of precisely what that change of power entailed in terms of both transitional politics and the socio-economic, political and constitutional reforms in Kenya, especially after over two decades of institutional mismanagement and decay, systemic corruption, ineptitude in the bureaucracy, erosion of public service delivery-systems and near-state collapse.

It is therefore sad to note the contradiction in admitting, on the one hand the stark “reality of self-preservation of politicians”, and the “reality of the vast Kenya bureaucracy”, and on the other hand expect dramatic changes in such short span of time against the foregoing backdrop. Constitution-making process as we all know is emotive, and requires broad national consensus. This usually necessarily takes time, because of the long debates involved.

Secondly, we have had occasion before to state both in public and in private that it should always be borne in mind that the issue of corruption in high office was one of the reasons why Kenyans effected a regime change in the historic election of 2002, and fighting corruption remains our top priority because corruption has largely been responsible for Kenya’s miserable economic performance and the weakening of our institutions of governace and of maintaining the rule of law.

It must also be remembered that the new regime did not round up the officials of the former government who had by and large been discredited with corruption and abuse of office, and some of whom managed to be elected back to Parliament, as this would have sparked off a negative publicity and counter productive repercussion on the efforts towards the elusive national cohesion.

It is noteworthy that among the first brave acts the Government embarked on as soon as it won the election was a surgical clean-up of the judiciary whereby a large number of tainted judges were sent home and new ones appointed.

At the same time, the new government set up a new department within the newly-created Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs in charge of Governance and Ethics, and Mr. John Githongo, formerly of Transparency International,Kenya Chapter,entrusted with the mandate to advise the President in person, and Government in general on how to root out corruption.

Mr. Githongo”s short stint in that critically important docket was, to say the least, a shameful let-down and quite a betrayal of the trust and confidence the president and his government had bestowed upon him. But more importantly, it was also an awakening slap on the face of some short-sighted foreigners especially, who had put such high expectations on him. By throwing in the towel too soon, he lamentably admitted his own failure to grapple with the daunting challenge of systematically dismantling the wheels of corruption, which had become endemic.

Not only had he misunderstood his new role and the magnitude his new role and magnitude and scale of his calling and what it took to deliver on it, he also miserably failed to rally and public or private institutions to his side. And so when he quit in a huff, it was no wonder more a less than a storm in a tea-cup. And nothing could be further from the truth-the appointment of Mr. Githongo was just one of the many such appointments of patriotic and highly qualified Kenyan professionals who have since joined the current government to offer their expertise services in restoring Kenyan’s institutions for public governance and social service delivery, in order to regain our glory.

President Kibaki has repeatedly stressed that Kenya respects the rule of law and will follow the law in dealing with cases of corruption to avoid witch-hunting and victimization. The legal process can sometimes be slow, but that does not mean that we are back-tracking on our often stated position that we are fighting the vice.

It might be instructive to note that Kenya’s civil society has also been remarkably transformed since the new administration took office in January, 2003 Most of the current civil society activities are “jonnie-come-lately”, out of time and date busy-bodies, nostalgically filling a vacuum left by the departure of the reform-minded Kenyan professionals who dominated the civil society sector during the Moi-era, and who are now part and parcel of the Government’s efforts to steer the reform process in Kenya. Almost half of Kenyan’s current cabinet, sizeable number of members of parliament had top officials of the bureaucracy are professionals who were yesterday political and economic change activists.

When all is said and done, the new government’s score chart, might appear disappointing to the likes of Stephen, but for majority of Kenyans-farmers whose produce now have access to local markets with better rewards, wage-earning workers who now enjoy some measure of dignity of labour and democratic space, and ordinary citizens whose children now go to school free of fee-levy, the new administration is firmly gaining ground in the reform path sand offers unprecedented hopes to Kenyans about fully tapping the potentialities that abound in the country.

For records, one might wish to note that a number of reform measures have already been undertaken with varying degrees of success and social impacts, in the judiciary, public service, procurement and public finance management, while the constitutional review process has reached an irreversible stage of the referendum. Kenyans will surely decide.

Kenya will always welcome individuals or organizations, local or foreign to support us in whatever way they can to help us revamp our institutions of public governance and accountability in order to sustain our efforts to regain our glory and play leadership role within the sub-region.

KENYA HIGH COMMISSION 26TH JULY, 2005