RSS

Contact us

Saturday 30 August 2008

When elephants fight, the grass suffers

Aidan Hartley says that the violence in Kenya reflects the failure of the political class: better paid than their European counterparts in a nation where many live on 50p a day

This is the situation just in our little corner of Kenya. After the failed elections of 27 December, men on bicycles brought news from across the Laikipia plains of a nationwide spasm of bloodletting and mayhem. Police were shooting at mobs rioting in support of the opposition leader Raila Odinga. In retaliation for the alleged rigging that returned President Mwai Kibaki to power, pogroms were launched against traders and farmers of the Kikuyu tribe. When the Kikuyu fled the village up the road, food supplies dried up, hunger set in among the mob and rioting flared again.

To cap it all in these apocalyptic times, a local Samburu witchdoctor claimed it was time for his warriors — supporters of Odinga — to advance on the Pokot (who backed Kibaki). He had found a way to turn Pokot bullets into rain — a promise that evidently precipitated today’s clashes.

During the last fortnight a strange, expectant mood has enveloped our farm. We stuck to mundane daily routines, as if this somehow might make the nightmare of what was unfolding over the horizon recede. I devised an evacuation plan for our workers who were from the ‘wrong’ tribes. We dug up lawn grass so as to plant extra vegetables. I said, ‘If we can keep the sheep from rustlers, we can all eat mutton for yonks.’

But today’s gunfire aside, Kenya has at least for now pulled back from the brink. This is mainly because of the basic decency of ordinary Kenyans — whose priorities are to work hard, educate their children, fear God and enjoy a few Tusker beers. Nobody wishes to believe Kenya is a typical African basket case. But though the swift intervention of the world community is heartening, we should not invest much hope in the diplomacy of Washington, with its disastrous foreign policies, nor the African Union, which has had unmitigated diplomatic failures in Darfur and Somalia. It is only Kenyans themselves who can prevent fresh chaos and to do this they must swiftly identify what and who caused the violence.

Ordinary citizens know that the entire class of Kenyan political leaders is to blame. The African saying that ‘When elephants fight, the grass suffers’ applies tragically in this case. Kenyan politicians are paid more money than any of their counterparts in Europe or the US — though they hardly bother ever to turn up at parliament. By contrast, more than half of Kenya’s 37 million people exist on the equivalent of 50p a day, a consequence mainly of leaders’ misrule and greed. In the present environment, poverty will get worse. Kenya’s fertility rate is increasing and mothers have an average of around five children. Forty per cent of Kenyans are below the age of 14. The country’s leaders have no plan to tackle this by creating jobs to alleviate poverty but remain intent on grand corruption.

More articles from: Aidan Hartley | this section

Print this article  |  Email to a friend  |  Permalink  |   Comments (1)

Post this entry to:   del.icio.us | Digg | Newsvine | NowPublic | Reddit

Advertisement

Spectator Business | Apollo Magazine

Corporate | Advertising | Privacy | Terms

Spectator, 22 Old Queen Street, London, SW1H 9HP

All Articles and Content Copyright ©2008 by The Spectator | All Rights Reserved