Incubating trouble in Kenya
Photo courtesy of Stanley Foundation
THE FOUNTAIN of Knowledge at the University of Nairobi is a monument to the optimism of the 1960s, when Kenya was gaining independence from British rule and the path to development and prosperity looked clear.
More recent landmarks include signs declaring the university - the largest in the nation and a training ground for its future leaders - to be a "corruption free zone.'' But if this claim is anything more than an aspiration, it would be a miracle. For the other problems tearing at Kenyan society today don't stop at the campus gate.
After a compromised election in December 2007, the country exploded in ethnic violence, primarily between Luo supporters of presidential challenger Raila Odinga and Kikuyu supporters of incumbent Mwai Kibaki. Last month, the same tensions marred student government elections at the University of Nairobi. A leading newspaper here, The Daily Nation, reported that one young man active in the race had been "hacked on his head by goons hired by a rival camp.''
I visited Kenya with a group of other American editors, on a trip organized by the International Reporting Project. The country is in a drought, and safari tourism has dropped off amid a global economic crisis, but Kenya's biggest enemy could be its own toxic style of politics. The concerns expressed by top students at the university expose how economic deprivation, ethnic division, and a culture of corruption and patronage keep transmitting themselves into the future.
The connections among these problems became evident in a recent roundtable discussion. "A student isn't thinking of tribalism until he goes into the job market,'' declared Humphrey Kajimba, a third-year student in economics. Those looking for work suddenly find that their ethnic affiliation can handicap them. Kajimba, a member of the Luo group, also lamented that finding a job is less a matter of "technical know-how'' than "technical know-who.''
This perception - that those seeking jobs must have the right ethnic or political connections, or else pay bribes to hiring managers - is hardly uncommon.
However frustrated students might be now, though, they too will come under pressure to fall in with the status quo. Indeed, the status quo is courting them now. When candidates in last month's student election ran slick campaigns that cost thousands of dollars, news reports indicate, it was widely assumed that Kenya's national parties had kicked in for these races.
Another student's travails hinted at how a meager economy might encourage political patronage. This young man attends the university without a scholarship, he said, at a total cost of $3,000 a year, and his father doesn't earn that much. So his family held a fund-raiser. His entire village has invested in him, he said, and he will be expected to take care of his cousins when he graduates. This student intends to run for Parliament in 2017. Suppose he wins: Will it be easy to deny jobs and favors to these supporters?
Seemingly intractable problems sometimes budge when charismatic, reform-minded leaders come forth. And sometimes a crisis comes along and forces entrenched interests to stand down. Kenya's post-election violence at least underscored the need to retune a broken political system. But while a makeshift coalition between the Odinga and Kibaki factions ended the bloodshed then, it complicates progress toward reforms now.
Meanwhile, new leadership has been slow - or afraid - to emerge. Joyce Nduta, a Kikuyu in her third year at the University of Nairobi, said the murder of two human-rights activists in March points out the danger to those who step forward for change.
Events shift quickly, and occasionally for the better: In just a few short years, an obscure politician with roots in Kenya's red soil became ubiquitous as a spokesman for social transformation, not least by persuading young people that "we are the ones we've been waiting for.'' Then again, Kenya needs reform right away. The country's future depends on whether students make their peace with the current system - or find and sustain a sense of outrage.