The Kenyatta challenge
by Tristan Coloma Memories of the violence after Kenyas last general election, in December 2007, are still fresh: 1,200 people died and 300,000 were displaced. So the candidates in this years presidential election, on 4 March, were keen to reassure the people as much as investors. During the election campaign, the Kenyans were both actors and spectators in a general act of repentance, cunningly orchestrated in a kind of Pentecostalisation of the political scene,saidDominique Connan, a Sciences Po doctoral student based in Nairobi. On 24 February a huge peace rally was held in Uhuru Park, at which the presidential candidates held hands during hymns and sermons delivered by the fashionable prophet Dr David Edward Owuor. The election resulted in a win for Uhuru Kenyatta of the Jubilee Alliance. His rival, the outgoing prime minister Raila Odinga, of the Orange Democratic Movement, has presented to the Supreme Court a list of alleged irregularities in a number of areas: Kenyatta was elected at the first round by a margin of only 8,400 votes. His success has also caused some embarrassment overseas, as he has been indicted by the International Criminal Court over alleged involvement in the post-electoral violence of 2007. Kenyatta told a meeting of the Kenya Private Sector Alliance in Nairobi on 13 March that the new government plans to work closely with the private sector to make Kenya competitive. Investors have exhorted Kenyan companies to reopen their offices (closed due to fears of post-electoral unrest) and get the economy running again to achieve the objectives of Vision 2030, the reform programme launched in 2008 and described as a long-term development blueprint to create a globally competitive and prosperous nation. This enthusiasm clashes with the figures published by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, which is concerned over galloping inflation, the collapse of the national currency and high lending rates at the end of 2011. Kenya is one of the 10 most unequal countries in the world, with a ratio of 1:56 between the incomes of its poorest 10% and richest 10% (1 <http://mondediplo.com/2013/04/12kenyatta#nb1> ). Its directors see the Lapsset Corridor project as a good way to consolidate national sentiment, but as yet it is only a digital document, with pictures of Dubai-style towers and Chinese-built high-speed trains superimposed on photos of the Kenyan landscape. To protect the future port complex and help ensure that the dream becomes a reality, the authorities did not hesitate to send troops into Somalia, whose border is only a few tens of kilometres away. It used the presence of the Islamist militant group Al-Shabab in the area as a pretext to set up a buffer zone. A Nairobi journalist looked around to check nobody was watching, then pretended to milk an imaginary cow. Lowering his voice, he said: The Lapsset Corridor is designed to create avenues for corruption. The politicians are there to drink the milk of the state, which is labelled with an S with two vertical lines through it. A researcher close to the project was just as direct: Vision 2030 measures development in terms of the number of cubic metres of concrete poured. The aim is to misappropriate investor and state funds. The project was giving cause for concern even before the cement mixers began turning. The first issue was the feasibility study, which was the most expensive in Kenyas history. In May 2009 the transport ministry engaged Japan Port Consultants to conduct it, for around $37m. Two years later a 35% reduction was negotiated, after the Treasury intervened. The elites have an interest in the project going ahead, because they have personally invested heavily in the region. So I dont think its a white elephant, said Hervé Maupeu, a political scientist at the University of Pau and Pays de lAdour and specialist on Kenya. Many politicians knew about the Lamu project well before it was made public, confirmed Ambreena Manji, director of the British Institute in Eastern Africa. Its a kind of insider trading: theyhave taken the opportunity to buy land and engage in real estate speculation.Now the government will have to buy it back. Thé Mulindwas Communication Group "With Yoweri Museveni and Dr. Kiiza Besigye Uganda is in anarchy" Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi "Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni na Dk. Kiiza Besigye Uganda ni katika machafuko"
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