As 2015 comes to an end, the customary year-end reviews and prognostications for the upcoming year are beginning to roll in from various quarters. Deputy President (DP) William Ruto offered his 12-month assessment by proclaiming that "Kenya was headed in the right direction".
The DP went on to explain that "2015 was a good year for Kenya.....a period of progress, stability and growth in which we advanced our common prosperity through programs and projects across a variety of sectors".
Not surprising, Mr. Ruto's positive overview of the last twelve months was echoed by public figures closely linked to the ruling coalition's Jubilee Party.
Equally unsurprising, especially to those who have read most of my articles over the last twelve months, my review of the digital duo's performance over the same period is unflattering and not as glowing as the DP's.
The year saw many high profile visits by global luminaries that definitely shined the spotlight on the country. US President and part-Kenyan Luo Barack Obama brought the full prestige and might of the American Presidency to Kenya. Mr. Obama's entourage effectively shut down Nairobi during his three-day stay. Together with Mr. Uhuru Kenyatta, the two boomers co-hosted the Global Entrepreneurial Summit (GES) in Nairobi in late July; an event that showcased Kenya's unquestionable (human) potential while burnishing the global "creds" of the erstwhile crimes-against-humanity suspect.
The visit by Mr. Obama was followed in November by another visit, this time by the wildly popular Pope Francis. The papal visit, unlike that of POTUS, DIRECTLY addressed the rot that is land-grabbing and the sugary taste of gains ill-gotten through corruption: Two vices that explain why a society with so much potential has continued to lag behind its peers of yesteryears despite claims of an "Africa Rising".
Back in mid-2014, the crimes-against-humanity charges against President Uhuru Kenyatta were dropped not because he was innocent, but because the "Government of Kenya had failed to adequately cooperate" with the International Criminal Court investigations in the case. The government's approach fell "short of the standard of good faith cooperation" and "this failure ... reached the threshold of non-compliance" required under the Rome Statute." Mr. Ruto, on the other hand, is still fighting charges against him as Jubilee's nemesis ICC Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda seeks to convict the DP for the post-election violence of 2007/2008.
The legal trials and tribulation of the two men aside, they have overseen continuation of projects that were set in motion BEFORE they came into office including the high profile Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) Project. The duo has also overseen the expansion of the electrification of primary schools and villages not to mention the tarmacking of roads across the country. These massive projects require(d) equally massive amounts of money the country has had to borrow; mostly from her newest best friend China and through floatation of the Eurobond. Like clockwork, appropriation of funds from the latter (Eurobond) also morphed into yet another scandal implicating Jubilee stalwarts.
It did not surprise those of us who were skeptical about President Kenyatta's ability to confront corruption and impunity in his government when his own Office of the President (OP) became embroiled in one scandal after another; all involving misappropriation of public funds. The saying the fish rots from the head on down was vividly displayed in 2015 when persons working directly for the president AND his deputy were repeatedly implicated in scandals involving the theft and/or misappropriation of billions in public funds.
Mr. Kenyatta's impotence on corruption was driven home when he sought the services of the African Governance Initiative (AGI), a group headed by one of Jubilee's favorite whipping boy Mr. Tony Blair. The former British Prime Minister was brought in to oversee "delivery" of mega-projects such as SGR, Konza Technology City and the Lamu Port South Sudan and Ethiopia Transport corridor (LAPSSET) with minimal "eating of chicken".
Jubilee's signature laptop-for-primary-schools campaign promise also became mired in fights between competing tenderpreneurs; in the process becoming yet another symbol for the corruption that characterized the Kenyatta Administration. Not surprising, the project is yet to get off the ground.
If the suffering caused by the rampant corruption scandals of 2015 was shrouded in dueling narratives and legal gobbledygook, the pain and suffering caused by a corrupt, incompetent and unaccountable security apparatus was all too real, especially for the hundreds of Kenyans who were injured/maimed and/or lost loved ones to violence perpetrated by al-Shabaab extremists.
2015 saw a Kenyan government unable to keep its citizenry safe and secure largely because of its inability to maintain a competent, well-armed, well-equipped and professional law enforcement and security apparatus. While the specter of terrorism is demonstrably a global phenomenon, its impact on Kenyans has been exacerbated by (a) the country's proximity to the "hotbed of terrorism" Horn of Africa region, (b)corrupt, incompetent and highly politicized law enforcement and security agencies, (c) the government's inability to hold accountable corrupt and incompetent personnel and (d) the governments inability to formulate a coherent strategy in response to the repeated attacks.
The harsh reality is that 2015 saw a Jubilee government that lurched from one crisis to another not for any reason other than its collective incompetence. From runaway corruption and impunity to an economy leveraged to the hilt. From the "new normal" of violence perpetrated by home-grown AND home-facilitated extremism, Kenyans saw the foregoing set of factors combine to create a general feeling of national malaise in a year accurately characterized by the Daily Nation as an "annus horribilis".