WITH 10 million Kenyans facing hunger, corruption scandals mounting and his government reeling from public disapproval, President Mwai Kibaki called a first news conference in years – to talk about his wife. To the bemusement of many Kenyans, their 77-year-old leader chose not to address the myriad national problems, but to rail against local media stories that he had a second wife. For many, the bizarre event, which Kibaki's wife Lucy eventually took over, symbolized a disconnect between leaders and people that is further jeopardizing a divided coalition government and fuelling widespread disillusionment. “Yeah, yeah. Who cares?” asks one woman in a camp for internal refugees, turning away from Kibaki on TV in a withering portrait by Kenya's leading political cartoonist, Gado. All around the east African nation of 35 million, people complain the one-year-old unity government of Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga is failing them and is out of touch. “We are dying and being killed. We are being repressed and oppressed ... And Kibaki talks about his personal life!” said commentator Keguro Macharia, calling the news conference the most disappointing moment of Kibaki's tenure since 2002. Some Kenyans are predicting the coalition will split. Others want a new election. Yet with memories of last year's post-election violence still raw, and given Kibaki's calm survival of past crises including major corruption scandals, some analysts say the government will just limp along chaotically until a 2012 poll. “It's a horrible conundrum,” said a foreign diplomat in Nairobi. “Kenya obviously needs a fresh start, but that risks inviting in the demons again. The alternative is stagnation and paralysis for the next three years, which is sad.” Civil society groups say the coalition government is exacerbating weakness in east Africa's largest economy with runaway corruption in almost every ministry. Growth of 7 pct in 2007 fell to around 2-2.5 percent in 2008 due to the violence and the global slowdown. Analysts say 2009 growth forecasts of 4-4.5 percent are optimistic. The stock market has dived over 30 percent this year, the shilling is at a four-year low of around 80 to the dollar and many Kenyans say their leaders have no idea of how they are struggling to pay for food, school fees and other basics. The government is further provoking the public by failing to take seriously accusations that security forces have killed hundreds of people illegally, critics say. The disillusionment seems to have taken a generalized aspect beyond the usual tribal and party political lines. “There is a revolutionary feeling,” anti-graft activist Mwalimu Mati told Reuters. “People are starting to talk in class terms ... I am hearing people say they want a ‘barefoot president', anyone but the ones they have now,” he said. “The big question is ‘where are the new leaders coming from?' I'm still looking for them.” “No laughing matter” In one survey last month, when Kenyans were asked what was the coalition's greatest achievement, 70 percent said none. Another poll this week, among a damning raft of assessments of the coalition by the public and by oversight bodies, showed a third of Kenyans want a new election. Demonstrating the paradox in their minds, two-thirds also said they feared another round of violence at the next election. Adding to the tense politics, Odinga's wing of government – borne out of the opposition Orange Democratic Movement that says the Dec. 27 presidential election was stolen from it – says Kibaki's side is riding roughshod over it. Some members of Kibaki's Party of National Unity (PNU) have told ODM to get out of government if they do not agree with appointments, statements and decisions. Odinga is in a bind, seeing his reputation fall fast as he is part of a non-reforming, under-performing government, but loath to go back into opposition again. His claim to moral authority has been dented, too, by accusations that one of his men, Agriculture Minister William Ruto, was responsible for kickbacks and corrupt sales in the maize sector during a time of hunger and food shortages. Ruto denies the charges. Odinga's frustration is obvious. After the murder of two rights activists last week, he even warned that Kenya was “hurtling towards failure as a state.” For now, Kenya's common people, or “wanainchi” as they call themselves in Swahili, are using all means possible to plead for more responsible government.
