The Election
The biggest topic of news, conversation, and thought is politics. Politics spill over into about every aspect of life. The government controls most of the jobs, education opportunities, business and things like food distribution so any shift in the government affects huge numbers of people. Every election is considered a watershed year and this is looking like the mother of all elections. People are saying it will be the most hotly contested election in the history of the country. I hope not. One of the closer elections started what is called the Tribal Wars. As a way of shifting thoughts away from real issues tribalism was brought up and exploited. Loads of people attacked their neighbors who they used to be friends with. Mungiki was also formed then. The same feelings are coming out now.
Interestingly the politics are not about ideals, policies, or anything to do with government. It's about the nature of the people and the tribes they come from. All three of the political parties were started recently and will presumably disappear once the election is over. One thing the election is not about is corruption, even though people think it's the biggest issue. The problem is they are all openly corrupt. The anti-corruption branch is actually barred from looking at the major scandals because bad secrets might appear. No promises of fighting corruption have been given and none expected.
There are currently three candidates- the current prez is Kikuyu and is running again, the guy leading the polls is Luo, and another guy is a not very popular Komba. The kikuyu have traditionally dominated the gov and all the other tribes want their part of the pie. The Luo live in the Western part of Kenya which is relatively poor. The Komba live East of Nairobi in a desert area and are also really poor. Needless to say they both want more money coming their way. The tribes will always vote for their candidate so the real struggle is for the other half of the country which is the remaining 40 some tribes. It doesn't help that the Kikuyu have spread all over the country and are dominating business and land wherever they go. The last tribal war was their neighbors trying to kill the Kikuyu immigrants.
Oddly enough the state of one candidate's penis is a big issue. By Bantu custom a man is circumsized as an adolescent and then he is considered a man. Anyone not circumsized is not a man, but a boy. The luo don't circumcision so they get flak from the "real" men and occasionally get forcibly circumcised in the middle of the night. Apparently that happened to the luo guy when he went to college. No wonder he hates the kikuyu.
Politics is in many ways a farce here. Politicians drive around and people come out to cheer them on. The more they are and the louder they cheer the more they get paid. If you can mobilize a load of people for a rally you can make some serious cash. It doesn't matter that they cheered for all the other candidates as well. It seems the street boys are the biggest election winners though the organizers do pretty well as they walk around with their suitcases of money for distribution. Come election day some politicians are in for some rude surprises. Those hordes of people cheering for you didn't actually vote for you. While the election is a farce they are important. Whoever gets the job gets huge amounts of money from salary plus loads from bribes. They are some the highest paid politicians in the world. With much less than 1/100 of the US economy they get paid more than US representatives do. Once you get elected you serve for 5 years. During that time you amass enough money that next time you contest you will dominate. If done well you can pass on the seat to your son.
The biggest issue for me is security. December is the most violent month of the year and Nairobi is the most violent city in the country. Add to this the standard election riots and I expect some serious bloodshed. Attacks have already been made on politicians. Last time I read the paper had a picture of some guys coming after the presidential candidate with bows. He was looking pretty scared as he hopped onto a helicopter with his bodyguards behind him. I expect the rally routes and locations to be pretty intense. The problem is I will probably be traveling in and out of Nairobi.
In one populist measure the city has stopped harassing street hawkers. Now they are everywhere. It's fine with me but they pay no taxes and take business from the shop owners as well as clog the streets. Eventually they will have to be moved out and after 3 months making money they will refuse. End result is going to be a nasty explosion and a whole lot of looting. Hopefully after I leave.
The biggest topic of news, conversation, and thought is politics. Politics spill over into about every aspect of life. The government controls most of the jobs, education opportunities, business and things like food distribution so any shift in the government affects huge numbers of people. Every election is considered a watershed year and this is looking like the mother of all elections. People are saying it will be the most hotly contested election in the history of the country. I hope not. One of the closer elections started what is called the Tribal Wars. As a way of shifting thoughts away from real issues tribalism was brought up and exploited. Loads of people attacked their neighbors who they used to be friends with. Mungiki was also formed then. The same feelings are coming out now.
Interestingly the politics are not about ideals, policies, or anything to do with government. It's about the nature of the people and the tribes they come from. All three of the political parties were started recently and will presumably disappear once the election is over. One thing the election is not about is corruption, even though people think it's the biggest issue. The problem is they are all openly corrupt. The anti-corruption branch is actually barred from looking at the major scandals because bad secrets might appear. No promises of fighting corruption have been given and none expected.
There are currently three candidates- the current prez is Kikuyu and is running again, the guy leading the polls is Luo, and another guy is a not very popular Komba. The kikuyu have traditionally dominated the gov and all the other tribes want their part of the pie. The Luo live in the Western part of Kenya which is relatively poor. The Komba live East of Nairobi in a desert area and are also really poor. Needless to say they both want more money coming their way. The tribes will always vote for their candidate so the real struggle is for the other half of the country which is the remaining 40 some tribes. It doesn't help that the Kikuyu have spread all over the country and are dominating business and land wherever they go. The last tribal war was their neighbors trying to kill the Kikuyu immigrants.
Oddly enough the state of one candidate's penis is a big issue. By Bantu custom a man is circumsized as an adolescent and then he is considered a man. Anyone not circumsized is not a man, but a boy. The luo don't circumcision so they get flak from the "real" men and occasionally get forcibly circumcised in the middle of the night. Apparently that happened to the luo guy when he went to college. No wonder he hates the kikuyu.
Politics is in many ways a farce here. Politicians drive around and people come out to cheer them on. The more they are and the louder they cheer the more they get paid. If you can mobilize a load of people for a rally you can make some serious cash. It doesn't matter that they cheered for all the other candidates as well. It seems the street boys are the biggest election winners though the organizers do pretty well as they walk around with their suitcases of money for distribution. Come election day some politicians are in for some rude surprises. Those hordes of people cheering for you didn't actually vote for you. While the election is a farce they are important. Whoever gets the job gets huge amounts of money from salary plus loads from bribes. They are some the highest paid politicians in the world. With much less than 1/100 of the US economy they get paid more than US representatives do. Once you get elected you serve for 5 years. During that time you amass enough money that next time you contest you will dominate. If done well you can pass on the seat to your son.
The biggest issue for me is security. December is the most violent month of the year and Nairobi is the most violent city in the country. Add to this the standard election riots and I expect some serious bloodshed. Attacks have already been made on politicians. Last time I read the paper had a picture of some guys coming after the presidential candidate with bows. He was looking pretty scared as he hopped onto a helicopter with his bodyguards behind him. I expect the rally routes and locations to be pretty intense. The problem is I will probably be traveling in and out of Nairobi.
In one populist measure the city has stopped harassing street hawkers. Now they are everywhere. It's fine with me but they pay no taxes and take business from the shop owners as well as clog the streets. Eventually they will have to be moved out and after 3 months making money they will refuse. End result is going to be a nasty explosion and a whole lot of looting. Hopefully after I leave.
posted by Ross at 8:07 AM
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