[kictanet] An African exception and role model by Jeevan Vasagar, Monday December 31, 2007, , Guardian

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Why it matters
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*An African exception and role model**Jeevan Vasagar*
*Monday December 31, 2007*

*Guardian*

A few years ago, Kenya's government sponsored a competition to invent a 
new national dress. Ministers hoped citizens would trade their 
buttoned-up western suits for the slashed collar and cape of the "Kenyan 
cloak" and forge a unified national identity in the process. Kenyans, 
who knew better, rejected the fancy dress en masse, preferring to get on 
with the more urgent business of putting food on their family's tables.

The episode was a reminder of why Kenya is an African exception. In a 
region awash with trouble, it is an island of stability - its people 
renowned for pragmatism, cohesiveness and their ability to ignore their 
rulers' whims.

By contrast, neighbouring Sudan recently ended a civil war in the south 
only to confront a new crisis in Darfur, Uganda has suffered years of 
conflict at the hands of the Lord's Resistance Army and Somalia remains 
a basket case. Since independence in 1963, Kenya has not been troubled 
by bloodshed on a comparable scale. Instead, it has acted as an honest 
broker in peace talks - Sudan's southern peace deal was signed in the 
lakeside town of Naivasha. It is a base station for aid agencies and a 
haven for refugees. Kakuma in northern Kenya is one of Africa's biggest 
refugee camps, home to some 90,000 people.

Unlike Zimbabwe, its postcolonial rulers did not turn on the whites. 
Unlike Uganda, they did not kick out the Asians. Kenya's ethnic 
diversity has been an unexpected strength. Although the Kikuyu, 
President Mwai Kibaki's tribe, accounts for a fifth of the population 
and has traditionally had the loudest voice, no single ethnic group has 
been strong enough to tyrannise the others. There is plenty of tribal 
friction, as well as tensions between Christians and the Muslim 
minority, but this has never brewed the havoc seen elsewhere.

In recent years, Kenya has been a political role model. One of former 
president Daniel arap Moi's few decent deeds was to leave office 
gracefully after losing the 2002 election. Government sleaze continues, 
but corruption no longer paralyses the economy as it did under Moi. 
Public life has opened up. The basement of Nyayo House, in the centre of 
the capital, Nairobi, no longer houses torture chambers.

Unlike many Africans, Kenyans can laugh at their leaders. When the first 
lady, Lucy Kibaki, stormed into a newspaper office to complain at its 
coverage, she became a laughing stock as comedians donned drag and a 
towering frizzy wig to parody her.

Kenya's economy is one of Africa's best. Its highlands are blessed with 
the ideal blend of sunshine and cool altitude for growing tea, coffee 
and flowers - it's the world's biggest exporter of tea and supplies 
Britain with many of its Valentine's Day roses. It has a hardworking, 
educated workforce, many of whom speak good English, thanks in part to 
its colonial heritage. Mombasa is one of Africa's finest harbours, and 
Nairobi is an air transport hub for the continent. Transport is crucial 
here; the country was forged around the British-built railway line 
snaking from Mombasa to Lake Victoria and Nairobi began as a railway 
supply depot.

The economy is emerging from the paralysis induced by corruption and the 
lethargic quangos that stifled business under Moi. Privatisation has 
gathered pace under Kibaki and the country has been touted as an African 
tiger. But economic growth remains painfully slow and the number living 
below the poverty line keeps rising. Progress is critical. Nairobi is 
still one of the world's most unequal cities, home to lavish gated 
compounds with servants and swimming pools as well as Kibera, Africa's 
biggest slum.

The country has one of the highest profiles of any in Africa. Its 
flourishing wildlife make it a massive tourist destination, and a 
substantial chunk of Africa's foreign press corps make their base there. 
That focus may explain why it has twice been attacked by al-Qaida - in 
1998, when the US embassy in Nairobi was bombed, and in 2002, when 
Israeli tourists were targeted in Mombasa. The country is a key western 
ally in the fight against al-Qaida in Africa.

If Kenya descends into anarchy, one of the continent's brightest lights 
will have flickered out, but the most immediate wider effect will be 
felt by other countries in the region, who stand to lose their most 
reliable neighbour.

*Tough road from independence*

*1961* Jomo Kenyatta is freed from prison. The independence activist was 
jailed by the British.

*1963* Kenya gains independence from the British. Kenyatta becomes 
Kenya's prime minister and later president.

*1978* Kenyatta dies in office and is succeeded by Daniel arap Moi.

*1982* Kenya becomes one-party state.

*1987* Opposition groups suppressed. International outcry over political 
arrests and abuse of human rights.

*1991* Agreement to reintroduce a multi-party political system.

*1992* Moi re-elected.

*1997* Demonstrations calling for greater democratic reform. World Bank 
holds back on $5bn of credit. Moi wins another election. Opposition 
cries foul play.

*1998* Attack on US embassy in Nairobi, right, kills 224, injures 4,500.

*2002* 10 Kenyans and three Israelis die when a hotel in Mombasa is 
destroyed by a car bomb.

*2002* Mwai Kibaki wins a landslide victory to end Moi's 24-year rule.

*2003* International Monetary Fund begins lending to Kenya after 
anti-corruption measures are put in place.

*2004* A draft of the new constitution is finalised, outlining 
limitations to parliament and reining in presidential powers. Massive 
crop failures and drought cause havoc.

*2006* Government ministers are alleged to have received kickbacks from 
a mysterious company. Finance minister resigns.

*· *Jeevan Vasagar was the Guardian's east Africa correspondent from 
2003 to 2006.

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007