Michael Mundia Kamau
                            P.O. Box 58972
                            00200 City Square
                            Nairobi
                            Kenya

                            8th June 2004

                                           BETRAYAL IN THE CITY

The rising death toll from the consumption of contaminated maize meal
in Kenya’s Eastern province is a tragic result of ineffective governance
from not just the ruling NARC coalition, but from Kenyan leadership in it’s
entirety. It is no longer a matter of NARC, KANU, FORD-People, Safina
or otherwise, but a matter of the entire Kenyan leadership having lost
legitimacy. There can be no claim of effective leadership in Kenya when
it’s citizens are dying, as it’s leaders continue to feud over matters of
distant relevance to the people that elected them to office. A section of NARC
and opposition members of parliament rebelliously shot down the government
sponsored Forest Bill to protest highhandedness on the part of the
government. It could have as well been a bill strictly regulating
safety levels of food consumed in Kenya that was shot down, or a bill
introducing sweeping and beneficial labour law reforms. The government on it’s part
has contemptuously failed to address growing dissent in it’s ranks, at the
threat of it’s very own survival.

It is ironic that the deaths of eighty people have not elicited the
same response from the public and church, as those of the murdered foetuses
recently discovered and recently buried in Nairobi. There have been no
moving memorials, no floral tributes or no outpouring of emotion. It
appears that this is only of value in the proximity of television and newspaper
cameras. The hypocrisy and callousness of an entire nation has been
laid bare in the aftermath of eighty senseless deaths.

The ravaged and impoverished Eastern province of Kenya is typical of
the neglect that rural Kenya has been subjected to for years. Abandoned by
folk and accorded only token periodic visits from the same, rural Kenya has
failed to thrive and continues to crumble. Kenyans still rabidly insist
that we all come from one rural area or another, as development continues to
be centred in urban areas. Even in the exalted urban centres of Kenya,
disproportionate population growth has resulted in the emergence of
slums  and modifications known as “bedsitters” or “extensions”. These
structures have even started emerging in formerly exclusive neighbourhoods such as
Nairobi’s Karen suburb, which now hosts an array of typical such
structures in the section between St. Francis church and Karen shopping centre.
There have also been complaints in the press from residents of Nairobi’s
exclusive Lavington suburb about clubs playing loud music. This is an ominous 
prelude to the emergence of “extensions” and typical contemporary Kenyan
commerce that includes the sale of scratch cards, photocoping services,
clothing, and an array of Kenyan meals such as “chips”, “matumbo”, “mandazi vuruta”,
“chapati chafua” and “chai moto”.

Opportunities are limited even though skilled labour is abundantly
available. This situation will worsen until this country refocuses it’s
energies on reviving rural Kenya. Instead of using parliament to
frustrate useful bills, parliamentarians can salvage the plight of this country
by supporting legislation that promotes rural development. Kenyan urban
centres  are overcrowded and permeate with the foul smell of urine and human
faeces because of lacking sanitation.

Power struggles in Kenya are intensifying and taking on a dangerous
dimension. We all stand accused of this and other serious forms of
neglect in the country. Emphasis cannot continue being placed on the
constitutional review process when the people the constitution is supposed to protect,
are dying from neglect. Emphasis cannot continue being placed on the so
called Memorandum of Understanding involving the NARC constituent parties,
when it is clear that Kenyan leaders have no understanding of the peoples’
plight.
Several leaders and voters are yearning for the general elections
slated for the year 2007, to enable the entry of alternative leadership. This is
however a defeatist and fatalistic approach as it is doubtful that this
country will even survive the journey to 2007 in the first place, in
it’s current state. Rather than focusing on elections, this country should
be devoting it’s energies to addressing the numerous problems that still
afflict us. We still continue to emptily boast about how we taught Moi
and KANU a lesson, yet we were unable to apply that same ferocity in
preventing eighty unnecessary deaths. Problems are solved by people, not by
elections.



Michael Mundia Kamau