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Editorial: Horsetrading and Global Warming |
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Monday, 18 January 2010 |
When I was a kid, the 8pm evening news were practically sacred time. At that time, like everyone, we only had one TV set, so other programmes coinciding with the 8pm news could only be watched exceptionally, and after prior inquiries with, and confirmation obtained by, our dad. We all had to be really quiet, too. I have realised a couple of years ago that not only have I stopped rebelling against my parents, but I am actually turning into them. And, in what must surely be the ultimate sign of growing up, I am not even bothered by this.
So these days, it's the 9pm news for me. Except that they are way more entertaining than the German Tagesschau. More often than not, I watch and listen with an open mouth, amazed that, say, announcements by senior elected officials on the number of spouses count as political news. I laughed at Uhuru Kenyatta's statement that the downgrading in official government cars was delayed because of ‘circumstances beyond his control'. He is, for goodness' sake, the finance minister – when you manage national finances, how far beyond control can things possibly be? A cosmic conspiracy - Mercury in retrograde? The forces of darkness? Typos? I see Njoroge Mwaura wagging his figurative oh-you-naughty-kids finger.
Occasionally, though, there is a news item that stands out from the usual cabaret by being distinctly more cynical. I was quite struck by the alleged Ringera-for-Mau deal. Not only because it has taken full circle two groups whose supporters were, in the most literal sense, at each other's throats in early 2008 for political expediency – surely a novel concept of ‘reconciliation and healing'. But also because we see the impact of environmental degradation on the economy and on people's lives every day at the moment. Look at agriculture, at tourism, at electricity generation, at how either one of these filter though in other areas of the economy. Global warming? Maybe. A more immediate reason, far closer to home, is the political corruption that sold out the Mau Forest . Intriguing that those who were ‘allocated' land under questionable conditions now want compensation. Shouldn't they be repaying the tax payer for all the years they had illicit possession of a productive asset, and compensating the tax payer for the environmental destruction that happened? Intriguing also that the minister for agriculture, the pesky maize barely wiped off his hands, should make a reappearance. When the honourables start talking of themselves in third person, my alarms start shrieking.
It began with political corruption; it seems to end with more of the same. So Ethiopia 's Meles Zenawi threatens to walk out of the climate talks if AU demands, which include an estimated USD300bn in financial support and technology transfer to mitigate the impact of climate change, are not met. What could a government like Kenya's, a government that is willing to hawk the long overdue restoration of one of its main water catchment areas in return for the protection of an ineffective anti-corruption chief, sensibly spend such sums on? With what justification can it ask to be entrusted with them?
Whilst we're on the cheerful topic of political corruption, here's a quick shout out to some enterprising and tech savvy people who offer you the opportunity to buy Michela Wrong's ‘Our Turn to Eat' for KES1,500 by MPESA: http://www.thekenyashop.com/ . They've got 150 copies to go, and will bring in a bigger batch if there is enough demand. Don't miss out – since you can't escape political corruption anyway, you may just as well enjoy it in fantastically well written form!
30 September 2009
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