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‘A Call to the Kenyan Diaspora’ II:
Interview with Adullahi Boru
18 February 2013
Written and Edited By Agunda Okeyo
As the Kenyan election nears, a mere two weeks away, questions in the Kenyan Diaspora abound as to the future of Kenya. Many agree that Kenya is at a pivotal crossroads. On the one hand, Kenya can hold free and fair elections that elevate the democracy in step with the nation’s 50th anniversary. On the other hand, extenuating political issues connected to a history of corrupt politics, social inequality, elitist leadership and staggered constitutional implementation may hinder the prospects for a smooth election. And yet, hope springs eternal as envisaged in the passage of Kenya’s first presidential debate broadcast live on national television, radio and online for the world to see on February 11, 2013. Beginning with an analysis of the presidential debates, that featured all eight candidates, STB guest Abdullahi Boru, an international policy and security analyst from Kenya, living in the U.S., explores pervasive national issues, the potential of this election, and the role of the Kenyan diaspora in nation-building.
The conversation began before recording and picks up with a spirited assessment of the February 11, 2013 Kenyan presidential debates available live online.
Agunda: Hello, so you were [talking about] what you’ve [gleaned of the election from the debates]?
Abudllahi: Yea I mean the thing is [it] was for the first time that these [candidates] were able to come out and you know tell us what they thought about how they would govern the country. It’s not the greatest debate because it was divided into sessions, two sessions and the first session was very much on time [as Linus Kaikai, one of the two television journalists moderating the debate] was doing a good job. I think Julie [Gichuru], the second host] didn’t do a good job and you know the discussions online were very clear…
Agunda: [Regarding] the two moderators, right?
Abdullahi: Yea Julie as a moderator, she was talking more instead of letting these guys speak. But I mean [it] was the first time that they were doing this. There will be another one on the 25th of this month so in that regard for me the symbolism is very important. It is the first election we will have under a new constitution and we are having these [candidates] speak to people. I would have liked if the moderators did a [better] job in terms of getting to know what some of these [candidates] are saying on their campaign trail [and challenging their integrity]. They said they would provide laptops for primary school kids, how do you finance that? That question wasn’t asked very well. The question of security didn’t come out very well. The ICC was dealt with but not the way it should have been dealt with because to me it is a subject that people who used to [support] it are opposing it now. Anyway it was a good start in my opinion.
Agunda: I was actually looking forward to seeing it.
Abdullahi: It was nice, it was live and it was good to be able to follow it from here.
Agunda: Yea I know that’s the thing. I find it so exciting to think that we are having our first presidential debate, despite the fact that we, the diaspora, won’t be able to vote unless you are in the East African region. At least we’ll be able to see discourse among [the] candidates.
Abudllahi: Right, right. [In] the end [the debate] added the two candidates [previously unscheduled to participate so all eight presidential candidates were present]. That is Paul Muite and Mohammed Abuda Dida [were included because of legal action].
Agunda: Oh that’s very good. Well actually you know, my second question was going to be about the debate and getting your two cents and it’s really good to actually hear you delve into it already. But my first question to set the table [is] to let us know a little bit about yourself. [On] the basic level [with] your name, your age, where you grew up and if you have anything else that you would like to provide about who you are.
Abudllahi: Sure, my name is Abdullahi Boru I’m 31 years old. I grew up in Northern Kenya in Marsabit District. I studied Journalism before and I practiced journalism in Kenya and Uganda. And I changed track now, I’m doing international affairs especially international security policy. That is one area that I am interested in largely because of where I come from. You know I come from a very interesting area, which is in the frontier of the horn of Africa. One district away from Sudan, one district away from Somalia, one district away from Ethiopia and being able to share heritage from both Ethiopia and Somalia, I feel [that] conflict, which is very much prevalent in this area, [is] why I decided to do conflict studies.
Agunda: That’s really great yeah, there are a lot of issues between the indigenous communities [and ethnic minorities] that have been largely ignored or marginalized by current and past presidents.
Abduallahi: It is something that is close to my heart. I also previously worked with the Center for Minority Rights Development during the National Constitution Conference at Bomas of Kenya pushing some of these issues [like] the land question. Most of those national parks in Kenya are on lands [that] are traditionally grazing areas for most of the pastoral communities. You kill a lion and the government will come [down] hard on you but if the lion kills your livestock you pretty much get nothing. The way we were looking at it was the government tends to value the lions because it brings in the dollars [more] then the people who are actually living side by side with these animals. So the human-wildlife conflict, the land question, the question of being represented. A lot of the time in Kenya we say, “Oh, Kenya we are composed of 42 tribes.” No, we are more than 42 tribes. There are so many communities that have been bundled together as “others” in the national census. How can you identify a community as “others” when we have 10, or 15 or 20 just to say. It’s something that I worked on, something that I care about, something that I identify with. Partly because I grew up in an area that is not, I mean it’s almost 15 years now and the road to my place [is only] now [getting tarmac]. It takes longer for me to get to my district to Nairobi than to get from Nairobi to Kampala [capital of neighboring Uganda].
Agunda: Right, right. Well, that’s a very good point. You know [I have] concerns about the term “tribe,” mostly because of its relationship to European characterizations of different ethnicities in Kenya and in Africa.
Abdullahi: Me too. Me too.
Agunda: Absolutely. But at the same time, it’s the word that we have so we use it. You know?
Abdullahi: Look, ethnicity. I mean, you know, I will lead with ethnicity, but “tribe,” as it were, an invention of colonialists who thought ‘these guys have nothing. They have no history, they only have geography. These guys are not modern, they are savages so they are tribes.’ But I think the word, the appropriate word, is mostly “ethnic group.”
Agunda: Absolutely. I tend to prefer to use that [the term “ethnic group” though] it is interesting [that even during] the [presidential] debates; in Kenya we continue to use the word “tribe.” Not that many people [in Kenya] actually say “ethnicity.” But on that point, [the] other question I have [is] given that the national and international media pay keen attention to the issue of “tribalism” in Kenya, which is warranted to some extent, [but equally flawed, how do you read that]?
Abdullahi: Its two ways right? There are two ways to looking at it. Kenyans themselves, unfortunately, look at themselves not as “Kenyans”per se. They all tend to look at themselves through their ethnic lens. Then international media and the international community have just taken over from there and just [wrapped] the word “ethnicity” around the terms of how we vote. But to be fair though, I mean like, I have friends who have gone to school, they have [all] the gadgets, they have an iPhone, a twitter handle, they’re in the city, [and] fairly urbanized. [But] these are the same guys who expose the most pernicious, you know incendiary ethnic jingoism you’ll find because the internet usually provides a modest cover [in] the fact that no one knows who you are. People just spew up a lot of really, really poisonous rhetoric online. And you might you know, I constantly struggle with the fact that ‘dude, I went to school with you. How come you cannot figure out that if poverty comes, poverty affects everyone whether you are from “tribe a” or “tribe b.” Insecurity affects everyone. But why do you think that if somebody from your ethnic group is in power, you think you’ll be safe? But the thing also at the same time is that, the elite, particularly the political elite have [used] ethnicity because they do not have any useful policy intervention in terms of the troubles and the problems that the country is going through. So what they have done is created a myth that once I come [into] power, then your problems will be over. The biggest problem with you is not that we didn’t devise any [good] economic policy in trying to address this issue, the biggest problem is “tribe x.” So you are hard wired from the get go like, ‘Oh, dang, that is why I don’t have a job, that is why I am unemployed, that is why I don’t have this. Is because of someone from ethnic group x.’
Agunda: As opposed to class, or unemployment or socio political history.
Abdullahi: Kenyans rarely [discuss such issues]. [They] did maybe in the early 1960’s because most of the freedom movement guys were for the most part from the left. So there was an element of class. People like Tom Mboya [were] trying to mobilize around workers’ rights. But after that everything fizzled out. There is nothing. If you mention “workers’ rights” people look at you like ‘Oh what tribe is he coming from?’ You know. But workers’ rights, class, Kenyans don’t mobilize around that. If they did that the politicians wouldn’t have a free ticket like they do know.
Agunda: You know that’s a very good point. What I’m curious about is, again with this idea about tribalism, [and] putting it into perspective in the national context, on the one hand. What do you think is the purpose that it serves also in the international media, on the other hand? Because [the] way I observe [the] national media/international media has made a kind of overstatement [of] “tribe” in terms of how it characterizes politics in Kenya. Kenyan journalists [and] popular discourse has also fed into this broad kind of concept of tribe as the underpinning of what is going on in the country. Even though you can still see amongst journalists [some] will [explore] unemployment or [oppression of former regimes] but they don’t actually make that the dominant narrative [about inequality]? So I’m just curious about what you think about this concept of tribalism plays for the media.
Abdullahi: It’s easy. It’s easy. It’s very easy, you know particularly for the international media. Yesterday morning I was having a conversation on Skype with a freelance journalist, French journalist. This [woman] had no clue. The previous week we were having discussions [and] I think she had made up her mind that there is a religious problem in Kenya. You know its Christians and Muslims. Like that is the easiest thing you can do I told her. In 5th grade I cried because my friend switched school to a Catholic school and I really wanted to go to a Catholic school and I come from an area that is predominantly Muslim, maybe 80% Muslim [so that doesn’t fit into her rational]. Or the idea that you know, like in current presidential elections, all of the presidential candidates except one is a Christian, they are Christians. But you would never hear Muslims saying ‘Oh no we are not being represented.’ Because politics in Kenya is never organized like I said around class or even religion. But it becomes very easy, the lowest hanging fruit, for journalists who have no clue what they are talking about. That is the easiest way to sell their copy to their capitols within Brussels, London or New York. For me it is a question of pure laziness from journalists. It is very easy to characterize that [Kenyan political culture as] a religious war. It is very easy to characterize, ‘Oh it is ethnicity.’ Nothing, you know these guys have nothing except ethnicity. I was working on a report around the Mombasa Republican Council and these guys have a religious council composed of Christians and non-Christians. But every single time, I mean I have about 10 or 15 newspaper articles saying, ‘Oh this is a Muslim movement.’ I have gone and spoken to their leaders at the Mombasa Republican Council and they have pastors and they have chairs, they have traditional elders but all that doesn’t matter because that cannot sell a copy you know? What sells copy is you trying to say, ‘Oh, it’s religious, Oh it’s ethnic.’ It’s very easy. People have got issues. I mean like, land is an issue in Kenya, can people fight over land? And she was like, ‘Why don’t these communities just agree’ and I told her, ‘Well isn’t that the easiest thing for all the conflicts in the whole world, why would that be Kenyan specific?
Agunda: On to my next question; [a] tragedy of the last election was that thousands of women were raped by fellow citizens [and] police. With the new constitution you see that there are increased rights for women as in [minimum 1/3] representation in parliament, as well as land rights in terms of inheritance now officially on the books. That may have a positive impact on the kind of political power of women, public and private. I’m wondering how you think that might actually potentially relate to gender equity and maybe even gender violence.
Abdullahi: It is very important that we need to highlight the fact that it was not just people dying [in the 2007 post- election period], but [there] was violence directed exclusively to women and unfortunately that has not been dealt with very well. Unfortunately everything is politics in Kenya so [the death toll] dominated the discussions around some of these issues. But coming back to your question about how the constitution has really set out a good framework for how women should be involved [like] having a third in parliament in all elected positions. It is remarkable that just a few years ago you could not have that kind of discussion. When Charity Ngilu, [ current Minister of Water and Irrigation who ran for president in 1997], contested for the presidency all of us were super excited. But [for] me it is the question of changing the political culture. Where people need to be told, ‘Look what a man can do a woman can do better.’ That has to be inculcated in schools, that has to be inculcated in homes, that has to be inculcated within the political discourse, the media, everybody needs to take [this up] because it’s not a just a “woman” issue it’s a moral issue. It’s not just a woman issue; it’s a gender issue. I was having discussions with people yesterday about the performance of Martha Karua [lone female candidate for president of Kenya]. I was like, ‘look if we educate woman or a girl child, that is what you get. For people like Martha Karua it’s very hard. [You] are either regarded as a tiger, or a tough cookie or she just doesn’t want her time to come. There are all these connotations. [When] you try hard [as a woman], when you strive you are branded as somebody who is hardcore, somebody who is trying to force her way through things. But now with the constitution we have a couple of good judges who are women. The chief justice, he is taking that fight fairly seriously because when the ruling regarding that came up on whether it should be implemented during this election or the next election, the chief justice was the only one who voted saying it should be now, not during the next election. But obviously on the Supreme Court the decisions are made collegially and he lost on that….
Agunda: Could you speak a little bit more to his point?
Abdullahi: The point regarding [whether] the 1/3 gender rule from the 2010 constitution] will kick in [this election]. Most of the political parties were not ready to give women 1/3 of the elected seats [to women, as stipulated in the constitution that no gender will hold more than a 2/3 majority. A landmark case in December 2012 contested] some of the government appointments didn’t meet the threshold of 1/3 regarding gender. So the case was brought to the Supreme Court and the ruling [of the five judges on the bench] was made [4:1]. But, it’s was only the Chief Justice [Willy Mutunga] who said I think we should give women a chance in this election. But he lost, [though] it is a good foundation, we [have the constitution]. We have something that we can build on and women’s groups can take that up as an issue [given the recent decision for a “progressive” approach to constitutional gender parity by 2015].
Agunda: This is an aside. I find it very interesting, about this kind of almost selective implementation of the constitution. This precedent [Kenya] seems to be setting of just selecting at which point we think we should actually implement the August 2010 constitution. Even though [it] already exists on the books.
Abdullahi: It’s a problem because what is happening is a lot of people weren’t really interested in the constitution.
Agunda: What do you mean by, ‘A lot of people?’ Do you mean citizens? Or are you speaking about the politicians?
Abdullahi: No, the politicians.
Agunda: Right. Right.
Abudllahi: So what happened was [politicians] were not interested in [change]…so what they [said] was, ‘Fine now we have [the constitution, but let’s try and mutilate in Parliament.’ So generally they continued to do things the way they were doing. The media and civil society will point out, ‘Hey guys, this is not the way things are done.’ They say, ‘Why?’ So that is the mentality, but it I think slowly [it will change], because changing the political culture takes a while. You know these guys will not all of a sudden become sticklers of the rule of law, governance and [the like]. But there are a couple of judicial rulings that are out there that are very important if we look back. The one on the [vetting] of Matemo Mumo [for chair of the Ethics & Anti-Corruption Commission]. He lost it because the court ruled that he doesn’t meet the [integrity] threshold. It was the first time we had [such] a ruling. The court coming out very strongly, and everyone looking up to the court. This is a very important precedent because generally in ‘07 the people did not trust the courts. But now, everybody is like ‘Oh I have to go to the court.’ That’s important but it will take a while.
Agunda: So moving on to my next question, what do you think the role that youth play in this election and the upcoming election? I actually want to just throw some statistics that I am sure you are familiar with. I looked at Kenyan National Bureau statistics as well as U.N. data statistics. You know the most recent statistics are really from 2009- 2010. According to Kenya and corroborated also by the U.N. basically we have about, lets say roughly 63% of the population is 24 and under and then of that population about 67%-68% of that is 14 and under. So the majority of the majority are still basically children or teenagers. So with upcoming elections there will be a large demographic who will be voting. So I was kind of curious about what you think the role of youth is in this election and future elections?
Abdullahi: I mean, its complex, the role of the youth in Kenya’s election. We have a very significant youth bulge in Kenya, which is not unique to Kenya. If you look at Uganda, Tanzania, or even countries in North Africa, it’s not uniquely Kenyan. But it is uniquely Kenyan in the way that the youth have perpetually been involved in violence. They are leaders of tomorrow, but hooligans for hire today. They can lead tomorrow, but they can cause problems now. But the youth themselves need to figure out how they can crack this code. No single politician will come and do for them anything. The idea that someone will come and get them a job is not going to happen. The idea that they will be paid 50, 60,100, 200, 1000 [shillings] per day to go on to cause chaos is not going to do them any good. It is up to the youth and also the government to devise a very creative policy of how these guys should be absorbing the job market. When I say “job,” It doesn’t mean just to be formal sector where you wear a tie and go to the office. If a creative environment is set up in terms of legal policy and technological environment, the youth will have an incredible amount of enterprise that they can put into business and entrepreneurship. Unless we do that it will be very difficult to benefit from the demographic dividend that ideally would come from having such a young population. There are efforts, but they are not coordinated. There was a ministry for youth, there [was even] money that [was] lost in that ministry through embezzlement and corruption. It is not doing well, but it cuts both ways for the youth as well as the government.
Agunda: I guess, moving on to some questions about the diaspora, the Kenyan diaspora specifically, [of] which you and I are apart. [Not] to say that there hasn’t been issues in the country for sure, but the diaspora [has] been guilty of divisive language and hate speech, using online portals and things like that. Can you speak to where that might be coming from, what we potentially learned, [and how we can play a [more] positive role?
Abdullahi: The Diaspora outside of politics plays a very positive role. If you look at numbers, the amount of money [102 billion shillings in 2012] that the diaspora sends home, whether it is coordinated or not, it has more [direct] impact. [How] do you think the diaspora can play a role in this election negatively or positively? [Much] is given to the fact that [Kenyan diaspora] outside of Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi or Tanzania, can actually vote [this election]. [Furthermore, the diaspora is a big] population [which] the Ministry of Foreign affairs [estimates as low as] 700,000 [while] other people [suggest] 2 or 3 million, which I think could actually be possible. But still and we don’t actually know the numbers. I guess what I wonder is, numbers aside, given the election and [most of the diaspora] not being able to vote…
Abdullahi: There will be other elections.
Agunda: Yea there will be other elections, but [I was disappointed].
Abdullahi: Maybe [in the future] people [will send] their votes via the post office or something like that.
Agunda: One of the things that I have definitely committed myself to is to contributing to the elections in some way and positively so.
Abdullahi: Write well, telling Kenyans vote in peace. That is the best.
Agunda: [So], what are your suggestions? People from the diaspora will be reading this. Do you have any kind of specific suggestions about what people can do? Writing a letter or discourse in general?
Abdullahi: Call radio and television stations in Kenya. Participate through the media that is one advantage that you have though [there is a time difference]. The thing is [the diaspora] can contribute by SMS, they can call in to some of the talk shows, there are many, they can write an
opinion piece in the Kenyan newspapers. It’s very useful for them to participate through the media mostly.
Agunda: [My] final question to you [without] being too romantic really, [is what] are your hopes as well as concerns for this upcoming election in March?
Abdullahi: I have, to be perfectly honest, I am eternally optimistic but I don’t want like I said at that event to suffer fools gladly. For me, this election represents everything that I want for Kenya. You know, it can actually catapult Kenya into where is should be. Kenya is still underperforming in the capacity and human resource that it has. I have lived in Uganda and am in touch with friends in Tanzania. Really we could be playing a [more] positive role than we are doing right now [in the region]. But the trouble is always our domestic politics have made it very difficult for us to play that positive role. So what I am saying is that if we conduct this election free, in a peaceful way and fair way [there] is an opportunity that Kenya, historically will completely shift. But if we do not make any headway, maybe we have unfair elections or an election that is not peaceful; chances are we will be stuck on the perpetual reform mode that we have been on since the 1990’s. We are reforming, we are reforming, we are reforming. But that will end up having deleterious effect on business, people’s morale, people’s opportunity and everything. I’m not super cynical that we will not have it and I’m not super excited that we will have a [greater] election than any that we have had for the last few decades. My thing is I wish that Kenyans and Kenyan politicians for one moment realize that by casting their vote for peace, fairness and integrity, they could lift this country to another level. That is what I pray for.
Agunda: That is a wonderful note to conclude the interview on. I completely echo your sentiment.