Development Is About People Not Economies

Last week I was invited to what was described as a “Global Think In” event, basically a series of conversations between academics on Columbia University’s New York campus and scholars and participants in nine Columbia Global Centers in cities around the world. The question we were asked to ponder was: What issue relating to the changing world do you find most urgently pressing in your region?

Now the world is changing in many, quite drastic ways which pose serious challenges to people in Kenya and on the African continent. These include the perils of climate change as evidenced by the current drought ravaging the continent. The twin march of globalization and technology is both creating and decimating opportunities, jobs and wealth, and enabling small groups of disenchanted folks to terrorize entire nations. At the same time we must fight both newly emerging and more familiar diseases as a consequence of changing lifestyles, and figure out how to prepare our kids to deal with an uncertain future.

To do any of this effectively, we will need governments that are focused on and responsive to the welfare of their citizens as well as able to cooperate to address the wider, global issues.

Yet across the world, we are witnessing a retreat from these very values. While some may point to the rising tide of populism and xenophobic nationalism with the preference for “strong” leaders as represented by the election of Donald Trump in the US and the rise of far right in Europe, I think something more insidious is at play.

“My personal preference leans toward a liberal dictatorship rather than toward a democratic government devoid of liberalism,” Friedrich Hayek once remarked on a visit to Pinochet's Chile. Today many seem to lean simply towards economically astute dictatorship in the belief that democracy, especially of the liberal kind, has not only not worked, but actually militates against the ability to solve problems. The role models for this are regimes in China, Rwanda and Ethiopia, which foster high rates of economic growth while curtailing political freedoms and human rights.

Yet this privileging of economic numbers above people only produces chronically fragile states. Ethiopia, which has been growing at double digits for well over a decade, has been under a state of emergency since October sparked by protests over repression. Many here forget that the 2008 post-election violence which pushed Kenya to the brink of anarchy, came after the longest period of sustained economic growth in twenty years.

Economic growth is no panacea. It is no substitute for the real work of ensuring governments are rooted in and accountable to the people they rule over. And as the recent party nominations across the country demonstrate, Kenya has done little to ensure that political processes are an unambiguous reflection of the will of the citizenry.

Another thing to consider is that since the end of the Cold War, the international community has served as a critical check on governmental excesses in Kenya and the region and has been an important ally of those fighting for greater respect for human and democratic rights as well as better governance. The International Criminal Court, for example, was a big factor in tempering politicians’ appetites for violence and why we did not have a repeat the 2008 violence in 2013.

As Kenya gears up for another round of elections, the ICC’s stature has been badly damaged the Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto cases and is now seen as little more than a paper tiger. Further, the rise of inward looking populists such as Trump means our governing elites will also be less concerned about international reactions to human rights violations and stolen elections. The fragmentation of the global liberal order and the growing international power and prestige of illiberal states such as China as well as the preference for transactional foreign policies that elide human rights and governance concerns means brutal and corrupt regimes here have little fear of international delegitimization and ostracism.

Given all this, there is thus a pressing challenge to recreate the coalitions of both citizens and international allies necessary to hold the political class in check during the elections and to deliver real reform in the post-election phase. We also need to build new development models, ones that recognize development is about people, not economies.

Brave New Kenya

It’s less than a week since the Supreme Court put a stamp of legality, if not exactly credibility, on the presidential election. As Uhuru Kenyatta prepares to be sworn in, and the country is tries to regain some semblance of normality, it is hard not to feel that something fundamental has changed.

Not long after Chief Justice Willy Mutunga announced the decision, TV anchors were giggling at footage of a woman being forcefully undressed and her undergarments strewn about (They would later apparently issue grudging apologies on Twitter). “I don’t know whether I should laugh or get mad,” says one, apparently unsure of what would be the appropriate response to the public humiliation of a woman just because an ignorant mob did not approve of the way she was dressed. A few months ago, they would probably have been screaming blue murder. In this new era, there also seems to be little appetite for the prosecution of the attackers. In fact, the media appears determined to sweep the whole incident under the national carpet.

Neither has much been made of the case of blogger Robert Alai, who was arrested and charged in criminal court with posting offensive, annoying and false message on his twitter account about Head of Civil Service Francis Kimemia. The clamour to erase criminal libel laws has apparently today grown into a deafening silence.

It feels like something is amiss when one sees reports (later denied) of the government apparently contemplating giving sole broadcasting rights to a public event, not to mention one as important as the inauguration, to a private company. Or when one of the most respected and sober commentators appears to agree with the most rabid characterisation of prominent human rights and political reform activists, claiming they are leading us “into the dark embrace of imperial slavery.”

Perhaps we are just trying to find our bearings after weathering the electoral storm. However, I just can’t shake the feeling that our trust in the rusty moral compass that has been our guide through the political storms of the last quarter of a century has been somehow shaken.

In these new waters, the familiar landmarks are still there but seem strangely reversed. The villains of yesterday have become the new heroes of today; the rehabilitation of Daniel Moi as a lovable and wise elder statesman is almost as complete as is the demonization of those who stood against him. In a darkly ironic twist, during the election season one paint manufacturer saw fit to run ads calling for brightly coloured "peace, love, unity," the slogan behind which Moi had wreaked havoc with our lives and livelihoods. Those who oppose impunity, who take a stand against corruption and electoral malpractice, who demand the freedom to speak their thoughts or dress as they wish - these are today’s enemies.

Today, success seems measured in monetary terms. When one paper this week reported on the recently introduced traffic rules, the piece focussed on the fact that the government had collected Kshs. 500 million in fines from the over 2000 drivers that were being arrested daily. That the laws had had little effect in reducing deaths (road users were still dying at the rate of over 280 per month) merited only a passing mention in an obscure paragraph at the end of the article.

When assessing the performance of the Kibaki government, much is said of the improvements in infrastructure and economic growth, most of it ignoring the fact that when measured by longevity, knowledge, and a decent standard of living for its populace, the country's score, though improved, still comes in pretty much near the bottom of the global pile. Equally, when we discuss the new constitution, we focus on the devolution of resources and relatively little ink is spilt discussing the Bill of Rights.

I can’t help wondering whether we have just struck a grand bargain with our murderous elite. Whether we have not traded in justice for peace and values for prosperity. A laptop for our kids and superhighways, virtual and real –these are today’s struggles. Notions of equality and accountability are so yesterday. The imperialist West with its flaky notions of freedom and human rights and its flailing economies no longer holds any attraction for us. We prefer the hard pragmatists in the East. Our new political model is China. What does it matter if you break a few eggs to bake the national cake? Liberal democracy may sound nice but it won’t put food on the table.