Politics
Evaluating Uhuru Kenyatta’s first year
Revamp results
The government’s efforts at counter-terrorism raise serious doubts about its strategy and capacity. Manoah Esipisu, a veteran journalist who is now Kenyatta’s spokesman, insists the security revamp will produce results: “This will be the biggest increase in security funding since independence. We are making up for the under-investment of the past 15 years or so. In its first year, the Jubilee administration has already raised the number of police officers. The ratio has fallen from one officer for every 750 Kenyans to one for every 535.”
Kenya’s security forces are facing a nationwide crime wave as well as the terrorist blowback from Somalia, but Kenyatta downplayed this rising criminality in his speech. He was quick to point out that crime had dropped by 8 percent over the past year. Criminal gangs have established their presence in Nairobi and other towns without a fightback from the police. In this nationwide crime wave, even Kenyatta’s family has not been spared. Over the past three months, several of his relatives have been victims of crime.
Any security response to growing crime and terrorism has been undermined by rivalries between officials over proposed reforms and budgets. The government planned to create a civilian authority to oversee and limit the formidable powers of the IGP. That has not worked out.
David Kimaiyo, the IGP, routinely ignores the authority of Johnston Kavuludi, the civil servant running the National Police Service Commission. During their vetting of senior police officers, Kavuludi and his board faced bloodcurdling threats. In August 2013, a severed human head was delivered to Kavuludi. At the end of March, a court ruled that Kimaiyo had acted unconstitutionally in unilaterally deploying police chiefs to the counties.
Kimaiyo, who regularly ignores court orders, is said to enjoy support in high places and will struggle relentlessly to retain his old authority. This power struggle pitting top officers against civil servants has led to a go-slow in the senior ranks. Criminal gangs have been quick to take advantage of it.
There are also economic costs to the security crisis. Tourism, which barely recovered from the post-election violence of 2008, is now hit by worries about safety. Tour operators say it is harder to sell Kenya to tourists. Many prefer to go to Tanzania or to South Africa.
Other tough economic decisions loom. More than a decade of the Mwai Kibaki government’s tax-and-spend policies boosted the middle classes and financed roads and communication projects. The national debt now exceeds 50 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). The wage bill has soared due to the cost of the administration in the 47 new counties, although the government is, at best, ambiguous about devolving power from the centre under the new constitution that came into force in 2010.
