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Ethiopia. Churches join hands to promote a deal on the Nile Waters sharing.

Tuesday, 1 November 2022 8:00

The Coptic Church of Egypt and the Orthodox Church of Ethiopia are joining hands to incite the leaders of both countries to find a consensus on a fair settlement that preserves the interest of all riparian countries.

On the 4 September, the patriarch of the Egyptian Coptic Church, Tawadros II received a large delegation from the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church led by Pope Abuna Yosef, the archbishop of Bale, including heads of monasteries, deacons, monks and nuns.
The aim of the meeting was to mend the gap between the governments of both countries about the construction of the 6000 MW and US $ 4.5 billion worth Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the blue Nile, which was started in 2011 by the Italian company Salini and which is the largest hydropower project in Africa.
The meeting follows the announcement, last August, by the Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed of the completion of the third phase of the filling of the GERD’s reservoir. According to the Ethiopian authorities, the dam is now holding 22 billion cubic meters of water, which represents about 30 percent of the planned capacity of 74 bn cubic meters which should provide a 6000 MW capacity of electricity by 2027.

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile River in Guba,Ethiopia. AFP

However, the two downstream countries, Sudan and Egypt are complaining that these filling plans are implemented without their prior consent and continue their diplomatic efforts to get Ethiopia to sign a binding agreement on the filling and operation of the dam.
Egypt stresses that the Renaissance Dam could lead to a permanent lowering of the water level in Lake Nasser if floods are stored instead in Ethiopia. Accordingly, the filling of the Renaissance dam reservoir could mean also a 100 MW loss of the generating capacity of the Aswan Dam hydropower plant. Egyptian officials stress that the Nile River provides 97 percent of its edible water supply and that the filling of the GERD reservoir would affect considerably its supply since 85 percent of the waters of the Nile River come from the Blue Nile whose source is
on the Abyssinia highlands.
The Cairo authorities also point out that Ethiopia is ignoring the colonial agreements of 1929 and 1959 between Egypt and Britain. Egypt and Sudan consider that Ethiopia’s decision to proceed with filling the GERD reservoir is posing an ‘existential threat’.
The matter was taken in July 2021 to the UN Security Council which encouraged the three riparian states to negotiate and to reach an agreement under the aegis of the African Union.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed pressing the start button to generate power from the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam s (GERD) second turbine during a ceremony held on August 11, 2022. Photo courtesy of Ethiopian Prime Minister s official Twitter account

Ethiopia rejects the colonial Anglo-Egyptian deals since they did not take her interests into account. Ethiopia engineers and geographers also argue that the filling of the GERD reservoir on the temperate Ethiopian Highlands would have positive consequences since it will experience much less evaporation than downstream reservoirs such as Lake Nasser in Egypt, which loses 12% of its water flow annually due to evaporation as the water sits in the lake for 10 months. The controlled release of water from the GERD reservoir to downstream, would even facilitate an increase of up to 5% in Egypt’s water supply, and presumably that of Sudan as well, argue Ethiopian engineers and geographers.
Moreover, since the Renaissance dam will also retain substantial amounts of silt, it will increase the useful lifetime of the Roseires, Sennar and Merowe dams in Sudan and of the Aswan High Dam in Egypt,
say Ethiopian officials.
It is in such context that the Egyptian Coptic Church Pope Tawadros II welcomed the Ethiopian Orthodox Church delegation. “We pray for the Nile water and for the rain that falls in Ethiopia as it brings good to many countries,” Pope Tawadros said. “In Egypt, we consider the Nile our father and the land around it our mother”, he pursued.
During the meeting, Tawadros reminded the tight historical, and spiritual links between both churches, since indeed Ethiopia’s Orthodox Church remained under the umbrella of the Coptic Patriarchate of Alexandria until 1959. For Pope Tawadros, the Nile water is a gift from God, which should not be disputed which is why he called on several occasions the parties in the GERD dispute to seek a consensual solution that ensures development for their peoples.

The High Dam in Aswan for hydroelectric power generation, Nubia, Egypt. Photo: 123rf.com

This is not the first attempt of mediation by the churches of both countries. In September 2015, Ethiopian Patriarch Mathias I of Ethiopia’s Tewahedo Church received Pope Tawadros at the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Addis Ababa. Just before, Mathias I paid a visit to Egypt where he met with President Abd-el Fattah Al Sissi who told him that while Egypt cannot hinder the right to development of the Ethiopian people, it is a source of life, not just development, for Egyptians.
In 2010, the then Egyptian Coptic Church said its leader, Pope Shenouda III, prayed together with Ethiopian Bishop Boules during the latter’s visit to Egypt in an effort to help resolve the dispute. Egypt is seeking to improve bilateral ties, drawing on historical relations that have linked both churches since the 14th century until their separation in 1959. This comes as part of Egypt’s penchant of using soft power in order to improve also the perception in upstream countries that depicts Egypt as stealing Nile water.

Felucca boats on Nile River at sunset. Photo: 123rf.com

The opinion of politicians and Copts in Egypt on the role that the church can play to resolve the crisis between both countries varies. Some consider it an undesirable overlap between politics and religion. But Coptic thinker Kamal Zakher begs to differ.
In an interview with the American news website Al-Monitor, he commented that “The Egyptian Church believes in the principle of not intervening in politics. However, it cannot turn a blind eye to its national role, which goes beyond the political one”. Furthermore, Kamal Zakher said that “The role of the church as a soft power is helpful and the Egyptian government should play other roles, such as helping Ethiopians with their development needs.”
Other churches also try to promote dialogue. On the 15 August 2020, Pope Francis in a message after the Angelus prayer at the Vatican, asked the leaderships of Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan to “continue on the path of dialogue so that the Eternal River might continue to be a source of life that unites, not divides, that always nourishes friendship, prosperity, fraternity, and never enmity, misunderstanding or conflict.” In July 2021, the Protestant World Council of Churches acting general secretary, Rev. Prof. Dr. Ioan Sauca appealed to all WCC member churches around the world to pray for a peaceful solution to the problem. (Egypt’s Pope Tawadros II (R) and Abune Yosef of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. Photo: Coptic Orthodox Church)

François Misser

In the Hands of Local Gangs.

Tuesday, 1 November 2022 8:00

Within Kingston, gangs involved in drug trafficking, extortion, robbery, and the exploitation of prostitution have their own well-defined geography of crime which, moreover, has undergone changes and changed its structure compared to the past.

To date, in fact, the ‘Dons’ of the urban areas have disappeared from the Jamaican criminal scene, including the infamous Christopher Michael Coke, better known as ‘Dudus’, head of the Shower Posse, sentenced a few months ago to 23 years of prison by the New York Court. The Shower Posse is a group halfway between organized crime and collusion with the political world. It was formed around the 1970s to launch and support the political career of the Jamaican Labour Party, with which it still maintains relationships and ties today. Immediately distinguished from the other Jamaican gangsters, it moved from controlling the streets and the local political electorate to business in North America, starting to create a small drug trafficking circuit.

Kingston. Soldiers in the city on duty in the car. 123rf.com

The disappearance of the big bosses has given rise to a phenomenon of smaller aggregations that traffic on the local market, headed by the ‘Corner Dons’, small bosses who make the balance of power even more fluid and, consequently, less manageable.
However, some of the historical aggregations remain standing and well rooted in the territories to which they belong. Among these there is One Order, present predominantly in Spanish Town and strongly supported by the JLP which is opposed by Klansman, which is the garrison of the PNP.
In 2006, following the killing of boss Bun Man Hope, members of the organization razed the courthouse to the ground, giving a clear demonstration of their strength. The group also has branches abroad and in particular in New York, Toronto, and London.
In addition, the gangs also control the production and trafficking of drugs, thus generating an annual income of about 560 million. The country is a large cannabis producer, as well as an exporter to the US and Canadian markets. In particular, in the period between 1968 and 1980, production reached truly important figures, placing Jamaica among the top global producers. In the 1990s, the flow of cocaine and the production of marijuana constituted 7.6% of the national economy. In the early 2000s, albeit reduced compared to the period taken in question, activities related to the trafficking and production of drugs recorded important data, however, with revenues equal to 210 million dollars per year, 160 of which came from exports alone. In 2013 it was estimated that the hectares set aside for the cultivation of cannabis amounted to 15,000 distributed throughout the national territory and mainly in mountainous areas and along the tributaries of the Nera River.

Young cannabis plants. Green background of marijuana leaves. 123rf.com

Furthermore, Jamaica, together with the Bahamas, represents an important transit corridor for cocaine bound for the United States and through which approximately 40 MT per year are said to pass. The security of this corridor is entrusted to the Jamaican gangs.
In addition to cocaine and marijuana, Jamaican hashish oil is also very popular on the market, the main target market of which is Canada, where large communities of Jamaicans reside who provide for the subsequent local sorting.
However, it must be pointed out that the extensive cultivation of hemp also corresponds to a vast internal consumption since, from a cultural point of view, it is understood as a singularly accepted phenomenon. This also explains the involvement in the production of many small producers for whom the cultivation of hemp becomes an obligatory productive choice. As a cultural element, it seems that hemp was introduced by immigrant Indian labourers who came to work in the sugar cane plantations abandoned by the Africans in 1838, after the end of slavery throughout the British Empire.
In fact, it seems that it was not previously known on the island and was assimilated by the rest of the population during this time span due to the cultural contact between the two ethnic groups on the plantations and between neighbouring communities.

Young Man. Hairstyle Rasta Braids Hair (Max Pixel)

In the early 2000s, to deal with this phenomenon, the Jamaican Senate unanimously decided to set up a ‘National Commission on Ganja’ led by Professor Barry Chevannes, who in a few months developed a series of very clear recommendations, including the decriminalization of cannabis for personal and religious use, as well as the development of prevention aimed at young people and schools and, above all, the modification of the approach of the police forces. The top priority was to crack down on crack and cocaine trafficking and not persecute ganja users.
A final report was thus drawn up which was delivered to a special committee (Joint Select Committee) in charge of sifting through the proposals before presenting them to Parliament. In 2003, the committee forwarded the proposed decriminalization of hemp to Parliament but, although the majority of Parliament agreed, the examination of the project stalled due to the opposition of influential sectors of society represented by Attorney General Michael Hylton (who appealed to respect for international conventions).
That, above all, was due to pressure from the US government which interpreted this reform as a yielding to the war on drugs policy, under penalty of the threat to suspend economic aid.
Nevertheless, there is a steady commitment on the part of the institutions aimed at curbing the use of drugs among the population and in particular, among young people. In fact, it is estimated that over 187,000 Jamaicans consume hard drugs, particularly in the age group between 12 and 55 years.(Photo:123rf.com)

(F.R.)

Music. Stromae, the Master of pop.

Tuesday, 1 November 2022 8:00

A heart that beats to the rhythm of Africa

Paul Van Haver was born in Etterbeek, a small town near Brussels, in 1985. Yet his story really begins only nine years later, in Rwanda, where his father, an architect of Tutsi ethnicity, was killed that year during one of the most terrible genocides of the twentieth century.
Little Paul thus grows up with his mother, who is Flemish, along with four brothers and a sister.
As a boy he began to study music, as a teenager he discovered rap, hip-hop subculture, the soul of the masters and electronics. The recording debut came in 2009 with the pseudonym destined to make him a world-famous pop star: Stromae, which in verlan means “master”.

But Rwanda and that tragedy remained indelibly marked on his heart, and well before he revealed it, in 2013, in the poignant Papaoutai (Daddy where are you?), a song dedicated to that father he had only seen a dozen times in his life. That song was part of his second album, that of consecration among the trendiest artists of European pop.
He sings mostly in French, and plays drums and piano. And this year he launches his third album Multitude: one of the most anticipated and relevant works of this year overflowing with war-founding nightmares. Also, because it comes after eight years of silence. And once again Stromae hits hard. Because he was never the type to limit himself to writing supermarket platitudes: in his records he sang about alienation from social networks, about cancer and alcoholism, about marginalization, about migrants, about the hells of the last, about racism and homophobia, and he always did it with a poetic and often autobiographical slant: “Yes, at times I have had suicidal thoughts. And I’m not proud of it. Sometimes we think it is the only way to silence them. These thoughts that make me go through hell “he sings in the brand-new L’ Enfer.

And in an interview, he explains: “This record is my journey from darkness to light, an album about healing”; from a bad disease that kept him away from the scene for years, but also from the never perfectly healed wounds of his family tragedy. This is also why he does not hesitate to judge the violence of the war that is raging in the heart of Europe as “unsustainable”. Stromae is a chansonnier with both feet in the multi-ethnic postmodernity of his Belgium, but his heart still beats to the rhythm of his Africa.
Especially among these 12 new songs. And if Rwandan roots rarely blossom into folkloric moods (little more than a few reverberations here and there), they feed the soul of all the work, especially when the sweetness of the choirs and colours of his homeland. It is no coincidence that Brussels today welcomes one of the largest Rwandan communities in the world that found refuge here from the horrors of the 1990s genocide: the one that even Paul-Stromae cannot and does not want to forget, but from which he is slowly trying to heal. (Photos: Mosaert)

Franz Coriasco

Reggae, a Jamaican soft power.

Tuesday, 1 November 2022 8:00

Jamaica is a Parliamentary democracy and, as a member of the Commonwealth, it is also a constitutional monarchy. Therefore, Charles III of England is also ‘King of Jamaica’.

The internal institutional set-up is democratic, with a two-party structure and a bicameral structure composed of a House of Representatives directly elected by the people and the Senate whose 21 members are directly appointed by the prime minister. From an administrative point of view, the country is divided into 3 counties and 14 ‘parishes’ (as the administrative divisions are called).
Its economy enjoys the incalculable bauxite reserves that place the country among the largest holders globally, contributing to the formation of almost a third of the national GDP. In addition to bauxite, another important item of the Jamaican economy is represented by tourism which generates 70% of GDP, while in the agricultural sector, sugar cane, coffee, bananas, and tobacco constitute further important items among exports.

Tropical Holiday, Ochos Rios. 123rf.com

As to energy, the country lacks its own resources and, therefore, is forced to import them to satisfy its consumption. Those activities that make up the nerve centre assets of the country’s economy, infrastructure, raw material extraction and tourism, are managed by both local and foreign private sectors. The central state, in fact, due to the high public debt that has gripped it for years (117% of GDP), as well as the heavy interest it has to pay to the IMF and the World Bank, has extremely limited room for manoeuvre. This has also brought about the privatisation of the health and education sectors, to which only a few have access. Furthermore, foreign investments are discouraged by both security issues and the high costs of services and taxes.
As far as international relations are concerned, Jamaica is heavily dependent on the United States, due also to strong trade ties, for direct foreign investments, development assistance and the numerous and constant migratory flows. The country, however, has also established economic relations with China for the development of the internal infrastructural and logistic system. China has also expanded its control in the port of Kingston, which was recently dredged to start the project, supported mainly by the state, to transform the island into an important integrated logistics water, land and air hub – similar to that of Dubai or Singapore, and equipped with special economic zones, the first of which has already been activated.

Regarding relations with Great Britain, it is felt that the death of Queen Elizabeth could generate the desire of Jamaica to re-evaluate matters, placing itself in the wake of Antigua and Barbuda and Barbados which, respectively, in April 2022 and 2021 decided to break the last links, albeit formal, with London. The Caribbean peoples, in fact, have been fighting for some time to obtain an apology for the ‘horrors of slavery’, as well as compensation.
In fact, in 2014, Caricom (Caribbean Commission for Reparations), an intergovernmental organization that includes 15 Caribbean states (including Barbados, Jamaica, Antigua and Barbuda), issued a document asking for reparations from the governments of all the former colonial powers and the most important institutions of those countries, to the Caribbean nations and people for crimes against humanity of genocide, slavery, and trafficking on the basis of race.

Queen Elizabeth II greets Prime Minister Michael Manley during her visit to Jamaica in 1975. Queen visited Jamaica, on six occasions. Those visits came in 1953, 1966, 1975, 1983, 1994 and 2002. (Photo Jamaica Observer)

Furthermore, it should be added that in the international arena the country is always known for reggae music which is a characterizing element of the country, a sort of Jamaican soft power. Music that is an expression of the Rastafarian religious movement, which echoes African sounds transforming them into something original. Furthermore, reggae also represents a way to express a form of dissent against the harsh oppressions suffered over the centuries by these populations and therefore a request for justice against abuses. Undoubtedly the icon par excellence of this musical genre was the Jamaican Bob Marley who more than any other was a global diffuser of both reggae and Rastafarianism, two typical Afro-Jamaican elements that in the 70s became central as symbols of identity and pride. Rastafarianism, which developed in the 1930s, has become widespread since the 1980s. More precisely, it is a spiritual and cultural movement, born on the inspiration of the Ethiopian Orthodox religious faith, and in particular of ‘Ethiopianism’ preached by the leader Marcus Garvey.

The name derives from Ras Tafari, the emperor who ascended the throne of Ethiopia in 1930 with the name of Hailé Selassié I and with the title of King of Kings (Negus Neghesti). After his voluntary exile, due to the Italian invasion of Ethiopia, and his return to his homeland five years later, some believers recognized him as Christ in his ‘second coming’, being a direct descendant of the Tribe of Judah which has its roots in the meeting between King Solomon (son of David) and the queen of Sheba. For the followers of Rastafarianism, therefore, Ethiopia represents the Promised Land, the return of the black people scattered throughout the world to their homeland, and Selassie is the messiah and bearer of this message.

Filippo Romeo

Morocco. Rabat. Capital of Lights.

Tuesday, 1 November 2022 8:00

‘City of Lights’, as Rabat, the administrative capital of Morocco, is called. The name is not prosaic, but full of symbolism to describe a city undergoing a complete metamorphosis that tries to show its mastery while maintaining a balance between tradition and modernity. We visit the city.

In recent years Rabat has made an effort to shake off its reputation among Moroccans for being a ‘boring’ city – ‘with inhabitants, most of them civil servants, who go to sleep early’ – unable to match the dynamic economic capital of the country, Casablanca, or Marrakech, the main tourist destination. However, this reputation is undeserved. The coastal city, founded in the 12th century by the Almohads, has much to offer by way of culture and entertainment with the creation of multiple museums, restaurants, shopping centres and entertainment venues.

Seafront and Kasbah in medina of Rabat. Photo: 123rf.com

A destination for Moroccans who have administrative issues to settle, and where they turn to solve serious health problems as it has the best hospitals, Rabat is also a social loudspeaker, especially its Mohamed V boulevard, considered a refuge for protests and a stage for performances during national holidays.
This boulevard has been for years the Mecca of Rabatís who wear their best clothes to take a stroll in the area. What has always been the busiest place in Rabat now has rivals: Fal Ould Oumeir avenue, in the Agdal district, and Mahaj, from the luxurious Riad, also called the District of Lights for its illumination at sunset. Both make up the new centre
of the Moroccan capital.

Mausoleum of Muhammed V, Rabat. Photo: 123rf.com

There is no comparison between the current situation and that of 30 years ago in Rabat. The area around the Bouregreg River, which separates Rabat from its sister city Salé, has become an important tourist destination.The famous flouka (feluccas) of river fishermen no longer exercise their former role as a means of transport for officials between Rabat and Salé. Bouregreg was also a place of recreation for young people and children from the popular districts of the old Medina – such as Melah, Boukroune or Souika – who used to swim the river to Salé
to play football.

Friends having lunch together in restaurant in Rabat. Photo: 123rf.com

The entire Bouregreg Valley has been modernized with projects such as the Grand Theatre of Rabat, designed by Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid, and the Mohamed VI Tower. The two works have views of the Kasbah of the Oudayas and the Hassan tower, the most emblematic historical monuments of Rabatí, a scenario that shows the new face of modern Rabat that also wants to keep its traditions.
This development has caused an increase in the cost of living without solving the problem of public transport that has arisen in recent years due to the growth of the city. The price of real estate is one of the highest in the country, forcing much of the public administration to rent or buy in Salé. But the inhabitants of the capital adapt as best they can to these problems because Rabat continues to be an elegant, inclusive, and comfortable city to live in.(Open Photo: Traditional souvenir Moroccan lamps.123rf.com)

Fatima Zohra Bouaziz

The Dove’s Egg.

Tuesday, 1 November 2022 8:00

A dove laid an egg in the hollow of a big tree in front of the blacksmith’s house. When she flew away from her nest in search of food, the blacksmith’s wife stole the egg.

The dove came back to her nest and found the egg missing. The dove knew at once that the blacksmith’s wife must have taken it. So, she went to the woman and pleaded, “Give me back my egg, please.” The blacksmith’s wife pretended that she knew nothing about it and said, “What egg are you talking about? I didn’t see any egg.”

The dove was heartbroken and flew about looking for help. On the way she met a pig, who asked, “Why are you crying, little bird?” She said, “0h pig, can you help me? Will you dig up the yams of the blacksmith’s wife who stole my egg?” “No, not I,” grunted the pig, walking away.

She then met a hunter, who asked, “Why are you in tears, little bird?” The bird said, “Will you shoot an arrow at the pig who wouldn’t dig up the yams of the blacksmith’s wife who stole my egg?” “Why should I? Leave me out of this,” said the hunter, walking away.

The dove wept some more and flew on till she met a rat, who also asked why she was in tears. The dove said, “Will you gnaw and cut the bowstring of the hunter who wouldn’t shoot the pig who wouldn’t dig up the yams of the blacksmith’s wife who stole my egg?” The rat too said, “Not I,” and went his own way.

Next, she met a cat, who asked, “What’s the matter, little bird?” “Will you catch the rat who wouldn’t cut the bowstring of the hunter who wouldn’t shoot the pig who wouldn’t dig up the yams of the blacksmith’s wife who stole my egg?” The cat would rather mind her own business.

The poor dove was beside herself with anger and grief. Her wails attracted the attention of a passing dog, who asked her what was bothering her. She said: “Will you bite the cat who wouldn’t catch the rat who wouldn’t cut the bowstring of the hunter who wouldn’t shoot the pig who wouldn’t dig up the yams of the blacksmith’s wife who stole my egg?” “No, not I,” said the dog and ran away. The dove’s wails grew louder and louder.

An old man with a long white beard came that way and asked the crying bird what the matter was. She said: “Grandfather, will you beat the dog who wouldn’t bite the cat who wouldn’t catch the rat who wouldn’t cut the bowstring of the hunter who wouldn’t shoot the pig who wouldn’t dig up the yams of the blacksmith’s wife who stole my egg?”
The old man didn’t want to do anything of the sort and shook his head and went his way.

The dove next went to the fire for help and asked it to burn the white beard of the old man, but the fire wouldn’t do it. Next the dove went to the water and asked it to put out the fire which wouldn’t burn the beard of the old man who refused to beat the dog who wouldn’t bite the cat who wouldn’t catch the rat who wouldn’t cut the bowstring of the hunter who wouldn’t shoot the pig who wouldn’t dig up the yams of the blacksmith’s wife who stole the egg. Water too was unwilling to help.

Not long afterwards, the dove met an elephant and asked if he would stir up the water which wouldn’t put out the fire which refused to burn the beard of the old man who wouldn’t . . .The elephant said: “No, not I.” Then the dove looked about and found a black ant, who also asked her what was troubling her.

“0h ant! I know you can help me. Will you go into the elephant’s trunk and bite him for not stirring up the water which wouldn’t put out the fire which wouldn’t burn the beard of the old man who wouldn’t beat the dog who wouldn’t bite the cat who wouldn’t catch the rat who wouldn’t cut the bowstring of the hunter who wouldn’t shoot the pig who wouldn’t dig up the yams of the blacksmith’s wife who stole my egg?”

“Why not? Here I go,” said the ant and crawled inside the elephant’s trunk and bit it in the softest place, very hard. This made the elephant dash into the pool of water and stir it up. The water splashed and began to put out the fire, which went mad and burned the white beard of the old man, who beat the dog, who ran after the cat and bit her. The cat caught the rat, who gnawed the bowstring of the hunter’s bow. The hunter tied on a new one and shot an arrow at the pig, who went and dug up all the yams of the blacksmith’s wife.

The blacksmith’s wife knew at once what she had to do and carefully put the dove’s egg back in the nest in the hollow of the big tree. That’s how the dove got her egg back. (Photo Max Pixel) –

Folktale from Malaysia

Political and social instability.

Tuesday, 1 November 2022 8:00

During the 60 years in which the country has made itself autonomous from the motherland, there was no lack of bitter suffering that has greatly afflicted the population, the cause of which is to be traced to the serious problems of a socio-economic nature: corruption, a weak administrative and judicial structure, high unemployment, inflation, and poor economic growth.

This situation, which has its roots in the years immediately following independence, was mainly provoked, exploited, and protected by the parties in perennial conflict with the PNP (People National Party) and the JLP (Jamaican Labour Party), which hired and funded, covering their trafficking in arms and drugs, the various heads of the Don-ruled areas, for the purpose of protection and sabotage against the rival party. A situation which, associated with the intertwining of a series of elements – including the restrictions on the admission of migrants from the Commonwealth introduced in 1973 by Great Britain (which as a result produced a significant increase in unemployment on the island since the Jamaicans look to their former motherland as a place to which to migrate and find a job) – produced a terrifying economic and social situation turning the island into one of the countries with the highest crime rate of all Caribbean areas, despite the fact that in those years the tourism industry was on the rise.

Kingston Central Bank.

The leadership of the government, in those years, was in the hands of Manley, who was one of the major protagonists of the Jamaican political scene. Manley took on a nationalist imprint, hostile to the US, accused, perhaps not wrongly, of exploiting the riches of the island, and very close to Fidel Castro’s Cuba. His work was characterized by a growing deficit in the trade balance and debt with foreign countries, as well as by strong conflicts with foreign investors and international creditors. This situation, in addition to determining the worsening of socio-economic conditions, led his government to adopt austerity measures whose effects aggravated the situation extremely, turning into serious unrest with hundreds of victims which determined the defeat of the nationalists in the 1980 elections. They were replaced by the liberals of the JLP led by E. Seaga who overturned the international equilibrium defined by his predecessor by engaging in the restoration of relations with the USA and in the breaking off of relations with Cuba.

View on Kingston Harbour in Jamaica is the seventh-largest natural harbour in the world. 123rf.com

From an economic point of view, it committed itself to the relaunch of foreign investments and the implementation of a privatization policy with an increase in incoming foreign capital. This, however, did not produce much change since even the liberals, as demonstrated by their intertwining with local gangs, were no different from their predecessors. Furthermore, Seaga also had to deal with the serious international economic situation that determined the collapse of the demand for bauxite and aluminium, two important drivers of the Jamaican economy, and with the violent hurricane that hit the island in 1988, inflicting a severe blow also to agricultural production.
In the years that followed there were no particular improvements; on the contrary, the growth of the external debt under the Manley government, which returned to power in 1989, caused new austerity measures to be imposed by the International Monetary Fund. Manley, however, assumed a different posture than in the past and, more specifically, in the international arena he maintained relations with the United States and other Western partners as well as forging economic pacts with Caribbean countries. However, this did not lead to an improvement in the situation even with the governments that came after him, while organized crime continued to play an increasingly predominant role.

The Prime Minister of Jamaica, Andrew Michael Holness. (Photo. Gov. Media)

In those years, in fact, Jamaica was an important cocaine hub that caused frequent episodes of violence that contributed to the impoverishment of part of the Jamaican population. This resulted in a ferocious gang war that took place on the streets of Kingston from the mid-1990s onwards. During these events, the Jamaican police forces themselves were accused of complicity.
Even today in Jamaica there are numerous gangs that maintain control of drug trafficking and entire areas of the city. In Kingston, in fact, the areas of Tivoli Gardens, Trench Town and Denham Town, as well as the entire neighbouring city of Spanish Town, are under the iron control of local gangs that impose bribes and laws to the utter indifference of the state. The phenomenon, known as ‘garrison’, which means outpost or presidium, has made the capital Kingston a city that, although marvellous for its naturalistic beauties, holds the sad record of being among the twenty most dangerous cities in the world and with the highest percentage of homicides per capita: 60 homicides for every 100,000 residents, a very high rate if we consider the reintroduction, in 2008, of the death penalty by hanging. (Kingston. The Jamaican Parliament.Photo Gov. Media)

(F.R.)

FIFA World Cup/Africa. Dreaming Qatar.

Tuesday, 1 November 2022 8:00

Cameroon, Morocco, Tunisia, Ghana, and Senegal will represent Africa in Qatar for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. They will be led by a local coach. For the first time a Rwandese woman referee has been named to officiate at the men’s World Cup.

The Indomitable Lions will make their eighth World Cup appearance in Qatar. Cameroon first appeared in a World Cup in 1982 but lost all three matches in Spain. Eight years later they were a surprise team in Italy, beating Argentina (1 – 0) in the opening game and going on to reach the quarterfinals. Roger Milla dancing pitch side in celebration of his goals became a totem of football history. Cameroon have not won a match at the World Cup since 2002, when they defeated Saudi Arabia in Japan. This year, they qualified after beating Cote D’Ivoire 1 – 0.

Vincent Aboubakar will be joined in attack by Karl Toko Ekambi, who has scored 11 goals in 49 appearances with the national team. The Britain-based duo Oliver Ntcham and Bryan Mbeumo want to impress in the tournament. In Group G, the Indomitable Lions face Brazil, Serbia, and Switzerland. The coach: Rigobert Song.
Ghana. The Black Stars return to the World Cup after missing out in 2018. Ghana won their qualification by the narrowest of margins. They held on to a crucial 1-1 draw at Nigeria and qualified for the 2022 World Cup on away goals. This Ghana team does not have the big talents of Asamoah Gyan and Sulley Muntari, but it has Thomas Partey. The Arsenal midfielder is the team’s sole world-class star.
Ghana’s national football team captain Andre Ayew is confident that the Black Stars will be a tough team to beat at the 2022 FIFA World Cup. He said: “We have a chance. Nobody sees us as favourites, which is expected. So, we know we’re not going into any of the matches as favourites but we’re there to fight and make an impact. No doubt it will be a very difficult group for every team and all we have to do is be ready, focused, determined, full squad and have a bit of luck”. The Group H includes Portugal, South Korea, and Uruguay. The coach: Otoo Addo.

Moroccan international football star Achraf Hakimi. (Photo: Morocco World News)

Morocco. One of Africa’s most frequent representatives at the finals. The Atlas Lions will return for their sixth World Cup appearance with the hopes of reaching Round 16 for the first time since 1986. The Atlas Lions have a lot of confidence in their strikers Ayoub El Kaabi and Ryan Mmaee; the attackers struck nine goals between them. However, the most important player will be Achraf Hakimi. He plays for French Ligue 1 club Paris Saint-Germain. The opening match on 23 November against Croatia is vital. They must gain at least a point if they want to go ahead. The Group F include Belgium and Canada. Walid Regragui is the head coach.
Senegal. Much hope surrounds the Teranga Lions to reach the latter stages of the tournament. The first appearance was in the 2002 edition held in Japan and South Korea. In the opening match they beat France 1 – 0, the goal scored by Papa Bouba Diop. Then they drew with Denmark and Uruguay and beat Sweden 2-1 to reach the quarterfinals, before being eliminated 1-0 by Turkey after a golden goal in the fourth minute of extra time. In 2018, they returned to the World Cup in Russia.

Senegal National Team (Twitter @Papy_Mendy)

The coach, Aliou Cissé has built his team around Sadio Mane who plays as a forward for Bundesliga club Bayern Munich. He is known for his pressing, dribbling, and speed. Also Kalidou Koulibaly, who plays as centre-back for Premier League club Chelsea. Additionally, goalkeeper Edouard Mendy who plays for Premier League club Chelsea. The Group A includes Qatar, Ecuador, Netherlands.
Tunisia. For the Carthage Eagles this will be the sixth appearance at the World Cup. They made their debut in 1978, in Argentina, where they defeated Mexico 3-1 in their first game, thus becoming the first African team to be victorious at the World Cup.
Then again in 1998, 2002 and 2006. In Russia 2018, they won against Panama, but they lost to Belgium and England.
They qualified for the World Cup in Qatar by beating Mali 1 – 0. Wahbi Khazri and Youssef Msakni will lead the attack. The group D includes France, Denmark, and Australia. The coach: Jalel Kadri.

Referee Salima Rhadia Mukansanga of Rwanda. (Photo: Skysports)

African referee
Rwanda referee Salima Mukansanga will be among three women referees named by the world governing body FIFA to officiate at the men’s World Cup. The 33-year-old, Mukansanga has been listed in the final list which includes other women referees, Stephanie Frappart from France and Japan’s Yoshimi Yamashita. Also on the list are three women assistant referees – Neuza Back from Brazil, Mexico’s Karen Diaz Medina, and American Kathryn Nesbitt.
“I’m really happy because it is a big achievement and honour. It’s a privilege, it’s a first step for women – that we have made as women”, said Mukansanga
At the World Cup, there will be 36 referees, 69 assistant referees and 24 video match officials (VMOs). (J.M.)

Egypt’s challenges.

Tuesday, 1 November 2022 8:00

In recent years, Egyptians seemed to have become resigned to their country’s social, economic, and political trajectory. Under President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the country has undergone massive aesthetic changes through an infrastructure overhaul and experienced bursts of economic revival amid a widespread malaise regarding
social and political issues.

For much of the past decade, Egyptians have been a society traumatized by the seismic political shifts between 2011-13, and were broadly accepting of the proposition made in 2013 through the military ouster of President Mohamed Morsi, consenting to the forfeiture of political rights and social development in the hope of peace and stability,
in whatever form it came.

Today, however, the calculation has changed. While Egyptians initially welcomed the new infrastructure that would ease daily commutes and travel within the country, the overhaul is decimating the country’s cultural heritage, most notably in its sprawling capital, Cairo.
That decimation has led to the questioning of the regime’s response to almost any issue with bricks and mortar—or in Egypt’s case,
with steel and concrete.

Nondescript buildings in identical “new” cities connected via multilane highways have severely damaged Egypt’s cultural identity and traditional architecture. A new form of cultural identity is being manufactured, as the well-known chaos of Cairo collides with urban planning suggestive of a second-rate attempt to mimic modern cities in the Gulf states. Around the Great Pyramid of Giza stretches of highways remove any sense of urban living among the pharaohs.

Meanwhile, as many elites have spent much of the last ten years relocating to satellite cities that afford the luxury of green spaces and large villas, new highways further cut them off from Cairo’s middle class and poor, as they traverse highways around the city, without ever actually entering it, or watch from the new bridges that weave among the city’s high-rise buildings.

Down below, the things that have always made Cairo the “City Victorious” are slowly being erased. Colourful Nile houseboats have been the latest victims of development. Despite a weeks-long global campaign effort to save them, the houseboats were hauled off and destroyed earlier this summer, leaving their residents – some of whom had been born on the boats and lived on them for decades – to fend for themselves, with little recourse to compensation from the state.

Proclaiming that the “Nile is for everyone,” the government now seeks to replace the boats with restaurants and cafés. That kind of eradication has already occurred across most of Cairo’s green spaces. Roundabouts and small parks have been replaced with parking spaces or kiosks for food and goods to accommodate drivers.

The Nile redevelopment has resulted in thousands of residents being forcibly displaced to make way for high-rise apartment buildings that they cannot afford. Citizens evicted from Cairo’s slum areas have been rehoused in characterless state-subsidized housing on the outskirts of the city, removing them from their neighbourhoods, taking away their livelihoods, and effectively erasing them from public spaces and sight.

Cairo is not the only city subject to this strange new reality. In Alexandria – Egypt’s second-largest city – the Corniche and surrounding areas have been destroyed to make way for larger, wider highways that connect the city, and bridges are being built on the beach itself. As in Cairo, the regime is redesigning the Corniche walkway – in Cairo along the Nile, in Alexandria along the Mediterranean coastline – and will charge citizens to access public spaces.

These are examples of the broader state agenda and the regime’s erasure of the past. For many, this agenda was evident early on with the 2020 redesign of Cairo’s iconic Tahrir Square and the banning of gatherings there, signs of the revisionist history that has sought to remove opportunity and hope from Egyptians by removing the symbol of its 2011 uprising. In the years since the Arab Spring, the redesign has been on a scale that arguably seeks to change citizens’ relationship with the state, and with their own identity.

El-Sisi has regularly deployed negative and disparaging language to signify his frustration with the population. In various speeches since 2013, the president has described Egyptians as lazy, wasteful, entitled, selfish, and unappreciative.
It is somewhat ironic, then, that after years of deriding the people, shoring up power within the institutions, and weakening the remaining ones that are there to represent the people, el-Sisi is now exhorting Egyptians to support his efforts to revive the economy, and – within regime limits – to engage more, politically and socially.

In 2019 Egypt was successfully riding an economic revival without precedent since 2010. As with many countries, in the Global North and South alike, the pandemic halted major development plans and growth, and the economic recovery has been further affected by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Put simply, the country is broken.

After years of supporting an economic model that pitted the military apparatus against domestic and foreign business entities and investors, el-Sisi has found the model unsustainable.
Now, imploring the business elite to work with him and promising to listen to their demands and advice, the president seeks new constituencies and support to soften the blow as the military may be forced to loosen at least part of its grip on Egypt’s economy.

That also entails weakening the almost decade-long crackdown and erasure of political rights in the country. With the renewal of talks with the International Monetary Fund over yet another bailout, and the knowledge that this one will damage his reputation due to its severe conditions, namely a significant currency devaluation being demanded by the IMF and other lending states (including Gulf partners), el-Sisi has begun a course of political engagement with opposition figures and known civic actors.

This should by no means be seen as a form of course correction or the opening of politics in the country but rather as an attempt to weaken expected opposition in the coming months. With an eye on the 2024 presidential election, el-Sisi has decided that divestment of lucrative state and military investments requires broader buy-in, at least temporarily, by larger constituencies.

Opposition leaders are arguably right in choosing not to trust the president’s promises or his commitments, and instead demanding acts of good faith – most notably, the release of political prisoners – and debate on the most contentious issues: elections
and political participation.

While the regime may feel it beneficial to stoke disagreements within the Civil Democratic Movement, the opposition has remained firmly united and committed to achieving small but important goals. As such, el-Sisi is finding it difficult to engineer the process. Although the regime is committed to certain procedures – yet never eager to see them through – the media scrutiny at home and international focus abroad on the national dialogue has painted the establishment into a corner. It is struggling to find compromises it can absorb, ones that can both silence its detractors and repair the reputational damage.

Meanwhile, the country is battling a femicide epidemic that has brought violence against women to the forefront of social discussions. After a longstanding fight to prevent the question of women’s rights being elevated to a contentious social issue, amendments to the Personal Status Law now sit at Parliament’s door under the watchful eye of a mobilized women’s movement.

These were presented by some of the most ardent state actors, who demanded the president approve changes that, once enacted, are believed could change the landscape for women in Egypt. All this happens as the country faces climate challenges, including shock weather events like floods and drought, that have not been a part of the political, social, or economic calculation until recently.

Despite the numerous challenges, el-Sisi and his regime have remained confident of Egypt’s social cohesion. The country has always been seen by its citizens and outside observers as too homogenous for major rupture, rifts, or worse, conflict. Despite the periodic rise of militant extremism, and even amid continued structural sectarianism and marginalization of a large Christian minority, Egypt has remained comparatively cohesive, with social fractures labelled “interruptions” rather than embedded unconscious biases.

As the economic situation worsens, with few to no political rights, a stifled media, and persistent brutal crackdowns on youth and youth culture, however, there is significant evidence that no matter the current solutions the regime provides, the situation will become unsustainable.

Egypt’s challenges are many, some of them undeniably of its own making. The social fabric is now battling a number of crucial and emerging issues – climate change, the national redesign, Egyptian women’s fight for freedom and accountability – and those more traditional markers: the economy, civil society mobilisation, demands for political organizing, and demographics. The resolute and fearless leadership needed to address these challenges simultaneously is unlikely to be found in the current regime.

There is neither the desire to empower Egyptian citizens nor the confidence in sustainable policies being able to secure and uphold the regime. While small changes here and there may give the impression of growth, and minor solutions to specific problems may indeed provide some respite, the larger, more existential challenges will remain, with continued diminishing confidence that the regime will seek to empower positive change and implement long-term sustainable growth for its population. (Photo: 123rf.com)

Hafsa Halawa/ISPI

World Youth Day. Pope Francis: “All together in Lisbon! A new beginning for the young and for humanity”.

Tuesday, 1 November 2022 8:00

“I hope and I firmly believe that the experience many of you will have in Lisbon next August will represent a new beginning for you, the young, and – with you – for humanity as a whole”.

The World Youth Day will be celebrated in particular Churches on November 20 next and at international level from August 1 to 6, 2023 in Lisbon with the theme “Mary arose and went with haste” (Lk 1:39).

Pope Francis comments: “In these troubling times, when our human family, already tested by the trauma of the pandemic, is racked by the tragedy of war, Mary shows to all of us, and especially to you, young people like herself, the path of proximity and encounter”.

Francis writes in the Message for the XXXVII World Youth Day, which highlights a verb in particular – to arise – whose meaning includes that of “waking up to the life all around us.” After the Annunciation, “Mary could have focused on herself and her own worries and fears about her new condition. Instead – points out the Pope – she arises and sets out, for she is certain that God’s plan is the best plan for her life.”

Thus “Mary becomes a temple of God, an image of the pilgrim Church, a Church that goes forth for service, a Church that brings the good news to all!”. Mary in particular “is a model for young people on the move, who refuse to stand in front of a mirror to contemplate themselves or to get caught up in the “net”.

Mary’s focus is always directed outwards. She is the woman of Easter, in a permanent state of exodus, going forth from herself towards that great Other who is God and towards others, her brothers and sisters, especially those in greatest need.” “Each of you can ask: ‘How do I react to the needs that I see all around me? Do I think immediately of some reason not to get involved? Or do I show interest and willingness to help?”, is Francis’ question to young people.

“To be sure, you cannot resolve all the problems of the world – comments the Pope – Yet you can begin with the problems of those closest to you, with the needs of your own community”, following the example of Mother Teresa.”

Francis points out: “How many people in our world look forward to a visit from someone who is concerned about them! How many of the elderly, the sick, the imprisoned and refugees have need of a look of sympathy, a visit from a brother or sister who scales the walls of indifference! What kinds of “haste” do you have, dear young people?”

“What leads you to feel a need to get up and go, lest you end up standing still? Many people – in the wake of realities like the pandemic, war, forced migration, poverty, violence and climate disasters – are asking themselves: Why is this happening to me? Why me? And why now? But the real question in life is instead: for whom am I living? The haste of the young woman of Nazareth is the haste of those capable of putting other people’s needs above their own.”

Francis goes on to note: “How many testimonies have we heard from people who were “visited” by Mary, the Mother of Jesus and our Mother! In how many far-off places of the earth, in every age – through apparitions and special graces – has Mary visited her people! There is practically no place on earth that she has not visited.”

A “healthy haste”, points out the Pope, “drives us always upwards and towards others.” Yet there is also an “unhealthy haste, which can drive us to live superficially and to take everything lightly. Without commitment or concern, without investing ourselves in what we do. It is the haste of those who live, study, work and socialize without any real personal investment.”

“This can happen in interpersonal relationships – argues the Pope -. In families, when we never stop to listen and spend time with others. In friendships, when we expect our friends to keep us entertained and fulfil our needs, but immediately look the other way if we see that they are troubled and need our time and help. Even among couples in love, few have the patience to really get to know and understand each other. We can have the same attitude in school, at work and in other areas of our daily lives. When things are done in haste, they tend not to be fruitful. They risk remaining barren and lifeless.”

Finally, Francis returns to highlight the importance of dialogue between generations: “to bridge distances – between generations, social classes, ethnic and other groups – and even put an end to wars.”

“It is no coincidence that war is returning to Europe at a time when the generation that experienced it in the last century is dying out,” is the Pope’s analysis: “We need the covenant between young and old, lest we forget the lessons of history; we need to overcome all the forms of polarization and extremism present in today’s world.”

Father Albert Nolan. The Challenge of the Gospel.

Tuesday, 1 November 2022 8:00

Anti-apartheid activist and internationally renowned theologian, Father Albert Nolan, died in the early hours of October 17. “You have to take sides”.

Many will remember him as a hero of the struggle against apartheid, a humble Dominican priest and theologian awarded the national Order of Luthuli by President Thabo Mbeki in 2003. Many more will know his name and have read his 1976 best-seller Jesus Before Christianity about the historical Jesus. I will remember him as an inspiration and spiritual guide when I was Southern Africa Desk Officer at the Catholic Institute of International Relations (CIIR) during the 1980s when both civic resistance and state repression peaked in South Africa.

Albert, despite a traditional academic training in the Angelicum, the Dominican Pontifical University in Rome, believed that theology should be open to everyone, that it should come from the grassroots and be about discovering where and how to find God in an unjust world. He was later to put his religious journalism into practice as the editor of Challenge, a popular Catholic paper in South Africa. When Albert was Provincial for Southern Africa, the Johannesburg Dominicans abandoned their priory in a posh part of town, so the where of theology was a decrepit building in the ill-named Mayfair, home to down-and-out whites and surprisingly multi-racial. The estate agent couldn’t believe his luck when he was given a description of the building the Dominicans were looking for and got rid of an unsaleable property. And the how was by integrating faith with political commitment.
Albert Nolan chose the right religious name (he was baptised Dennis); like St. Albert the Great, teacher of St. Thomas Aquinas, he was an inspiring teacher and mentor.
YCS and YCW chaplain at the largely Afrikaans University of Stellenbosch, he became National Chaplain of the Catholic Federation of Students in 1973. As well as listening and responding to youth seeking how to live in an unjust and divided society – ‘you have to take sides’ was his advice – he was able to compare notes with his counterpart in Peru, fellow priest Gustavo Gutierrez, the father of Liberation Theology and later a Dominican.Leading up to and into the State of Emergency in South Africa (1985-1990), a time of massive repression and of mass resistance by the United Democratic Front drawing together African National Congress (ANC) front-organisations, church institutions and independent civic bodies, Albert nurtured a group of young Catholics committed
to the liberation struggle.

Hector Pieterson Memorial Site, Soweto, Johannesburg. Photo: 123rf.com

By listening to their difficulties, their fears of imminent arrest, their doubts about having children, their problems in handling the violence both of the state and anarchic youth, he was able to encourage a spirituality that both discerned the signs of the times and helped them develop a moral framework within which they could actively resist apartheid. At the Mayfair Priory praying the Magnificat was almost a bidding prayer as each in their different ways was in the business of ‘pulling down the mighty from their thrones’.
For Albert apartheid was ‘sin made visible’. I can hear him saying it now in his strong Cape Town accent. I can also hear his gentle humour coming through hair-raising stories of things nearly going wrong. He was a wonderful companion and pastor. In 1983 he was elected Master-General of the Dominican Order by his confrères.
His response was to request that he be allowed to decline so that he could remain in South Africa and fulfil his commitment there. This was put to the vote and agreed so that he had the shortest time in office of any Dominican Master-General.
At the time of his election Albert was working in the Johannesburg Institute for Contextual Theology (ICT) begun in 1981, a small ecumenical group that included Rev. Frank Chikane, later the general-secretary of the South African Council of Churches who became President Mbeki’s Chef de Cabinet. The name Contextual Theology did little to protect it from the repression which was certain had it been called the Institute for Liberation Theology. In June 1985 ICT published and distributed the Kairos document, a radical biblical and theological comment on the political crisis in South Africa and a challenge to the Churches to take sides, signed initially by over 150 mainly black Christians. The South African National Security State was taken completely unawares. Many more signatures followed publication and as the document was read out in township churches there was a palpable sense that congregations felt ‘this is what we believe’.

Sweden concluded that leaving support for the ANC solely in the hands of the Communist Party of Soviet Union and the East German Stasi bode ill for the future and was secretly getting money into South Africa to boost non-violent forms of resistance. Much the same group as the ICT, including Albert and the great Dutch Reformed Church dissident pastor, Rev. Beyers Naudé, performed the invaluable and unusual role within South Africa of guiding this funding of the internal movement of the ANC whose base was outside South Africa in Lusaka, Zambia and to a lesser degree in Maputo, Mozambique. For example one of the major requests of the ‘Christian ANC’ group was funding to strengthen leadership amongst black youth. At the time arrests of youths for ‘necklacing’, that is killing suspected collaborators with flaming tyres around the neck, was decapitating the youth movement and creating anarchy in the townships.Albert saw the movement against apartheid bringing together the different races and Christian denominations as a glimpse of the ‘kingdom of heaven’. He saw no conflict between faith and political commitment and there was something beautiful about the way he and those around him lived out that integrated vision. We should learn from him. (Photo: Babelio – 123rf.com)

Ian Linden
Professor at St Mary’s University,
Strawberry Hill, London.

Kenya Elections 2022: What’s Next?

Tuesday, 1 November 2022 8:00

Can William Ruto, the new Kenya president, provide the change that Kenyans are demanding?

The General Election took place in Kenya on August 9^th and William Ruto of the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) was sworn in as the country’s fifth President on September 13^th. In a very closely contested ballot Mr. Ruto just passed the legal threshold of 50% plus one vote, acquiring 50.49% of the 14 million votes cast while Raila Odinga of the Azimio coalition garnered 48.85%.
Mr. Odinga rejected the results announced by the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) on August 16^th and presented a detailed petition to the Supreme Court to overturn the results. The Supreme Court listened to the pleadings of all parties but ruled on September 5^th that Mr. Ruto had been legally and fairly elected.
This paved the way for the swearing in ceremony that was attended by several heads of state.Neither the ballot nor the eventual result made world headlines. Perhaps that was mainly due to the fact that the campaigns and election itself went off rather quietly and with a fair degree of professionalism and efficiency.

The December 2007 vote 1,133 Kenyans lost their lives and 600,000 more were displaced.

Peaceful elections and orderly transitions in Africa generally don’t make headline news. You almost sense the disappointment of the global media outlets when there is not much to report apart from announcing the winners and losers. Journalists and camera men have long been accustomed to expect protests, violence and the aftermath destruction for their audiences around the world.
There were however some grounds for suspecting that this election might also bring conflict and mayhem. The only Presidential election that passed off peacefully in Kenya since the advent of multi-party politics in 1992 was the 2002 election won by Mwai Kibaki with a convincing victory of 62%. All other ballots were more closely contested and regularly resulted in the displacement of thousands and widespread loss of life.In the aftermath of the December 2007 vote 1,133 Kenyans lost their lives and 600,000 more were displaced. The 2017 ballot was annulled by the Supreme Court and the repeat vote was boycotted by Raila Odinga who was subsequently sworn in as the ‘People’s President’ in a symbolic ceremony that had no legal binding. But tension disrupted the country for half a year until Mr. Odinga made peace with President Kenyatta in a surprise move in March 2018.

Eight of the twenty-two million registered voters did not cast their vote.

Mindful of previous elections, then the 2022 ballot must be considered a major development in terms of entrenching democracy and respect for the country’s institutions. The Electoral Commission by all accounts performed its task with diligence and credibility and the Judiciary had the final say in a ruling that was respected if not accepted by all parties. Kenyans went back to work and life resumed with the loss of seven lives during the whole election period.
In the end, Kenyans accepted the results with as much relief as excitement. For those who were more inquiring there was much to debate long after the swearing in, but for the majority they were much more concerned about taking care of their families at a time when inflation was running at 10%.
One noticeable feature that does deserve attention was the fact that eight of the twenty-two million registered voters did not bother to cast their vote. The voter turnout was 65% which by global standards was extremely high. However, bear in mind that the turnout in 2017 was 79.5% and 85.9% in 2013, and there is reason to take note. That represents a 21% drop in voting patterns in nine years. More concerning still is that the youth vote 18-35 this year was less than 50%. Mr. Ruto who targeted the youth in his campaign manifesto and who presented himself as the rebel against the deep state did not convince the young people that change was coming under his leadership.

Observers of election trends in the larger continent, however, are also beginning to express concern about the ability of the democratic process to bring change. In the recent presidential elections in Angola the turnout was a miserable 45.65%. Voters are becoming more enlightened and informed and discovering that elections rarely bring the type of change in leadership and services that they need and demand. Put another way, the public are saying that one cannot eat democracy.
There is not just growing mistrust in the democracy project as in the current political class. Not just in Kenya but all over the continent politics has been captured by small, powerful and well-endowed elites and there is little opportunity for new parties or policies to emerge. This is manifested mostly in the corruption pandemic.
In Kenya, according to outgoing President Uhuru Kenyatta, two billion shillings ($20million) is looted from the public coffers each day. The former Auditor General Edward Ooko once declared that 30% of the National Budget goes unaccounted for.

Kenya Parliament Buildings in the city centre of Nairobi. Kenyan MPs are among the highest paid legislators in the world. Photo: 123rf.com

Kenyan MPs are among the highest paid legislators in the world and politics is frequently seen as a refuge or sanctuary for individuals who have criminal cases pending in courts. In this year’s elections there were several candidates facing murder charges in court, others with rape and defilement cases and dozens facing corruption charges. Is it any wonder then that the public have become more cynical about political life when service to the public has been replaced by benefits and contracts for dubious elected leaders.
Yet, Mr. Ruto’s campaign pledges were very much focused on changing and improving the lives of those at the bottom, in what he coined ‘bottoms up’ economics. His promises are in fact a rejection of the trickle-down economics which has disappointed and failed billions around the globe for decades.
Time will tell if Mr. Ruto can bring the changes that he promised and provide room at the decision-making table for the masses who feel excluded and are losing hope in a system that has not served them adequately in 60 years of independence. (Open Photo: Mr. William Ruto: Kenya’s new President. 123rf.com)

Gabriel Dolan

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