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Kenya: Good Friends Are Hard to Find
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13700 |
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CURRENT ISSUES
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8 / 1988 |
2,628 Words |
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William Pascoe
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To look at U.S. policy toward Africa today, one might think that Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis had already won the November presidential election and had emplaced his own people and policies. In some measure, this is due to the relatively low priority accorded to Africa in any administration and to the natural continuity in policies that therefore flows from administration to administration; but it is also a direct result of the stepped-up offensive against longtime U.S. friends and allies in Africa, led by congressional and media liberals. Emboldened by their successes in mandating wide-ranging economic and diplomatic sanctions against South Africa over the president's veto two years ago, they have moved in for the kill, using the banner of "human rights abuses" to seek a cutoff of U.S. assistance to key U.S. allies in Africa.
One such ally under attack is Kenya, the former British colony on the east coast of Africa. Kenya's 25-year commitment to a free market economy (and the relative prosperity that has come to Kenya with it, in the midst of economic turmoil all throughout Africa) and geopolitical alliance with the West have made it a target of the international Left for decades.
Most recently, the attacks on Kenya have been threefold: External military aggression by the Libyan-backed Ugandan regime; internal subversion by a dissident group known as Mwakenya; and political attacks by self-styled human rights monitors such as Amnesty International.
Simultaneously, Kenya faces clouds on its economic horizon. The Kenyan economy, which has performed sluggishly over the past few years, will be hard pressed to grow enough to provide jobs for the 300,000 Kenyans who enter the work force every year. Western tourism, one of the mainstays of the Kenyan economy, may be deterred in coming years by fear of the deadly disease AIDS, which has hit Kenya hard.
While the government of Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi is strong enough to withstand these threats at their current level, a continuation or intensification of the attacks could lead to political instability in Kenya, which would harm Kenyan and U.S. interests. Accordingly, both governments should take early precautionary measures to stem these problems as quickly as possible.
Kenya's early years
Kenya gained independence from Great Britain in December 1963. The nation's first prime minister, Jomo Kenyatta, made an important decision soon thereafter that would redound to Kenya's benefit decades later; instead of adopting a state socialist economic policy, as the vast majority of the newly independent African states were doing, Kenyatta opted to continue Kenya's free market ways. There would be no large-scale nationalizations, confiscations of private property, or centralized development schemes for Kenya.
Instead, Kenyatta's slogan was harambee, or "self-help." Communities and individuals were urged to do just that. Where other African governments spent heavily on defense--building up the armed forces that so many leaders feel an egotistical need for--Kenyatta invested in agriculture. Instead of nationalizing all Western-owned businesses and driving out foreign capital, he left business in Western hands and actually encouraged new foreign investment. Instead of
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