The Art Of Carrot Dangling In Kenya Politics By Establishing New Districts: Kibaki Goes Overboard Creating 37 New Ones

In a desperate bid to endear himself to voters, president Kibaki has resorted to the same tactics used by his predecessor ahead of elections to woo Kenyans on his side.

During the referendum vote two years ago, the government used similar tactics of pledging to build bridges even where rivers did not exist but they failed miserably and do not seem to have learnt much from the lesson.

Politics in Kenya is deeply based on ethnicity and even if Kibaki delivers heaven to majority of Kenyans, he is still bound to lose the election mainly because of the widespread tribalism which is deeply entrenched in his administration.

The likes of Raila Odinga and Kalonzo Musyoka are tribal chiefs who enjoy fanatical support from their communities which has encouraged them to seek support from other tribes to enable them rule the country one day.

If Kibaki was serious about being re-elected, he should have first addressed the tribal imbalance in the civil service and parastatal organizations where his Kikuyu tribesmen are the majority at the expense of 41 other communities in Kenya.

It is also ironical that the minister who oversaw the creation of the new districts, John Michuki is on record as having gone to court in 2002 in a bid to stop the then president, Daniel Moi from creating new districts.

The imbalances in the provincial administration are so glaring that even the blind can see the favoritism that the Kibaki administration is practicing, for instance, 5 of the 8 provincial commissioners come from the mount Kenya region along with the most powerful cabinet ministers not to mention the head of the public service and secretary to the cabinet.

With the new districts, where most of them have been created in zones perceived to be supporting the government, Kibaki will get considerable amount of political mileage but not enough to enable him woo majority of Kenyans on his side.

The inauguration of the districts now awaits parliamentary approval and this will come to pass considering that most politicians are for the new districts which is a populist move by any standards but Kenyans are not as gullible as president Kibaki would like to believe.

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