The recent developments over the Migingo Island issue perhaps provides another chance to look at the anticipated political union in the East African region.
The five East African countries are preparing to go into a political federation in the year 2015. This means that they will have reconciled all differences for example relating to political power sharing, economic disparities and, maybe social and cultural diversities. Finally, a common currency among the five countries is inevitable.
On May 12, 2009 during an interview with BBC, Ugandan President and an ambitious candidate for the anticipated federation broke ranks with Kenya for the umpteenth time when he made remarks reminiscent of Iddi Amin’s reign in the same country years ago. Perhaps it would be of interest to learn that the former came to power through the barrel of the gun just like the latter.
And a breath of fire…
“The island is in Kenya, the water is in Uganda. But the Wajaluos (a Kenyan tribe) are mad, they want to fish here but this is Uganda. . . ”, said Museveni. By any standard of decorum and diplomacy, these remarks fell far too short of a head of state. Worse still, a neighbor, who counts on you for help. (For history’s sake, Uganda is landlocked).
However, there’s more than it meets the ear in Kaguta Museveni’s remarks. If a country has a difference with the other, reference should be made of the country as a whole and probably the leadership at a corporate level. For Museveni therefore to insinuate that a certain section of Kenyan community is insane based on its response to defend what it considers theirs is suggestive of a more choreographed political stance.
The Ugandan president, who finds a good friend in the Kenyan president Mwai Kibaki made the remarks on the same day the boundaries team set to carry out a survey on the ownership of the island was being commissioned in Nairobi. Two things came out very strongly. One is that the Ugandan president has already passed his verdict regarding the ownership of the island. It is Uganda’s. “One foot into the water and you’re in Uganda,” said Museveni.
Two is that the president does not have any intentions of relinquishing ownership of the island even if the final result vindicates Kenya of any attempts to own another country’s land and indeed the island is Kenyan. Nominated Member of Parliament Rachel Shebesh, while contributing to the Migingo Island debate in parliament called on the president to seek the intervention of the UN Security Council regarding the issue. Based on Museveni’s view, this is Vanity Fair.
However, what makes the debate of much interest is what the Turkana Central MP Ekwe Ethuro raised in the House during debate on the issue. His view is that the problem is not with the Ugandan President but rather with his Kenyan counterpart. The Kenyan president is seen to be hiding so much from the public. Some few weeks ago, former president Moi called on Kibaki to update the country on development regarding the Migingo Island. This was a time when the Kenyan and Ugandan presidents had just met in Kampala to discuss the same issue.
Suspicion, suspicion and suspicion
What stirs more debate now is not the noise from Uganda but rather the silence of Nairobi. There’s so much to be desired from Mwai Kibaki. Perhaps it is the silence of the responsible that kills the soul than the violence of the enemy. He swore to defend the constitution and sovereignty of the state by all measure. However what is coming out from State House leaves the country in suspense and serves to justify acts such as those witnessed in Kibera last month. Museveni seems not to have had any issue with Kenya but rather with a particular community-that of the Kenyan Prime Minister. Would it help to generate a healthy debate to learn that it is only Museveni who acknowledged Kibaki’s controversial re-election in 2007? Would it also not be of interest that the former rebel leader from Uganda does not enjoy a good relationship with the Kenyan Prime Minister? No, would it not elicit more debate and a discourse that the Migingo issue has been reduced into a PNU-ODM affair in Kenya and that the president being the PNU de facto leader does not want to speak out on this because the Migingo issue is a ploy to frustrate the Prime Minister?
It is embarrassing and disheartening that the Prime Minister has been raising the matter but the President, whom he shares power with, exudes a deafening silence.
These school of thought is likely to be contested by many but as Adolf Hitler of the infamous Holocaust put it , ‘In the big lie there’s always a sense of credibility,’ it is sad that this is the case. One thing which is common knowledge about Kenya is that any problem can be readily reduced into an ODM-PNU debate. It is the other community against the other. Museveni knows it well that Kenya may not after all address the fundamentals but instead use it as a 2012 variable.
It is no wonder that the northern corridor formerly the Northern Frontier District-North Eastern Province has been eyed by insurgents from the war torn Somalia. They too must have been following the Kenyan politics very keenly and seem to have established a point to infiltrate the Northern Border.
The current instability in the Horn of Africa portends a danger to Kenya. Given a president who employs a laid back approach and seems to have left everything for the wind, there is need to worry. Other disturbing developments such as sale of public land to unscrupulous business persons add credence to an argument for worry by the Kenyan citizenry.
Finally the rise of militia groups and high profile executions and assassination almost turning the country into a KGB Russia is another cause for a panic. The Ku Klax Clan execution style by Mungiki and a police force suspect of complacency and complicity is clearly suggestive of an ailing presidency devoid of responsibility and suspect of cover up.
To think of a political federation from a pessimist’s perspective therefore is justified given a leadership out to address selfish ambitions and at the cost of an expectant public. Perhaps other case studies such as Nigeria Vs Cameroon over the Bakassi Peninsula or Croatia Vs Slovenia over Bay of Piran can provide a sense of thought over Migingo Island and more lessons to Ugandan president on how not to be undiplomatic over such issues. The Migingo Island impasse also provides a healthy forum to the East African countries to interrogate the challenges and chart a safe route towards a political federation without which they shall be haunted by the cancer which dissipated the former East African Cooperation in 1977.
