Keown: Education fixes Kenyan elections

The more than 300 people dead after Kenya’s dubious election are making the headlines right now. What we are witnessing is not new, but the solution to it will need to be.

The immediate cause of the current bloodshed is the re-election of President Mwai Kibaki in an election where a joint U.K./ U.S. statement notes “serious irregularities” and the EU describes as having “fallen short of international standards.” The opposition leader, Raila Odinga, feels that he has been robbed by a rigged election. Such language from such typically diplomatic sources would suggest that he has a point.

Supporters of both sides are angry, and their anger has turned to violence. Kibaki accuses Odinga supporters of ethnic cleansing, and Odinga accuses Kibaki of genocide. Either way, people die.

The wider cause is that Kenya is no stranger to political corruption, and governments tend to do pretty well. The country has had only three presidents since independence from Britain. The first died in 1978, the second stepped down in 2002, and the third is Kibaki.

With an average income of less than $500 per person per year, it is not difficult for a government to fix an election.

A few ministerial visits to remote villages with food parcels or a wad of cash, and suddenly the impoverished people can think, “Heavens, our government is finally helping us, so we’ll vote for them.” The seemingly deliberate policy of keeping her people un or undereducated makes this easy for a smart government — and easy to understand the anger we are seeing.

This has enabled many of us to do nothing but say, “I would love to help Africa, but I’m not giving my money to somewhere corrupt.” But the truth is that we just don’t want to. If we wanted to, we could easily find a safe means to help. Indeed, Metro readers in December created such a way with www.onehomemanyhopes.org.

Today, if someone makes it from extreme poverty to government, it is because they have been picked. Rocking the boat guarantees them a return to where they started, and so they don’t.

But, if a generation can be raised from poverty to government through quality education, they will not be afraid to challenge the nepotism that leads to the carnage we are watching. They will have confidence and options. But to get there, they need us now.

Thomas Keown is a freelance writer living in Somerville.