Kenya Crisis: Colonialism Through Consent
By T.D. McDonough, 2008.

The corporate media has failed to question the wider context behind the events unfolding in the Republic of Kenya and the real interests of the global elite in maintaining auxiliary control. The corporate interests within the east African nation must be explored if we are to understand the real mechanisms at work beyond the failed election and the resultant turmoil.

Kenya has been a long-standing ‘client’ of the IMF and the World Bank, both of whom, despite their misleading titles, are corporate entities, not social organisations. As such the IMF and the World Bank have invested heavily in the country’s ‘economic reconstruction’ since the pseudo-emancipation from the British Empire in the 1950’s. Like all developing nations, the accrued debt coupled with the reliance on exterior assistance enables the dominant powers - the IMF, World Bank and their ‘investors’, in this case - to maintain influence, even to exert control, over the ‘client’ country. This also includes the subservience and loyalty of elected officials.

However, in 2006 the Chinese government approved a request by CNOOC Ltd, a state-owned energy conglomerate, to begin oil explorations in the region, including the coastal regions of Kenya. This follows China’s long-standing interests in east Africa, or as one commentator in Nigeria observes: ‘the Chinese seem to have started where the Europeans left [off]‘.

China’s been deeply involved in east Africa, both ideologically and economically, since the 1960’s and the recent development is simply an extension of a long term plan to hegemonise, then colonise, East Africa, much like the Western nations did in the latter centuries, although the Chinese have pursued a strategy of coercion and investment, rather than unlimited force and aggression.

So, the full image begins to emerge: Kenya is the site of contention of two of the world’s dominant powers. The ‘current’ President Mwai Kibaki is friendly to western interests mainly due to his unwavering subservience to the IMF and the World Bank. Kibaki has passed numerous constitutional reforms in the past decade including privatisation laws, the redistribution of ‘idle’ land and reforms to the economy allowing for easier foreign investment. Kibaki proposed a new constitution in 2005 but received a resounding ‘no’ from the electorate.

The current dispute in Kenya is due to wide-spread allegations of corruption within the voting system. By all accounts, the opposition party, the ODM, was ahead in the votes until the final stages, when Kibaki’s PNU raced across the finish line. The country was soon plunged into chaos.

Tensions have been rising in Kenya over the last few years and the Western and Eastern powers have been well aware of this fact. But, chaos is King, especially when profit and potential oil reserves are at stake. By maintaining Kibaki’s presidency the Western powers can maintain their influence and safeguard against the expansion of China’s burgeoning African empire; or, alternatively, if the situation becomes even more extreme they can intervene directly and secure their interests through NATO and the UNThat is, unless the people organise themselves and take the path of revolution, which is, sadly, very unlikely. It seems that Kenya will remain an ideological battlefield for some time.

Its yet another sickly dose of reality: the realisation that the people of Kenya will never receive any legitimate assistance; by all accounts they are trapped between the jaws of a lion and the claws of a dragon, with either path leading to further exploitation and even more death. Mark these words: “there be oil in Kenya!” Expect the announcement before the close of 2008.

As always, the corporate media has failed to inform the public. The news channels have instead opted for sensationalist claims, such as ‘genocide’ (ITV News), ‘rape’ and ‘pillage’ (Sky/Fox News) and even ‘tribal warfare’ or ‘another Rwanda’ (BBC News 24). This couldn’t be further from the truth. Although the tribal differences in Kenya are being exploited, the violence in Kenya has western corporate sponsorship, whose aim is to withstand a Chinese takeover - let the facts be known and the truth will soon follow.