Word: arap
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...modest man who does not smoke or drink, Arap Moi was the flamboyant Kenyatta's somewhat faceless Vice President for eleven years before Jomo's death. Then, the conventional wisdom was that Kenya would be torn apart in a bloody tribal struggle for power, because no one in sight had anything like the following of the Mzee (Swahili for old man). But with the backing of the two most powerful Cabinet ministers belonging to the dominant Kikuyu tribe, Arap Moi was selected as the new President by the country's ruling party, the Kenya African National Union...
Many believed that Arap Moi would be controlled by Kenyatta's old cronies. Indeed he did retain nearly all of Kenyatta's ministers. Gradually, however, he began moving out on his own-literally. Casting himself as a circuit-riding populist, he visited villages throughout the country; in the past year, Arap Moi has logged more miles than Kenyatta did during all of his 15 years in power...
...Arap Moi also virtually eliminated the illegal killing of game and the smuggling of ivory and coffee long tolerated by Kenyatta. Says one villager from Jomo's home town of Gatundu: "Everyone likes the President because he has stopped the outlaws, the poachers and coffee smugglers. In Kenyatta's day, you could see a big man with a number of jobs. Nowadays it is one man, one job, and we are all equal...
...Arap Moi has also set about to diminish the power of Kenyatta's Kikuyu tribe, which, though it accounts for only 20% of the 15.5 million population, exercises near total control over Kenya's 40 other tribes. In last week's election many members of the tribe's political arm, the GEMA Party, were defeated; in Nairobi only three of the eight M.P.s affiliated with the tribal party were reelected...
...Kenya's chief executive, Arap Moi faces many unsolved problems. Housing is poor: in some cities, families crowd into a single room with no toilet or kitchen and pay $60 a month for the privilege. Jobs are scarce, inflation is running at 11%, and Kenya's export earnings are down as a result of a drastic drop in world prices for coffee and tea over the past two years. At the same time, Kenya's population is expected to double by the end of the century, which may make it impossible to raise living standards...