Word: moi
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Kenya's President Daniel arap Moi had vowed to hunt down proponents of multiparty democracy "like rats." Last week he caged some. Over two days, police arrested eleven men linked to the nascent movement to legalize opposition parties, which Moi, in power since 1978, officially banned in 1982. Among the detainees were former Cabinet ministers Kenneth Matiba and Charles Rubia...
Despite the arrests, the pressure on Moi is unlikely to subside. On Saturday thousands of demonstrators in Nairobi defied a government ban and held a rally calling for multiparty democracy. Police fired bullets and tear gas to disperse the protesters...
...Moi, who assumed the mantle of independence hero Jomo Kenyatta in 1978, justifies maintaining the monopoly of his Kenya African National Union -- codified by a 1982 constitutional amendment -- the standard way: a single party begets stability, which begets prosperity. True enough, ethnic tensions that have provoked violence in other parts of Africa have rarely disturbed Kenya's 27 years of independence, even though the country encompasses more than 40 major tribes. And Kenya has maintained economic growth in recent years % at 3% to 5% annually, up to twice the sub-Saharan average. "We are being asked to risk that which...
...government stops delivering good times, Kenyans may follow the recent pattern in a number of other African countries and begin to agitate for changes. In the past few years, Moi has given them more and more reason to chafe at his rule. Claiming to make the political system inherited from British colonizers more "indigenous," Moi has stripped the judiciary of its independence, cowed parliament, banned critical publications and fostered a personality cult. Discontent erupted in riots last February that were among the worst in recent years when the still unsolved murder of Foreign Minister Robert Ouko, whom some Kenyans suspect...
Though still confined to a small, urban elite, a movement for multiparty democracy has gained strength in the past three months. For the most part, Moi has tolerated the lively debate, but his security police have harassed those who have spoken out. Staring down Kenya's foreign benefactors, who supply nearly 30% of Nairobi's budget, will not be so easy. While in Washington recently, Ambassador Hempstone says, he was assured that aid to Africa would not be diluted for the moment -- but that he was right to be concerned...