>From: "KYMS Stockholm" <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: How IMF/World Bank Rules Kenya
>Date: Sun, 24 Oct 1999 06:06:17 PDT
>
>Network Africa
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>HARAKATI ISSUE NO. 6 (OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 1999)
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>CONTENTS:
>
>-HOW IMF AND WORLD BANK RULES KENYA
>-KENYA: THE POLITICS OF DEVIL WORSHIPPING AND THE TRUTH
>-SECRETIVE LUO ELITE GROUP IN EUROPE EXPOSED
>
>website: http://www.angelfire.com/ky/kyms/harakati4.html
>
>For an e-mail version of HARAKATI , send mail to: [log in to unmask]
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>KENYA: HOW IMF AND WORLD BANK RULES KENYA
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank are economic and
>political weapons used by American and British imperialism to gain economic
>and political control of ex-colonial countries across the world. The
>Bretton
>Woods institutions continue to wreck havoc in the lives of millions of poor
>Kenyans as the Moi Dictatorship becomes even more dependent on IMF/World
>Bank loans to maintain public services that have not yet collapsed due to
>corruption and mismanagement of the economy.
>
>Through the "Public Expenditure Review", the world Bank supervises the
>privatisation of State enterprises, the composition of public expenditure
>and the structure of public investments in Kenya. Agreements with the IMF
>helps in destroying Kenyan currency through devaluations, taking control of
>the Central Bank, dismissal of public employees and collapse of State
>investments. Since the IMF control development expenditure, it dictates how
>Kenya is to develop. Under the Public Investment Programme, all project
>loans are disbursed through an agreed system of "competitive bidding" which
>ensures that public works projects are undertaken through international
>engineering firms. The overall management of the aid package is put on the
>hands of international consultants who earn huge amounts of money even in
>fields in which they know nothing. Kenyans competent enough to work in
>these
>fields are denied opportunities while those in employment are retrenched
>through various "cost-cutting" programmes.
>
>Under the Civil Service Reform Medium Term Strategy, 1998-2001 supervised
>by
>the IMF/World Bank and British imperialism, 126, 127 teachers and civil
>servants will be retrenched or forced into early retirement with enormous
>consequences to the families of the affected workers. Britain has accepted
>to pay Ksh 13.72 billion (30% of the cost) towards the retrenchment plan
>while IMF will foot the balance. Out of the affected civil servants, 31,680
>will be sacked through abolition of office due to privatisation,
>contracting
>out of services and early retirement schemes. Unfortunately, the affected
>workers are unorganised and therefore unable to fight back. In return for
>the down sizing of the civil service, the IMF has accepted to review the
>Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility (Esaf) of 205 million dollars which
>was suspended in July 1997 due to corruption and mismanagement by the Moi
>dictatorship.
>
>As part of the privatisation programme, the Giant Kenya Posts and
>Telecommunication Corporation (KPTC) was split into Telcom Kenya and Postal
>Corporation of Kenya. Out of the 20,600 workers that were deployed to work
>for Telcom, 80% are faced with the prospect of losing their jobs because
>they are not involved in Telcom's "core business". As workers in the
>telecommunications sector are being retrenched, the cost of phone calls and
>postal services have all gone up, sparking public debate about the logic
>behind privatisation.
>
>Out of the 13,327 non academic staff employed in Kenya's public
>universities, 3,270 are facing retrenchment in the next two years. The
>first
>face of this retrenchment is expected to be complete by June next year. In
>January this year, Mr. Samson Akute, the Permanent Secretary in the
>Ministry
>of Public works, announced that 6,000 workers in the Ministry would be
>retrenched in 1999 thereby reducing the Ministry's work-force by 40%.
>Already, 7,000 workers from the same Ministry have been retrenched under
>the
>Early Retirement Scheme (Golden handshake).
>
>In almost all the privatisation schemes proposed by IMF, workers and the
>poor are the losers while big business are the winners. According to Mr.
>George Mitime, the Permanent secretary in charge of privatisations, the
>purpose of privatisations "was to give Kenyans what the government
>previously held in trusts". In reality, Kenyans have no capital to purchase
>State enterprises being privatised. What has happened is that the most
>profitable State corporations have all been taken over by foreign capital
>or
>joint ventures in exchange for debts from IMF and World Bank. Kenya Power
>and Lightning Company, a state enterprise that raked in Ksh 1.2 billion in
>profits last year, has been earmarked for privatisation. The highly
>profitable Kenya Airways has already been privatised while other
>institutions in the privatisation list are Kenya Re-insurance Corporation,
>Kenya Ports Authority and Kenya Railways. More than 52 State enterprises
>have been privatised. Liberalisation of capital movements as demanded by
>IMF
>enables multinational companies to freely repatriate profits in foreign
>exchange from privatised institutions.
>
>Using the politics of liberalisation, the IMF/World Bank has wrestled
>political and economic power out of the hands of the KANU State, opening
>the
>way for imperialist dictates, super-exploitation of Kenyans and the taking
>over of Kenya's economic planning. Clear evidence of how the Bretton Woods
>institutions rules Kenya through the back door was revealed recently when
>Dictator Moi was forced into appointing Dr. Richard Leaky, an imperialist
>ally, as Head of Public Service and Secretary to the Cabinet. Moi received
>the orders after he was summoned to Britain to meet IMF/World officials.
>Weeks later, the Dictator was forced into "down-sizing" his cabinet from 27
>Ministries to 15 as a condition for aid. Feeling embarrassed, the Dictaor
>rebuffed his superiors by obeying the orders but maintaining his Ministers
>in a cosmetic reshuffle that was widely condemned by the church and the
>opposition.
>
>KYMS is not just challenging the recolonisation of Kenya through IMF/World
>Bank but is also providing political explanations why the politics of
>economic aid should be abandoned in favour of a democratic planned economic
>system of government that will be free from foreign control and
>manipulation. Churches, Human Rights groups, Kenyan opposition and Kenyan
>organisations abroad have continued to appeal to IMF/World to help in the
>democratisation process of Kenya by writing to imperialist institutions to
>withhold aid to Dictator Moi's government. Numerous letters of appeal have
>been written to IMF and World Bank asking them to freeze loans as a way of
>forcing Moi to end corruption and human rights violations.
>
>This is clear evidence that organisations and groups backing "good
>governance" as a condition for loan agreements have not understood that
>trade liberalisation proposed by IMF/World Bank simply worsens the balance
>of payment crisis through the replacement of domestic production with cheap
>imports. The nature of economic reforms required under IMF agreements
>militates against democratisation because they dismantle social sectors and
>reverse progress made during the post colonial period, creating room for
>social explosions. Under IMF programmes, Kenyans have seen an increased
>level of urban and rural poverty and a reduced capacity of people to pay
>for
>health and educational services under the "cost sharing system" introduced
>by IMF. To maintain the austerity measures under the reform programme, an
>authoritarian dictatorship needs to be in place to suppress the struggles
>of
>sacked workers and to contain social movements seeking to change the
>situation. The IMF hides profits it makes from Kenya by constantly lending
>more thereby helping make Kenya's debt burden even heavier and to pillage
>the country's resources.
>
>KYMS believes that the IMF/World Bank programmes should be abolished
>because
>they are instruments of neo-colonialism, economic blackmail and terror
>against Kenyans. Through numerous strike actions in 1999 alone, the working
>class has shown that it is gaining the willingness to fight. Kenyans are
>looking for serious plans for action and with a national leadership
>prepared
>to spell out clearly what is to be done and how the struggle is to proceed.
>The masses have to be imbued with a new political spirit while the
>revolutionary wing of the opposition has to strengthen itself for a new
>political advance. It is this coming period that KYMS is preparing for.
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>The rest of the stories are available at KYMS website:
>
>For subscription of hard copy of HARAKATI, send mail to:
>
>Kenya Youth movement in Sweden (KYMS)
>Subscription Dept.,
>Box 374 123 03 Farsta, Sweden
>or send mail to: [log in to unmask]
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>http://www.angelfire.com/ky/kyms/harakati4.html
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