Raila, Uhuru, Karua, Kalonzo; who should succeed Kibaki? Should their professions matter? May be the price of a bottle Tusker Provides the answer.

Back in January of 2003 in the height of the euphoria and pandemonium that hand brought Baba Jimmy to power, I remember passing through a bus terminus, my shoulders heavily laden with a big school bag. Excited touts sat in groups chatting and exchanging their views on what they thought Kenya would be under the chief economist. “ Ndutige wone muchuba ukugwa nginya ciringi bote” ( “wait and see a bottle of beer will now retail for forty shillings”, one of them was telling the rest. Back then as I was still young and did not know that brewed barley could be sweet I did not as so much care what the price of a bottle of beer was a much as the price of bread at the school canteen. I since finished high-school and recently finished an undergraduate programme in a local public university, allegedly only one on the equator in the world.

However I am none the wiser now, I take a few browns for the road and the price of beer is not ‘bote’ (forty shillings), in-fact it is ninety shillings. So the question that begs is if Kibaki the economist did not tame the runaway price of beer, of what profession should his successor come from? So let’s start with the likely candidates.

Raila

So apart from being a career politician, what profession is Raila? So they also say that Raila is an engineer, that he had a brief cameo as a University of Nairobi don is also commonly known rhetoric amongst many Kenyans. He could actually be a leftist. Could he lead the country into even greater heights? His is a language that most elites don’t understand the masses; very high on a drug called euphoria understands his language quite well. He might be good for the majority but certainly not good for business. He is apparently good for me, for if and when he becomes president, I will make a name for myself in politics for espousing what might be wrong with his presidency

Uhuru

Until the day of the budget I never knew that Uhuru was a political economist, sort of a discipline that happens when the discipline of political science and mainstream economics have a child together. Could he be good for the country? Apparently this is very hard to tell. Uhuru is not a man who has come out so strongly to stand for anything let’s say being pro-business or pro-poor. Uhuru continues to send indifferent signals to supporters and detractors alike. I would say he is still on the crucible. We could tell if he can between now and August 2012.

Ruto

He is a scientist, this fact is well known, he also abhors Artists, and I mean guys like me who studied Arts based courses for 4 years in university. He looks the Michuki type, he can makes things happen (please refer to his stints as Minister for Agriculture and Minister for higher education, ignore the maize scandal though). Though he has some good leadership qualities, his persona is a wee bit abrasive something that could turn out into fully blown despotism.

Karua and (Kalonzo in very small caps)

These have been paired together much mostly because they are lawyers. I don’t know whether Kalonzo remembers how it feels to wear the lawyerly wig, (I am not ignorant I just don’t know its name), Ok May be I should ask Kangethe. You can also lump any other lawyer who is viewing for president in this category.

Until recently Obama, a lawyer was derogatorily referred to as the lawyer in chief. That was before he ordered and orchestrated Osama’s, America’s great arch-nemesis demise. Lawyers everywhere have all things in common; they talk in Kenya. In Africa though lawyers seem to suffer from a duck that particularly prevents them from ascending to presidency (delete Mandela).

So, who should be president?

Why not hire an expatriate? Someone like Michael Joseph, or an outsider in politics like James Mwangi the CEO. You tell me who should be president.

Kenya's Public policy Environment and Its External determinants

In the crafting of public policy by any government cognizance acceptance that a state and therefor its government is part of a wider international system is important. Thus at any one time governments are force to develop public policy that is congruent with the wider international system. At times governments are force to make important trade-offs as to develop public policy that maximizes benefits to its people or develop policy that does not create conflict with international institutions and therefore the international community. This is especially important for third world and especially African states because they enjoy relative low levels of economic and international policy sovereignty in the international setup.

This paper then seeks to examine the impact of international institutions on Kenya’s public policy. This paper also seeks to find out through relevant empirical examples the trade-offs the Kenyan government has been forced to make in order to accommodate the swishes of the international community.

As will be shown in this paper international institutions have ramifications on Kenya’s public policy in areas of economic, health, environment, fiscal and other policies. The continued significance of international institutions in the Kenyan public policy making mechanism is compound by the fact that Kenya is a developing economy that lacks real power or a strategic asset with which it can arm-twist the international institutions into bending over when it comes to her strategic policy objectives.

International institutions not only affect direct policy making in Africa and in Kenya in particular but affect in a fundamental way the ideologies that guide political making in Kenya. For example Kenya was forced to abandon previous state led development models to liberalized and laid back state models.

The Influence of International Institutions on Kenya’s Public Expenditure Policies

International institutions have had a profound effect on Kenya’s public spending and fiscal policies in a major way. This effect has been profound especially after the introduction of SAPs in the mid-1980^s and early 1990^s.  For example Korir and Kioko, write that  “ the overall budget constraint stemming from the policy targets of the macroeconomic framework continues to prevent the Government from being able to fill personnel shortages due to lack financial resources and the wage bill ceiling policy, which constrains wages at 6.5 percent of GDP.” This clearly provides evidence that international institutions have a direct influence in the government’s fiscal management policy. The government may for example want increase its workforce in a bid to reduce unemployment but, it is curtailed from doing this by rigid fiscal public expenditure policies placed on the IMF on third world countries.

Because African governments Kenya being included are aid dependent in most cases Kenya has to re-adapt its public policy on expenditure and economic management to appease bilateral and multilateral donors. The Economic Survey (2001) reveals that “Kenya government responds by freezing ministerial spending below the approved levels of the annual budget. A review of the supplementary estimates reveal that typically all expenditures except those for salaries and essential services by ministries are either stopped or drastically reduced during the second half of each fiscal year. The reallocations mainly affect the development votes of the budget. For example, in the 1999/00 fiscal year, the supplementary estimates reveal a downward adjustment of expenditures to offset an estimated 9.4% fall in revenue below the target.  As a result, total expenditure declined by an estimated 5.42%, out of which 0.82% was a decline in recurrent expenditure and 4.6% was decline in development expenditure. At the same time, the CFS payments increased by about 5.2% of the printed estimates.” This shows that key donor institutions withholding funds to the Kenyan government significantly alters the policies which guide how budgetary allocation is done.

Njeru, James (2003) argues that empirical results indicate that the flow of foreign aid does influence government spending patterns. On average, an increase in foreign aid stimulates development spending by a higher proportion than does an increase in domestic resources. At the aggregate level, a shilling increase of aid leads to about 88 cents in additional spending, as opposed to a shilling increase in domestic resources.

International Institutions and There Effect To Agricultural Policies in Kenya

Kenya has had to re-adapt its agricultural policy because of international institutions. IMF/World Bank policies that forced Kenya to adopt privatization in agriculture also brought in the advent of middle men in the marketing of agricultural produce. The long marketing chain meant that third world farmers suffered because the involvement of middle men meant that farmer’s profits were driven down because of the desire to make profits by middle men. The liberalization of the dairy industry and the prior privatization of Kenya Co-Operative Creameries brought about private players in the dairy sector and a proliferation of middle men in the dairy sector. Thus farmers were paid poorly for their milk which led to the reduced milk production in Kenya.

Policies that required Kenya to reduce agricultural subsidies made government funding to agriculture fall hence bringing about low agricultural production. The drop in governments funding in agriculture has also led to the disengagement of governments in irrigation projects in the third world. This has led to the dereliction of such projects leading to their under productivity. In Kenya for example most post-colonial irrigation projects have been abandoned leading to the country’s dependence on rain fed agriculture which does not reverberate well with the country’s desire to increase agriculture productivity and enhance food security. Such schemes such as Bura, Perkerra, and other irrigation schemes have thus far become malfunctional without any economic benefit to the people.

International Institutions and Their Effect to Policy Regarding Standards

International institutions influence public policy especially when standards are involved. For example international institutions like WHO may prepare standard benchmarks for all countries in the world to follow. This then follows that legislation has to be done in Kenya in order for the quality standards sought to be met. For example 

The Sanitary and Phyto Sanitary  agreement sets out the rights and obligations of members of World Trade Organization (WTO) in relation to the health of plant and plant products and animal and animal products that may restrict international trade. The basic aim of the SPS Agreement is to maintain the sovereign right of any government to provide the level of health protection it deems appropriate while ensuring at the same time that these sovereign rights are not misused for protectionist purposes and do not result in unnecessary barriers to trade. As a result Kenya has had to remove tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade and change policy in order to meet the requirements of SPS agreements. In addition Kenya has had to put policy in place that provides for efficient food product handling in-order to adopt standards set by SPS agreements.

Because Restriction of market access for products from Africa to developed countries on basis of SPS measures is a common feature. Examples include fisheries bans from East Africa countries and Mozambique in 1997 to European Union (EU) countries due to Cholera outbreaks and from East African countries between 1999 and 2000 because of the inability of the countries to enforce Hazards Analysis and Critical Controls Points (HACCP) management systems as required for the EU market, Kenya has had to adopt policy with regard to food, fish and meat handling that will avoid a ban of Kenyan products in Europe.

The United Nations Effect on Kenya’s Development Policy

Because Kenya hosts a number of United Nations’ agencies it has been used from time to time as a crucible for public policy testing by the UN. With 25 United Nations agencies and a total of 75 semi-autonomous United Nations offices working together in Kenya as a country team, responding to the development needs of the country needs to be a coordinated effort. Under a system called the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF), heads of individual United Nations agencies meet on a monthly basis to coordinate activities throughout the system. The UNDAF articulates the United Nations vision for Kenya and assists the United Nations in working collectively to support Kenya’s development priorities in harmony with the Government’s development agenda. This synergy produces an impact greater than the sum of each agency’s individual effects and underlies the operations of all UNDAF activities.

Kenya was one of the first countries to formulate and implement the UNDAF as a new United Nations development tool, beginning in late 1997. The UNDAF, now a common United Nations approach to development assistance, was created to provide a more integrated approach to United Nations development assistance. Under UNDAF’s common approach, United Nations agencies tackle development challenges, which since September 2000 have been crystallized in the Millennium Development Goals. The goals include the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, achievement of universal primary education, promotion of gender equality, empowerment of women, reduction of child mortality, improvement of maternal health, combating HIV/AIDS and other diseases, ensuring environmental stability, and the attainment of a global partnership for development by the year 2015. The UNDAF 2004-2008 reflects Kenya’s development priorities in four key areas of cooperation: promoting good governance and human rights; reducing the incidence and social and economic impact of HIV/AIDS, malaria and TB; strengthening national and local systems for emergency preparedness, prevention, response and mitigation; and promoting sustainable livelihoods and environmental protection. Areas of cooperation also include the cross-cutting issues of gender, population and development, research and information. (UN 2006).

Regional Organizations and Their Effect on Kenya’s Public Policy

Other bodies that have an effect on Kenya’s public policy are regional organizations. This includes bodies like EAC, COMESA, NEPAD and other bodies that Kenya has membership to or is affiliated to. For example most East African countries have had to change their immigration policies because of the East African community. Kenya thus is supposed to open its borders to allow members and goods originating from EAC. With regard to COMESA Kenya has had to remove its import quotas of sugar from COMESA, because these quotas go against COMESA agreements. This is the despite the country’s desire to protect the flailing Sugar industry. Kenya has also had to work hand in hand with other NEPAD partners to come up with a collaborative security policy for the horn of Africa especially on the movement of Small Arms and light Weapons.

INFLUENCE OF INTERNATIONAL INSTITIONS ON DIFFERENT SECTORS POLICIES

ENVIRONMENT

International institutions also have an effect when it comes to environmental policy. Because Kenya for example is a signatory of the Kyoto Protocol, it has to abide by the policies set out in the Kyoto protocol. For example Kenya is supposed to adopt (CDM) Clean Development Mechanism. This means that it has to adopt clean technology inspite of the desire to economic and social development. 

HEALTH

International institutions also affect policy in the health sector. Many developing countries, including Kenya, face numerous health challenges including HIV/Aids, malaria and tuberculosis (TB). HIV/Aids, malaria and TB have significant natural, regional and international dimensions. The HIV/Aids epidemic and other health matters have elicited many initiatives internationally. There are several health and HIV/Aids agreements and initiatives by the international community. It is critical that the Government utilizes the existing policy space to secure public health in spite of IMF’s policies. Policy and legislation interventions include the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP’s) Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the World Health Organization (WHO) agreements. Other organizations that have been involved in policy intervention include the South Centre. Health Action International (HAI) and Consumer International. (Shihanya, 2008)

LABOUR AND EMPLOYMENT

International organizations and institutions have an effect on labour issues and human rights issues and policy making. While the development challenges for Kenya are many and clearly outlined in the ERS, the ILO offers a decent work approach to development built around policies aimed at stimulating remunerative and productive employment, which cuts across all the MDGs and puts decent work into the country context. All ILO assistance will be set within the DWCP. For the period 2006-2010, the ILO’s work will focus on three priority areas in its support to the national development process. All three areas have been identified as strategic for ILO interventions at the country level based on the ERS, the UNDAF, consultations with the constituents and the ILO 2006-07 strategic objectives and mainstreamed strategies. The proposed three selected priority areas are: 

• Youth empowerment, youth employment and elimination of child labour, particularly in its worst form

• Expanding & strengthening of the principle of inclusion for enhanced influence of tripartite partners in the national & international framework

• Expansion of social protection and fight against HIV/AIDS at the work place Over and above these three priority areas for the ILO in Kenya, the ILO will strengthen the capacities of the Ministry of Labour and Human Resource Development, the Congress of Trade Unions (COTU-K), the Federation of Kenya Employers (FKE) and their affiliates, in implementing activities to realize the overall development objective of Kenya’s DWCP, i.e. Poverty reduction through decent work for women and men. The ILO will continue to actively work to ensure that Decent Work is on the national development and poverty reduction agenda by promoting more active use of decent work instruments in the ongoing ERS processes.
(ILO, 2007)

REFERENCES

·         Julius K. Korir, Urbanus Kioko (2009).  Evidence Of The Impact Of IMF Fiscal And Monetary Policies On The Capacity To Address The HIV/AIDS  TB Crisis In Kenya. Centre for Economic Governance and AIDS in Africa and RESULTS Educational Fund (REF).

·         James Njeru (2003). The Impact of Foreign Aid on Public Expenditure: The Case of Kenya. AERC Research Paper 135 African Economic Research Consortium, Nairobi November 2003.

·         Hezron Nyangito (2002). Post-Doha African Challenges in the Sanitary and Phytosanitary and Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights Agreement. KIPPRA Occasional Paper No. 4 November 2002.

·         *The United Nations and Kenya Fifty Years of Partnership, (2006) Office of the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Kenya Nations Office, Nairobi.

·         Sihanya, Ben (ed) (2008) The Impact of IMF policies on Education, Health and Women’s Rights in Kenya, Action Aid Kenya, Nairobi.

·         Decent Work KENYA 2007-2011 ILO’s Country Programme for the Republic of Kenya

August 2007

New International Economic Dispensation Needed; NIEO was not an order

  INTRODUCTION

The New International Economic Order (NIEO) was a set of policy proposals put forward put forward in the 1970s through the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Third world countries were seeking ways of making their terms of trade favorable and maximize its benefits from its involvement in international trade. NIEO aimed at overhauling international political and economic order so as to reduce the adverse effects of third world involvement in international trade. NIEO was simply seeking a reversal of the global trading practices institutionalized by the Bretton Woods system.

The term was derived from the declaration for the establishment of a New International Economic Order adopted by the United Nations general assembly in 1974. It happened within the framework of North-South dialogue.

It is very important from the onset to really excruciate what the New International Economic Order really is and its ramifications especially to the third world in the current global economic order.  Primarily NIEO connotes policy directives adopted by the G-77 with a view of stemming out the west’s hegemonic influence in the global economic pecking order. The inspiration behind the NIEO can be traced to the came with the Bandung plan where optimism from the newly independent countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America were looking for ways of reforming the global trading and political system. The main aim was to find a framework within which the third world would find the solutions to their problems of underdevelopment within the ideologue of interdependence imposed by the world economy.

The crux of this essay is to make an inference whether economic parity between the west and third world countries is possible in the global capitalist system. The begging question has always been whether the world would move towards a more poly-centric economic balance of power or whether it would be locked indefinitely in the cocoon of mono-centrism, with USA as the axis of the western capitalist camp in their bid to maintain the status quo as pertains to the global balance of power and continually fleece of the third world off valuable resources often with inadequate financial remuneration.

But as the third world were as passionate as ever about coming up with a new world order the west coalesced behind the so called Washington consensus and met the pro-third world movement with equal passion and desire to maintain the status quo.

NIEO was an order that aimed at achieving the following;

·        Ensure that third world countries were able to benefit from extraction of third world resources.

·        Ensure that there was adequate capital flow from the centre to the periphery coupled with infusion of efficient and cost effective technologies in the third world countries.

·        Rally for a reform of the global order and correct the mistakes arising from the Bretton woods order and institutions.

·        Ensure that the third world got fairer terms of trade in the global trading system, together with reasonable value for exports to the periphery.

·        Enhance the strength of regional organizations within the third world like the EAC, COMESA and others in Asia and Latin America, this was aimed at increasing the volume of trade within the third world and improve general economic and technology transfer engagements  within the third world. And also enhance the third world’s right to set up regional marketing and producer organizations.

·        NIEO also aimed at controlling the activities of Multi National Corporations, their activities and their roles as agents of transfer for ecology and capital to third world states.

After a detailed study of the objectives of NIEO we can then begin the odyssey in discovering whether NIEO in its entirety was or is international and whether it qualifies to be referred to as an order.

NIEO AS AN INTERNATIONAL CONCEPT

The inclusion of the term ‘international’ in NIEO is a major crisis point. By virtue of the desire of NIEO to come up with a uniform and homogenous global economic culture, the most persistent question in many scholars’ minds has been whether that aim is remotely possible.

The rally for NIEO was structured in a bipolarized form. With the North and the global south as different entities in different sides of the economic divide The idea of NIEO has been to rationalize the world economic structure in order to come up with a semblance of parity and to bridge the economic gap between the two ‘worlds’ .

Whereas the north has pretty universal economic structure within it, the biggest problem lies within the third world itself. The problems of definition of what really constitutes the third world give a valuable insight into this problem.

The third world in itself is a generalized term that refers to countries that span at least three continents and are not homogenous in the least way possible. The third world is term that generally refers to countries are mostly south of the equator, that have different political and economic structures, that have different colonial heritages, that have very different cultural and religious structures and

Are at different levels of industrialization. The ideological frameworks guiding these countries are also very different with the democratic capitalist countries against like India pitied against the not so democratic and socialist countries like china and Cuba.

Industrialization disparity within the third world

It has been noted over time that there is a huge gap in the industrialization levels of the world. The newly industrialized countries (NIC) in south east Asia have been unevenly lumped with countries especially in Africa that have minimum levels of industrialization to say the least countries like Chad and East Timor some of the poorest countries on earth have been lumped unholily with countries like south Korea which is in the group of the worlds ten most industrialized and other countries like Malaysia which is an immensely industrialized country.

According to realist perspectives on international political economy, such disparities in the third world may prevent these countries from pursuing common agendas. This is because the realist theory asserts that for states the biggest obsession is that of protecting self interests and gaining unilaterally from international commerce.

The role of sub-imperialist within the third world

Among the third world there are countries that have been identified by the west as nodes for which resources can be siphoned through from the third world to the west. This includes countries like Malaysia, Singapore among others in Asia and South Africa, Egypt and Algeria among others in Africa 

 Here the west makes capital investments in countries with semblances of political and social stability, that have solid infrastructural bases and countries that have a pretty well educated labour force. Here the west injects massive amounts of their economy with the hope that the industries of this countries will export to other third world countries. Thus the west creates a chain of repatriation of profits with the profits passing through this sub-imperialist countries and finally to the west.

This in itself works against the gains envisioned by NIEO. It retards the growth of a new economic order. Financial capital injections to some selected countries serve to widen the gap among the third world itself.

THE COLLOSAL GROWTH OF THE CHINESE ECONOMY

The third world has also had to grapple with the problem of the exponential growth of the Chinese economy. Due the ambiguous state not being easily classified as a developed country or a developing country the third world has found itself at pains of developing a policies that govern its economic engagement with china The Chinese has taken that advantage continued to exploit the third of useful resources often. This has left most third world countries at positions where they are exploited both by the developed countries and countries that are look warm in character as pertaining to their economic strength.

The volume of oriental trade with Africa has increased over time; the nature of the trade in itself makes third world countries vulnerable to dumping of sub-standard goods and technology.

REGIONAL TRADING AND ECONOMIC BLOCKS

Another factor that has affected the implementation of NIEO is differentiation of the world into regional economic groups these groups have different agendas and come from different cultural backgrounds. This regional differentiation takes on continental and sub continental forms with countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America preferring to pursue agenda their agenda in different platforms.

For example the south east Chinese countries prefer lobbying for favorable terms through (ASEAN)*, whereas Latin America uses (SELA)* Latin American Economic System. Other third world countries choose to negotiate bilateral terms with the North; for example Mexico uses NAFTA* as body that maximizes its markets in total disregard of its third world status even though the other members of NAFTA are not third world countries namely; Canada and USA.

NATIONAL ECONOMIC SOVERIGNITY

It is very important to note that NIEO does not purport to force countries to country to change their policies to so as to have a synergy with the principles of NIEO. Propaunders of NIEO hope international good will would ensure that developed countries would adopt more egalitarian policies in their dealings with third world countries.

Australia provides a perfect example of how national economic interests affect the achievement of NIEO. Policy makers in Australia for example asserted that Australia should consider herself an independent decision making unit and not a satellite of the developed world. Thus Australian decision makers aimed at making policies that were not stipulated in NIEO. Thus Australian technocrats came up with an alternative plan to integrate the needs of third world into their national policy blueprint, they audaciously called this plan the Fraser plan. Karunarate (1976).

NIEO AND THE CRISIS BETWEEN THE CAPITALIST’S AND THE SOCIALISTS’.

NIEO has itself brought some antagonism between the worlds socialist camp and the capitaist camp. A once USA ambassador, Jeanne Kirkpatrick terms the UN’s call for wealth distribution global socialism. She states that “the dominant ideology of the United Nations concerning economic regulation is a crude version of Marxist class war”. The General Assembly led this attack on the market-orientated “Declaration.

Of the Establishment of a New International Economic Order” and

The “Charter of Economic Rights and Duties of States” Among

other things the declaration endorsed the right of nations to nationalize

foreign businesses concerns and develop cartels.

She goes on to argue that there is nothing new about NIEO and says that “it is just old time socialism showing its ugly head again. Geldargad(1984). This example shows how NIEO serves as critical polarizing point between the socialist and the capitalist, thus NIEO in itself is not a universal international concept but rather a concept that is conceptualized differently depending on the ideologies that guide different states be it laissez faire or neo-Marxism.

NIEO IS NOT AN ORDER

Empirical analysis of NIEO comes up with the inference that NIEO is not the order it purports to be. This is because of various reasons that are easily identifiable.

·        NIEO does have the characteristic of previous historical economic orders that defined the economic dispensation of the world previously. This includes mercantilism which was prevalent in Europe and the world in the 17^th and 18^th centuries. NIEO has failed to synthesis itself as feasible economic order and is fronted within a strong international capitalist society.

·        NIEO lacked sufficient institutional framework that would have helped countries achieve the policies of NIEO though third world countries have a majority in the UN’s general assembly they are affected by the veto power of the G-8. There was also no charter that was adopted in order to.

·        Another area that NIEO has miserably failed to make any semblance of order is in the area of Multi-national corporations. This is because most multi nationals often have sovereignty in their when it comes to decision making. MNCs have been known to meddle in the affairs of third world countries. For example most MNCs operate on turnovers that are colossal. Most MNCs also have many assets in many in all most all parts of the world. Perhaps the reason why MNCs are difficult to control is because they infiltrate into all aspects of society; finance, technology, food, entertainment, mining and industry. MNCs have also been documented to cause social and civil strife in third world courtiers this include companies like firestone and its involvement in the Liberian crisis, another company that has had detrimental effects on the third world is the international mining consortium De Beers and its involvement in fuelling the civil conflict in the DR Congo.

Some of the MNCs that enjoy amazing sovereignty include companies like Coca Cola (soft drinks) USA, Toyota (Auto motives) Japan, AIG (insurance) USA, De Beers (mining) Dutch, Barclays plc (banking) Britain, and Mc Donald’s fast foods. From this few examples we can see how MNCs have extend ended a firm grip on the world.

CONCLUSION

The inference that NIEO is not an order or neither is it international is an obvious one. The average casual reader can be in a position to point out at the inadequacies of NIEO in actually achieving what it purports to achieve. However those who excriticately explore the facts discover an even greater problem with NIEO, it has not failed to achieve but stagnated third worlds attempt to come up with feasible policy directive that would address asymmetry as appertains to the balance of power between the west and developing nations.

Those who continue to hold to NIEO as a possible way out of underdevelopment do so for sentimental reasons rather than practical ones.

REFERENCES

·        Frederick H. Gareau, The reassertion of united hegemony: evidence from the United Nations General Assembly. International Journal of Comparative Sociology, Vol. 35, 1994

·        Patrick Streeten, Thinking about development,Cambridgeuniversity press. Thinking about development.

·        Rchard c. longworth, 1999 Encarta Yearbook article,

·        Sassen, Saskia. Globalization and its Discontents. The New Press,

·         Buchanan, Patrick J.1998 The Great Betrayal: How American Sovereignty and Social Justice Are Being Sacrificed to the Gods of the Global Economy. Little Brown and the company

·        Greider, William. One World, Ready or Not: The Manic Logic of Global Capitalism. Simon & Schuster, 1997.

NOTES

 *ASEAN , ASSOSIATION FOR SOUTH EAST ASIAN NATIONS.

 *NAFTA, NORTH AMERICAN FREE TRADE AGREEMENT.

 *SELA, Spanish synonym for Economic community for Latin American      states

Femicide and Rape in the Congo; Does The World Care.

 I was at home the other day, cold as it always is on the Slopes of Aberdare, i find refuge on a couch and watch lots of Satelite TV. Now free view TV is utter crap but when swelling hope inside your head swells to suicidal levels you got to seek refuge in anynything.

So i was watching DRC chanell called Shonote TV it was in French and pretty Strange Swahili. he documentary sought to espouse the unabated. Now femicide is the sytematic extermination of the female species from a poulation and what happens in the Eastern Congo is no different. Unlike Kinshasha and Lumbunashi arguably the two most synonymous cities in DRC, the Eastern Congo is a water shed of gross human rights vilations, the only rules governing this place are the rules of the jungle, a state of nature exists which is rather obtuse, for in the natural order of things the male always protect the fair sex. Not so in Congo, conservative estimates have it that since conflict began in the late 1990s over 500,000 women have been raped, mimed or killed

The rather appalling question is why does the international communitty UNFPA, Big Brother Sam America and others keep quite while Africa loses her mother? Why does'nt NATO do something? is Gaddaffi any worse than the gruesome LRA, RDC or myriads of other rebel groups in the Congo?

We might find an answer?

POLITICAL LIGHTWEIGHTS, MAKE WEIGHTS AND BIG WIGHTS IN kenya's politics

I have to find myself a black shoe, now that is a timeless message i received from an impartial fashion judge, i can also pass for a kalenjin, my lecturer looks at the class attendance sheet and rounds of my looks to the name Kibet, i don't blame her it has happened before, am not even offended, after all i have this oblong thin face that does not tie me to Bantuic tribes, then there was social layman at an eatery i used to frequent that told me i looked somali, now that took me aback.
  I have woken up with a political foot, may be its because the shower was broken, but i can't help but think about the political future of the this country, the no so distant future, the 2012 future i mean. the stage is set, the circus clowns have paint on them, it mirrors the political comedy cum satire that airs on KISS TV XYZ, I hate it.
  Anway there will be a Raila on stage, an Uhuru to, and a Ruto if circumstances permit, there will also be a cast of fringe  actors that we don't want to name because their role ain't even that of supporting cast, they could be ignore altogether, a certainty in Kenya future political land scape will have one of the aforementioned men as the baba of the Taifa or kijana mkuu for Uhuru and Ruto for they have refused to grow up and still prefer The kijana tag following them. another truth is that all the aforementioned have royal blood in their veins two by birth and one by adoption into a huge political dynasty into Kenyan politics.
   the question that begs is should we entrust all our hopes, our aspirations our, our desires with any of this men? My problem with ourselves is that we are very poor judges of character and ability, at times we believe in the abilities of people because they have assured as that they can do certain things, can we continue doing so?
   No we can't afford to do so. lets start with Uhuru for example, he has been on my crucible for a while now, inference he does not merit to become our next leader. apart from using his fathers' names for obvious political capital (* fathers if you put Moi in there), he has done nothing to prove that he can lead this nation. given that he has had a few years now in the national political arena he has done nothing extraordinary to merit the ordinary seat of the Kenyan presidency, i mean he is just like an ancient Arab dhow that flows wherever the winds push it. no a man of his own. case closed you make the judgment about him.
    Raila, the most suave and charismatic among them, a hero of the second liberation, for which we shall remain eternally thank full. His ideology and philosophy that runs in his family and among his inner circles of social democracy i do not follow. His populist policies of mass appeasement mirror the appeasement policies adopted by the west on Adolf Hitler and Germany before the second world war, catapulted against them, he needs to be pragmatic to, how about a cause for business from, him how about going full throttle for wealth creation now that would positive energy in the right direction, i don't also want an entertainer for my president , the Nonini's do a bad job and i don't expect him to fare any better. As for Ruto lets wait for the minor matter fo the Hague is decided before we make our judgment, after all we don't want a president ruling as from a Jail cell in the scandivia before we ,make our judgement.
   bottom line is we need to refocus our attention on the real quality leaders we have around us that we have never appreciated, the likes of Mukhisa Kituyi, you can build on this list may be then we might be able to have our very own Ian Khama among us or a Bingu Wa Muthairika for president.