Voters want food for support
2002-12-23 17:19
Vitengeni, Kenya - In the rural heartland of Kenya's coastal region, a group of women clasp empty cups and baskets, hoping to fill them with maize they expect in return for attending a rally ahead of Friday's presidential polls.
"We were promised some maize after the meeting," Scolastica Munga, a 38-year-old mother of four, said after the Sunday rally led by ruling party Kanu presidential candidate Uhuru Kenyatta.
Munga was among hundreds of supporters lured to the meeting by the promise of food. It is an unwritten contract exercised during election campaigns across Kenya, where desperately poor people expect handouts in return for their political support.
Kanu's (Kenya African National Union) member of parliament in the area denied the maize was meant to buy votes.
"We are not using maize to buy votes," Noah Katana Ngala, Minister for Lands and Settlements, told reporters.
"It is only natural that we compensate those who attend our rallies because they could as well be elsewhere looking for ways to feed their families," said Ngala, who has represented the area since inheriting the seat from his late father in 1974.
Kanu in her blood
Some politicians from other parties, including the opposition National Rainbow Coalition (NARC), have also been known to give handouts at their rallies, but the distribution of maize is particularly associated with Kanu.
Vitengeni, a forested region some 100km north of the port city of Mombasa, is home to the Giriama and Chonyi, two of the smallest of Kenya's 42 tribes.
It is traditionally a Kanu stronghold. Residents say the backbone of that support still comes from women, who have been unmoved by the mass support for NARC, which has swept many parts of the country.
Carrying a reed basket, which she hoped to take away with enough maize to feed her family for a few days, Scolastica said she was "Kanu damu" meaning "Kanu is in my blood".
"It is very difficult to change the women's minds," said Reverend Ezekiel Kalu, who oversees the Pentecostal Evangelistic Fellowship Church of Africa in the district. "They see the opposition in terms of destabilising the peace."
Out of breath Kenyatta
The ruling party's presidential candidate 42-year-old Uhuru Kenyatta, who trails NARC rival Mwai Kibaki in opinion polls, had long gone by the time the maize was ready to be distributed.
The man hand-picked by President Daniel arap Moi to succeed him told Vitengeni to vote against NARC, blaming it for Kenya's poor relations with donors, who suspended lending to Kenya in 2000 because of perceived high-level corruption.
"The opposition are to blame for asking the donors not to lend Kanu money, saying that Kanu will eat the money," he told the rally, still breathless after joining in a vigorous traditional dance.
"They are to blame for the lack of development in Kenya," he said, as the crowd responded to his one-finger Kanu salute with shouts of "Jogoo" or "Cockerel", the party's symbol.
A smiling, but obviously tired Kenyatta, sweat glistening on his brow, promised to work towards rebuilding the economy before jumping on a helicopter headed to another of the six rallies he was holding across the coastal region.
Potholed roads
His choice of helicopter means he can avoid the country's bone-jarring potholed roads, suffering from years of neglect, like the one that separates Vitengeni from the Mombasa-Malindi highway.
In previous elections, Kanu has won a majority of ballots in the region, but this time the opposition has made some inroads.
Kenyatta has little experience in politics, and many Kenyans feel he was chosen more as a puppet for Moi to rule through than for his potential to lead the country of 30 million.
"We want change, and I am a NARC man," said Samuel Ngumbao, a 51-year-old shopkeeper who chairs NARC's branch in the area.
"The Kanu presidents have been guilty of ignoring this region in terms of development, there are so many universities upcountry and not even one in the coast province."