US embassy cable - 05NAIROBI4507

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 NAIROBI 004507 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR AF/E, AF/EPS, EB/IFD, EB/ODF 
LONDON AND PARIS FOR AFRICA WATCHERS 
TREASURY FOR ANNE ALIKONIS 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: EAID, ECIN, ECON, PGOV, SOCI, KE, NEPAD, APRM 
SUBJECT:  KENYA/NEPAD: KENYA COMPLETES APRM SELF-ASSESSMENT 
REPORT ON GOVERNANCE 
 
Ref: Nairobi 868 
 
Sensitive-but-unclassified.  Not for release outside USG 
channels. 
 
1 .  (SBU) Summary: Kenya has completed its African Peer 
Review Mechanism (APRM) self-assessment report.  A follow- 
on visit by an external APRM review team confirmed that the 
report was carried out transparently, with broad 
stakeholder participation, and without undue government 
interference.  The next step in the APRM process for Kenya 
involves the formal presentation in late December to the 
Kenyan president of the self-assessment and review team 
reports, together with an action plan for implementing the 
recommendations for reform emanating from those documents. 
While the APRM in Kenya's case is providing a useful 
conduit for citizens to criticize their government and the 
way they are governed, it appears to be more about process 
than tangible results.   End summary. 
 
2.  (U) Though late by several months, Kenya has completed 
the self-assessment launched in February under the African 
Peer Review Mechanism (APRM).  Reftel provides background 
on Kenya's APRM effort, which springs from the AU's New 
Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD).  Under the 
APRM, Kenya is one of the first four countries of 24 to 
subject itself to self-assessment, along with Ghana 
(completed), Rwanda (completed), and Mauritius (pending 
shortly).  Nigeria is also reported to be undergoing a self- 
assessment due for completion in December, and South Africa 
has just launched its self-assessment. 
 
--------------------------------------- 
Self-Assessment: An Audit on Governance 
--------------------------------------- 
 
3.  (U) Kenya's self-assessment, described reftel as "an 
audit on how we are governing ourselves today," aimed to 
gather and collate the views of a wide array of Kenyan 
"stakeholders" on the country's (and especially the 
government's) performance in four thematic areas: 
 
-- Democracy and Political Governance; 
-- Socio-Economic Development; 
-- Macro-economic Governance; 
-- Corporate Governance. 
 
4.  (U) The self-assessment was conducted on the ground by 
four local independent think tanks each of which covered 
one thematic area.  The data collection consisted of 
provincial fora (akin to townhall meetings), focus group 
discussions at the district level, household-based surveys, 
and interviews with experts and opinion leaders around the 
country.  The effort was overseen by a 33-member APRM 
Governing Council and a full-time NEPAD Secretariat based 
in the Ministry of Planning and National Development.  It 
ran on a KSh 65 million ($867,000) budget funded roughly 
half by the government and half by donors, including the UK 
and UNDP. All disbursements were administered by UNDP for 
greater transparency and accountability. 
 
5.  (SBU) Embassy Econ/C attended the day-long "National 
Stakeholders Forum" which brought together around a 
thousand delegates from around the country on September 16. 
The forum marked the end of the self-assessment phase of 
the APRM, and culminated in the adoption of the several 
hundred page self-assessment report, as a well as a 
National Program of Action, with the latter listing 
recommendations for specific reforms based on the findings 
of the former. 
 
6.  (U) Neither document is yet available publicly, but 
summaries of each indicate the exercise provided a genuine 
opportunity for Kenyan citizens to criticize and voice 
concerns about how they are governed.  According to press 
reports, the self-assessment report highlights that an 
overwhelming majority of Kenyans see corruption as a major 
problem for development and that over two thirds believe 
their government lacks the political will to fight 
corruption.  The summary recommendations range from the 
hopelessly broad ("Create an enabling environment for 
political participation of all citizens") to the more 
usefully specific ("Modernize information management 
systems in the Judiciary"). 
 
------------------------------------------ 
Self-Assessment Gets Assessed - Externally 
------------------------------------------ 
 
7.  (U) The completion of the self-assessment report was 
followed quickly on October 2 by the arrival of an 18- 
person strong delegation led by Mozambican educator Graca 
Machel, spouse of former South African President Nelson 
Mandela (who accompanied her) and a member of the 7-person 
Panel of Eminent Persons supervising the APRM initiative 
continent-wide.  The purpose of the nearly two-week long 
visit was to verify and assess the methodologies and 
findings of Kenya's self-assessment report. 
 
8.  (SBU) Machel's external review team confirmed the 
sentiments of local observers and diplomats that the self- 
assessment was carried out in a professional, impartial 
manner without government interference.  Briefing donors on 
October 13, she said the self-assessment was "very candid, 
very open" both in terms of the report, and in the follow- 
up discussions her team was holding around the country. 
Upon her departure the next day, Machal went so far in her 
praise of Kenya's self-assessment process that she claimed 
in was one-sided in not sufficiently noting the country's 
strengths. 
 
---------------------------------- 
Rumors of Interference Prove False 
---------------------------------- 
 
9.  (SBU) The only snafu in Kenya's self-assessment process 
occurred in August when the Chairperson of the country's 
APRM Governing Council attempted to sue the Minister of 
Planning and National Development after being dismissed 
along with two allies on the council for attempting to gain 
direct access to APRM funding, held in an account by the 
UNDP.  Details remain hazy, but in the end, the suit was 
thrown out of court, and the 30 other Council members sided 
firmly with the Ministry.  It would appear that the Chair, 
the colorful Orie Rogo Manduli of the National Council for 
NGOs, either misunderstood the Council's role in how the 
self-assessment was to be conducted, or was simply trying 
to make a power play for control of the budget for her own 
ends.  Leading donors, including the UK, concur that the 
government acted properly in dismissing Manduli and did not 
interfere in the substance of the self-assessment effort. 
 
10.  (SBU) As noted reftel, the APRM process is somewhat 
convoluted and long-winded.  In her briefing for donors, 
Graca Machal reviewed the next steps in the process for 
Kenya: 
 
-- The external APRM team will write its report on Kenya's 
self-assessment, probably end October/early November. 
-- This report, with the self-assessment attached, will be 
submitted for comments to the Kenyan president and the 
country's APRM Governing Council. 
-- In late December, the final report will be presented by 
the lead panelist (Machal presumably) to the Kenyan 
president at the APRM Forum in Abuja.  At this stage, the 
entire APRM report and self-assessment will become a public 
document. 
-- Thereafter, with the report completed and now public, 
the Kenyan leadership should mobilize support domestically 
for implementation of the recommendations contained in the 
report's National Program of Action. 
-- Kenya's self-assessment report and its implementation of 
the action program will undergo "peer review" at the next 
APRM forum, which will take place early in 2006. 
 
------- 
Comment 
------- 
 
11.  (SBU) In her briefing for donors, Machal argued that 
the process of the APRM self-assessment is valuable in and 
of itself because it provides a conduit for direct dialogue 
between governments and their citizens.  This is indeed a 
positive outcome of Kenya's APRM self-assessment, which by 
all accounts was conducted in a thoroughly transparent 
manner, free from government interference or sugar-coating. 
The results are candid and frank.  But overall, we wonder 
whether the APRM will ever lead to tangible results, i.e. 
to the kind of specific economic and governance reforms 
that even casual observers understand are achievable now in 
Kenya, and are badly needed.  In short, the APRM in our 
view fits a familiar pattern in Kenya - it's all about 
process, and not enough about results.  In fact, in this as 
in other instances, we fear the process will be used as a 
smokescreen to cover up the failure of the political 
leadership to achieve real progress in improving service 
delivery and reforming governance in Kenya. 
Bellamy