MS Kenya inciting people?

While the MS general assembly embarked on a new and more politicised strategy in the fight against poverty, MS Kenya got to feel the impact of a more politicised program when empowerment, advocacy and capacity building was interpreted as incitement, subversion and political activism by the Government of Kenya.

By Dorthe Skovgaard Mortensen, Information Officer, MS Kenya

08. August 2005

Since October 2004, MS Kenya has been in a serious row with the Kenyan government. The immediate issue at stake is the extension of work permits for three expatriate staff. However, the substance of the issue goes much deeper, and is about principles of human rights, democracy, and the relationship between state and civil society. 

The background to the case is accusations levelled against MS Kenya by the Ministry for Internal Security of having engaged in “political activism” and in “inciting”, “subversive” and “illegal” activities through support to four Kenyan civil society organizations engaged in the Kenyan land rights issue. 

Land in Kenya
The issue of unequal land distribution and ownership figures prominently in the analysis of poverty. Even the current government acknowledges land as one of the prime root causes of poverty and inequality in Kenya. In the NARC Manifesto on which the government sought election it reads:

Land is one of the most contentious issues in Kenya today and has been so since colonial days. Land is of particular interest to Kenyans because of a number of factors, including the fact that 80% of Kenyans are rural peasants who eke their livelihood out of land. For such people land is life and any threat to their land resources causes fear and panic. Indeed our struggle for national independence revolved around the land issue.

Despite the centrality of land, existing land laws are conflicting and in some instances their application is not relevant in some parts of the country. Abuse of existing land laws and other state powers has led to irregular allocation (grabbing of public land) to a favoured and privileged few. This has angered many who feel that such land should have been put to the common good to many.

As of 2005 land distribution remains a core contributor to poverty and inequality in Kenya. The challenges to civil society remain as big as during the last years of the Moi-regime. MS remains in Kenya. But the country director and two development workers are procedurally deported.