Kenya sinks lower in list of failed states

Kenya has been ranked 14th in the list of “failed state”.

It has slipped below North Korea, Yemen and Ethiopia in the ‘failed states’ 2009 listing compiled by the US-based Fund for Peace and Foreign Policy Institute.

The internationally renowned listing, which is now in its fifth year, bases its findings on a dozen key components including uneven development, human flight, how a states security apparatus operates, demographic pressures, refugees and economic decline.

Each of the components is researched in detail using hundreds of different sources and a listing produced based on the evidence obtained.

Kenya slumped from the 26th position last year to be labelled the 14th most failed state, ahead of countries such as Haiti, Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq and Burma but behind Eritrea, Sri Lanka, North Korea and Yemen.

On Thursday night, UK author and journalist Michaela Wrong addressed the issue of corruption in the highest echelons of the state at a Kenya Society meeting in London.

The announcement of the meeting was made at the society’s annual summer party at the Kenya High Commissioner’s house in London on Wednesday night although it is notable that the talk did not take place – as is often the case for meetings – at the High Commission offices but at those of the Royal Overseas League.

Reference was made at the meeting to the difficulty in finding Ms Wrongs recent book titled It’s our turn to eat in Kenya but they were available for sale at the Thursday’s meeting.

Fighting

The factionalised fighting within the Kenyan government has become hot news in the UK press in recent days, with the Independent running a full page feature entitled “Kenya’s decline and fall” in which it said that “smouldering corruption at every level of government threatens to rip the country apart.”

The article follows one in the Financial Times on the increasing destruction of the Mau Forest and its consequences in terms of drought for ordinary Kenyans.