How NGOs and business profited from Kenya’s post-poll violence

Outside his cramped, dusty office in Nairobi’s Industrial Area, Mr Ali Hemed braved the July morning chill to watch half a dozen of his trucks loaded with cereals destined for the internally displaced persons in various parts of the country.

Mr Hemed won a lucrative government tender in 2009 to supply relief food to thousands of people displaced by the 2007-2008 post-election violence in the North Rift and parts of Central Rift.

Though he said he was already a successful businessman before he got the tender, he conceded that things had improved a great deal since then.

“I really cannot complain. My business has taken a leap since then,” he said.

Conflicts and natural disasters usually exact a devastating toll on the populations and infrastructure in their wake. But the reconstruction that follow present enormous opportunities for businessmen. 

Kenya is no different. After the post-election violence the government and the international community undertook massive recovery which have seen the fortunes of businessmen like Mr Hemed improve greatly.

“It is a matter of positioning yourself well,” he told the Sunday Nation. “There was so much to be done during that period. If you knew somebody in government then you knew you were into big money.”

Mr Hemed has another office in Eastleigh in Nairobi where some of his stores are. His 16 trucks are not enough for the job and he has had to bring in friends and other businessmen.

A lifeline to many businesses

“They get the supplies from the Cereals (National Cereals and Produce Board) depot under my name then I give them their cut when I am paid,” he said. He said that he has given a lifeline to many struggling businesses.

But this boom is by no means down to individual business acumen. The recovery  spawned a whole new multi-billion shilling industry involving businessmen, politicians and non-governmental organisations.

In the aftermath of the violence, billions of shillings were poured into providing food, constructing houses, erecting  tents and supplying water and medicine among other amenities to the victims.

From the ashes and ruins of the violence, which claimed more than 1,000 lives and displaced more than 600,000 others, hundreds of NGOs and civil society groups sprung up, ready to profit from the windfall  of the conflict.

Most of these organisations were started by savvy individuals who duly used them to solicit funds from foreign governments and international organisations, although the outcome of the work by some of them remains open to question.

The industry spawned by the violence is nearly worth Sh30 billion; the same amount the government said it would require to undertake full reconstruction to the pre-violence levels.

The government alone says it has nearly provided half of this colossal amount over the past five years. Sh1.8 billion for the IDP resettlement has been factored in this year’s budget, Finance minister Njeru Githae said.

“This will bring the total amount spent on IDP resettlement to Sh15 billion since 2008. We now expect that the affected persons, having now secured livelihood, will join other Kenyans to contribute to nation building,” he said in his budget speech.

Large-scale land owners have also benefited from the recovery. A number of them have sold their land to the government to resettle the IDPs. To date, the government has procured nearly 10,000 acres of land to resettle the displaced.

Although prominent Kenyan families are said to have sold their land to the government for a tidy profit, most of them have denied to have done so whenever they are mentioned in the media.

The donor community has also sunk billions of shillings into the recovery. Although we could not get full details of donor funding, rough estimates from figures provided by those who responded to our enquiries suggest it could be in excess of Sh15 billion.

Peace building

Of the donors who provided figures to the Sunday Nation, Norway tops in the amount it has contributed to the post-election violence recovery, followed by the UK.

Ms Rigmor Elianne Koti, the counsellor, development cooperation at the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Nairobi, said Norway has provided more than Sh2.5 billion over the past five years.

Ms Koti said that much of their funding targeted NGOs and civil society organisations that deal with peace building and civic education on elections.

“Within the UN system, the support is given through UNDP, UNWomen and UNops, for elections programme (IEBC), conflict prevention (NCIC/Uwiano Platform), civic education (Amkeni/Uraia), gender and governance, TI (Trasparency International) and the Kofi Annan secretariat (Coordination and Liaison Office). We are supporting NDI’s (National Democratic Institute’s) programme for reform of political parties and the two Human Rights bodies KNCHR and KHRC,” read a statement from Ms Koti. Figures provided by the British High Commission in Nairobi indicate that the UK government has so far spent nearly Sh1.5 billion, with a sizeable chunk going to conflict prevention.

Although the embassy said the figures were not specific to post-election violence recovery, much of the funding went directly or indirectly into mitigating the effects of the violence.

Nearly half of the contributions have gone to conflict prevention, focusing on peace and stability through district peace committees. Part of the funding went to implementation of the national dialogue and reconciliation agreement through the Kofi Annan Foundation and security sector reform.

The embassy said it channelled most of the funds through NGOs, citing high corruption levels in government as a reason for its decision.

“It is also important to note that we do not currently have sufficient confidence in the Government of Kenya’s financial management systems to put our money directly through them. We are open to doing so again if there is clear evidence of widespread improvements,” read a statement from Ms Amanda Lawrence-Brown, the deputy head of communications unit at the British High Commission in Nairobi.

The US embassy did not provide the exact figures it has sunk into the post-election violence recovery.

A statement from USaid, the US governments’ agency that deals with foreign aid, indicated that it has spent millions to get a new Constitution as a well as funding a multitude of NGOs.

“Resources were also used during the recovery period to strengthen local and national conflict-mitigation mechanisms. This included support to local peace committees, NGOs, and communities located in areas that saw the worst of the post-election violence,” read the USaid statement.

“Finally, resources were used to support a multitude of local NGOs advocating reform, especially in the areas of police, gender, decentralisation, land and the Judiciary.”

Kenya’s traditional donors who did not provide figures of their contributions include China, Germany, Japan, Israel, France, and Sweden.

Recovery work

The Canadian government has to date donated more than Sh210 million towards the recovery.

“This includes support to the AU Panel mediation as well as peace building and civic education activities conducted by civil society organisations and public institutions such as the KNCHR,” read a statement by Mr Richard Le Bars, the acting high commissioner.

The government of Switzerland has contributed more than Sh60 million over the past five years to civil society groups working towards the recovery work, said Paola Pelli-Njema, its press attaché at the Nairobi embassy.

The Kenya Red Cross did not disclose its funding details.

But it is know to have been one of the first organisations to respond to the conflict, providing food, clothing and basic medical care to thousands of displaced people. It also built schools, and houses for the displaced. Ms Nelly Muluka, its public relations officer, said most of its funds came from its sister organisations such as the US Red Cross, the Canadian Red Cross and the Norwegian Red Cross.

The decision by foreign donors to by-pass the government benefited the NGOs a great deal.

Hundreds of them sprung up in places where the violence had been the fiercest, especially in parts of Rift Valley, Nairobi, Nyanza and Western provinces. Most of them concentrated on peace building and human rights activism. A number of struggling ones got a kiss of life from donor funding.

But the proliferation of NGOs and other groups does not suggest that the recovery was handled properly. Reports from elsewhere suggest that these organisations have sometimes proved a hindrance to the reconstruction.

By their very nature, these organisations thrive in conflict without which they would be irrelevant and therefore keeping the conflict going means keeping the donor wallets open.

For example, the reconstruction in Haiti after the 2010 devastating earthquake that killed more than 200,000 have virtually stalled as a result of competing NGOs despite billions of dollars being pumped into the impoverished country.

Lack of coordination amongst the NGOs, overlapping of duties, and shortsighted competitions, have seen poor Haitians stay in poverty despite the huge amounts solicited in their name by NGOs.

The NGOs have also been accused of dedicating a great part of their donations on administration rather than activities targeting the people they are supposed to help. This latter point was the subject of a recent article in the UK’s Guardian newspaper, which exposed the myths peddled by NGOs about Kibera slums to the international donors.

The report came to the conclusion that much of the conflicting reports about the slum were from a plethora of NGOs who inflate the figures and distort facts with the sole aim of attracting more donor funding.

But Mr Ken Wafula, the chairman of the NGOs Council and the executive director of the Eldoret-based Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, said that all NGOs should not be painted with the same brush.

“There are good and bad NGOs,” Mr Wafula said.

Some NGOs, he said, have played a crucial role in the reconstruction.

“Were it not for funding from the NGOs, for example, the district peace committees would have died a long time ago,” he said, adding that the NGOs board has started weeding out the rogue organisations.

What isn’t not in dispute is the donor funding glut spawned corruption networks. Several civil servants, especially those in the provincial administration have been charged with embezzling funds and relief meant for the IDPs.