Mind Your Neighbors

Mind Your Neighbors

Bereket Gebru

It has become common for Kenyan media to print articles comparing their economic progress to the fast paced growth in Ethiopia. Some of the articles genuinely seek to motivate Kenyans to feel more competitive in the quest for development while others insult Ethiopia and paint an image of superiority of Kenyans in their calls for reawakening. Although the sense of nationalism is understandable, the writers sometimes take things too far and delve away from the facts.

It seems like Kenyans are having a hard time coming to terms with the regional economic supremacy of Ethiopia overtaking their long hold over the accolade. Although it is mainly the economic aspect of their relations that is their center of attention, Ethiopia’s impeccable record against attacks by terrorist groups in the region also constitutes another ground for comparison. In analyzing how Kenya was attacked repeatedly by terrorists from Somalia while Ethiopia managed to keep them out, a Kenyan article printed a couple of years ago remarked that the basic difference is that Kenyans have an open society while their Northern neighbors are closed. Instead of blaming the corrupt Kenyan law enforcement that does a bad job of keeping peace and promoting security, the writer chose to blame Ethiopians for securing their territory.

I have raised this issue because the Kenyan media Daily Nation came up with an article by someone named Kennedy Chesoli entitled: “Look North, to Ethiopia, for Progress” last week. The article generally applauds Ethiopia’s rapid rise and urges Kenyans to drop dwelling on small matters to look North and take some lessons about development from Ethiopia. When presenting Ethiopia’s rugs to riches story, however, there is the usual misinformation and intentional exaggeration.

The article starts by stating: “According to the United Nations, least developing countries are fragile, vulnerable and exhibit the lowest indicators of socioeconomic development. They are the poorest and weakest, dependent on foreign assistance for their survival. Ethiopia, our northern neighbour, belongs to this group.” Everything stated in the paragraph applies to Ethiopia. It is highly dependent on foreign assistance with key sectors such as agriculture and health grossly dependent on foreign funds.

However, the last sentence which expresses Ethiopia’s categorization as a Least Developed Country intentionally fails to state that Kenya belongs to the same group. It is these small drifts from honesty that give us a window to look into the real feelings the writers harbor within them. Everyone knows that Kenya is an LDC; so why would a Kenyan writer only use that reference to Ethiopia and not Kenya? After following Kenyan articles for some years now, I have consistently witnessed that they consider themselves far more economically better off than Ethiopians and East Africans in general.

That sense of a better standing doesn’t end in the economic realm. Kenyans also feel (or at least felt) that they are socially more advanced and politically more mature than their Northern neighbor. Kenyans mocked Ethiopians for the bloody aftermath of the 2005 elections; opinions from Kenya mainly portrayed Ethiopians as barbaric people. However, it only took less than two years before Kenyans descended into the same quagmire. Ethiopians never went back into bloody election aftermaths since the 2005 elections but Kenyans have had repeated violent election aftermaths since the 2007 election. Another thing to note is that Ethiopians fought against the incumbent in the aftermath of the 2005 election and the atrocities were committed by those in power. On the contrary, Kenyans fought among themselves taking sides with the candidates whose fathers ruled the country in the early days of independence. The same candidates ran for office in subsequent elections for the same effect. The recent radical political reforms in Ethiopia make the contrast starker as the political platform is widening to incorporate all Ethiopians throughout the political spectrum.  

As stated earlier, the sense of social superiority that is portrayed through a claim to be open is also unfounded. How can a society that has failed to create a functioning system of transferring political power claim to be open? Where are the tolerance and inclusiveness that mark an open society? Even if they were an open society, would that be an outright cause for superiority?

Kennedy Chesoli also goes on to remark that Ethiopia has an unfavorable climate and challenging landscape that lead to devastating famines. Instead of presuming that the causes of the famines would not be beyond unfavorable climatic conditions, the writer could have read about it. There are countries whose majority is covered with ice or is taken up by a desert. However, we don’t hear such countries being stricken by repeated famine as much as Ethiopia does. Accordingly, Ethiopia’s famines have more to do with food self-sufficiency than with climatic conditions. The writer would be surprised to find out that Ethiopia has got a favorable climate for agriculture, tourism and life in general.

Sorry if I sound a bit bitter but I am a bit frustrated about the constant trolling Ethiopia receives from Kenyan writers. I have not read any feature articles by Ethiopians on Kenya. Ethiopian stories about Kenya are generally news stories. On the contrary, there are a number of references to Ethiopia on Kenyan articles. I have also witnessed that Kenyan media feel like their articles are read only in their own country. In the globalized world of today, however, they need to edit their articles with the feelings of neighbors in mind.

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