Reviewing record of African Peer Review Mechanism

On 13th June, 2015,President Uhuru Kenyatta enthused about this engagement of a country’s citizens in preparing ground for their government to ‘’conform to the agreed values in democracy and political governance, economic governance, corporate governance and socio-economic development’’’. This is a clear departure from colonial governance of silence by those who bore burdens of foreign […]

On 13th June, 2015,President Uhuru Kenyatta enthused about this engagement of a country’s citizens in preparing ground for their government to ‘’conform to the agreed values in democracy and political governance, economic governance, corporate governance and socio-economic development’’’. This is a clear departure from colonial governance of silence by those who bore burdens of foreign exploitation; as well as military and civilian dictatorships after independence.
There are also continuous and periodical monitoring of efforts by government to implement recommended activities and policies. The ‘’Panel of Experts’’; the secretariat of the APRM, and the local civil society groups are charged with this task. It is within this framework that in 2012 I travelled to Ghana, Kenya, and Rwanda to report of their performances on ‘’Cross-cutting Issues’’ mandated in their Country Report. In Accra, traffic jams delayed my arrival for interviews, while in Rwanda there was palpable fear of talking to a UNECA researcher.
The APRM office in Accra boasted photographs of country APRM teams from as far away as Mozambique, Uganda, Tanzania as well as other ECOWAS member states, including Nigeria. They had travelled to learn from Ghana’s initiatives. A cardinal one was their taking transparency to community levels by training local agents who administered questionnaires to local people on their perception of performances of nurses in health clinics; agricultural extension workers; judicial officials; police; school teachers; local councillors and local government chairmen. Results of these questionnaires were reported to the community with all the officials in attendance. It was made clear that the exercise was not punitive but a communal search for better performance. APRM had fed democracy at the ‘’grassroots’’.
NGO staff interviewed reported frustration with lack of funds to enable them monitor performance by government agencies. They complained about corrupt officials making false allegations against former officials who left office with clean records as a strategy for demoralising the public; and divert attention from past and new corrupt practices. NGOs lacked access to the press who tended to report utterances of those who paid bribes. Former President Jerry Rawlings was accused of using unemployed youths and party thugs to physically assault politicians accused of corrupt practices; and seizing properties they were alleged to have acquired through corruption while in government.
 APRM reports on Ghana and Nigeria had shown very low scores in the promotion of women to top executive jobs in the public and private sectors. Consequently, the Atta-Mills government appointed a woman as Minister of Justice to legislate reforms which prevented government from implementing a campaign pledge to ensure 40 percent of women representation in his cabinet. The APRM report had animated women associations to demand affirmative action by government. Ghana slow progress was despite the fact Kwame Nkrumah, founder president of independent Ghana had, in 1957, implemented the inclusion of women in regional and national governments.
In Rwanda, the tragic effects of the 1994 genocide had produced both progressive and repressive policies. On the health front, parents were imprisoned if they failed to pay a token fee which ensured access of expensive drugs provided at highly subsidized prizes. The immunization of children and protection against malaria had prime importance for rebuilding the population.
The conviction that Belgian colonial policy had deliberately engineered hatred between ‘’Hutu’’ and ‘’Tutsi’’, was being countered by making it illegal to identify people with those invented colonial identities; while youth camps were indoctrinating school children a single ‘’Rwandan’’ identity. Accordingly, politicians who sought to exploit tribal feelings were imprisoned for promoting ‘’genocide ideology’’; while privately-owned media were prohibited from receiving funds through carrying advertisements.  With 85 per cent of the population being ‘’Hutu’’, it was clear that political parties which aroused their tribal sentiment during election campaigns would carry victory. Post-genocide Rwanda  had to evolve creative good political and economic governance with development ‘’democracy’’ for long-term healing.
In Kenya, the post-election violence of December 2007/February 2008 had shocked political elites into supporting the 2010 constitutional referendum that shattered presidential budget dictatorship and took finances to regional governments. A legacy of ethno-racial centralisation gave way to ‘’majimboism’’ (or ‘’true federalism’’).  Members of parliament won ‘’constituency funds’’ from the central treasury whose administration excluded the MPs themselves. While they earned electoral legitimacy, they were protected from the cash.