Some African leaders perpetuate corruption and incompetence, while the US and Western Europe avail convenient justifications for such behavior, which hurts Africans.
Kenya’s president William Ruto complained that Russia-Ukraine war delayed the arrival of fertilizer, and made the input expensive, just before information surfaced that Moscow had donated over 560 tonnes of raw fertilizers to Kenya last year, which Mr. Ruto’s leadership likely misappropriated according to Kenya’s Auditor General (here). The fertilizer which is reported to have ‘disappeared’ in transit may have been registered as private consignment by politically-connected individuals who resold it, denying farmers and the government input and revenue respectively. This paper looks into how African leaders’ incompetence worsens citizen’s wellbeing, while the US and Western Europe avail excuses for ‘allied’ African leaders to advance The West’s supremacist goals.
Brazenly Corrupt, Weak to Admit Responsibility
As Kenyan’s protests subsided in early July, the role of corrupt and irresponsible leadership in worsening citizen’s life became clearer, as details emerged that over 560 Tonnes of raw fertilizer donated by Russia to Kenya last year had disappeared (here). Only 33, 835 tonnes were received by the agency responsible for distributing farm inputs. Responsible receipt and distribution of the donated 560 tonnes would have contributed to easing citizen’s cost of living and improving the government’s financial positions. The fertilizer would have lowered farmers’ cost of production while increasing agricultural output and hence lowering food prices. Meanwhile, the government would have received some income selling the fertilizer, noting that the small amounts received were sold to farmers, which may have reduced the need to raise taxes, and probably averted the recent protests, an opportunity that was clearly missed. From the foregoing, it is clear that the efforts of Kenya’s friend Russia to help the country were hampered by the prevailing corrupt and incompetent political leadership, which was following The West’s example as seen below.
Following the West’s broken, yet Supremacist Leadership
President Ruto is following in the tradition of his western, self-styled ‘democrats’ in blaming others instead of solving his problems. It has become fashionable to blame Moscow, even for one’s failure, including while misappropriating the assistance availed by Russians. Meanwhile, the US and Western Europe are giving their ‘allies’ narratives to justify the latters’ corruption, while enabling The West to advance its racist objective of controlling Russia’s resources such as fertilizer. The same narratives are also helping Washington’s allies to avoid scrutiny, to the detriment of their citizenry, for instance in Mr. Ruto’s shifting his government’s responsibility to provide affordable fertilizer to farmers in a timely manner to Moscow. The most notable point from Mr. Ruto’s speech at Ukraine’s Peace Summit was that “Kenyans in remote villages knew about the Russia-Ukraine war because fertilizer arrived late and was expensive”. However, it turns out that the fertilizer could have arrived earlier and in abundance if Mr. Ruto was competent and his leadership was not corrupt. Last year, vigilant Kenyans wondered why the government was selling subsidized fertilizer while Russia had donated it for free. With the recent exposé, the Kenyan government might have been able to give free fertilizers to farmers had the Russia’s entire donation of over 560 tonnes of raw fertilizer not been stolen. Preliminary investigation by Kenya’s Auditor General suggests that the fertilizer was taken by politically connected traders who sold it at a profit (here). One wonders how much money the government would have made if it sold the fertilizer to farmers. Surprisingly, Mr. Ruto’s government, that could not manage donated fertilizer well, joined the cacophony of The Wests’ seeking to control Russia’s entire fertilizer industry and the global market.
Cannot Produce but Can Control other’s resources ‘to Save the World’?
The West cannot produce enough fertilizer for itself and African ‘allies’ but both can blame Russia for ‘global shortages’ and ‘price increases’: very absurd. The Voice of America (VOA, here) shows the US appointing itself the world’s spokesperson to heap blame on Russia, and details how Invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 increased world fertilizer prices by 250%, according to World Food Program (WFP). Also, it adds that these prices were already high due to Covid-19, and quotas imposed by Moscow on exports, which were aimed at availing this farm input to Russian farmers. Readers should note The Wests’ domineering attitude, that alludes that Russia’s deciding to preferentially avail fertilizer made at home to its farmers is wrong because it causes ‘global shortages’, and ‘raises global prices’. The hypocritical Westerners invoke the WFP’s estimates that ‘small holder farmers in developing countries’ will experience 66-million-tonne reduction in harvest, but leave out the information that The West wastes over a hundred million tonnes of food annually, which would alleviate hunger if delivered to poor communities globally. Similar hypocrisy is notable in president Ruto’s blaming Russia for Kenya’s shortage of fertilizer at Ukraine’s Peace Summit, implying that Russians should stop defending relatives in eastern Ukraine and concentrate on producing fertilizer for the whole world and for free, since the EU sanctions hinders Moscow from receiving payments for fertilizer exports. Mr. Ruto conveniently ignored how his corrupt functionaries may have stolen over 560 tonnes of raw fertilizer donated by Russia, just like the VOA and other outlets cannot explain why Washington, Brussels and their surrogates cannot make enough fertilizer for themselves and the world they purport to care about. From the foregoing, The West’s lazy control freaks have appointed themselves to appropriate Russia’s resources for their profit by purporting to govern the unruly world.
Scaling New Heights of Duplicity for Profits
The US and EU’s efforts to control the supply of Russia’s fertilizer ‘to small holder farmers in developing countries’ is aimed at securing their profits. The West would care less if the rest of the world starves, considering both waste 60 million (US) and 55 million (Europe) tonnes of food annually (here, here), which they have never thought of donating to the so-called developing countries. However, the VOA suggests that the rest of the world under the supervision of Washington should sit pretty and wait for Russians to make and give them fertilizers for free, as it adds that Moscow donated 260 tonnes of fertilizer ‘sitting’ in European ports and warehouses for use by farmers in Africa. The VOA (here) omits the fact that this fertilizer had been impounded due to the EU’s barbaric sanctions on Russia’s fertilizers export (here), meaning that The West cannot stand revealing that it restricted the supply of fertilizers to ‘developing countries’. Still, its other side of the mouth wants audiences to blame Moscow in unison; hypocrisy that has seeped into Washington ally, Mr. Ruto to the detriment of Kenyans. His (Mr. Ruto’s) incompetence is to blame for the tough position Kenya is in, even as he attempts to blame others, including Moscow, which was genuinely trying to help. It is high time that Kenyan and African leaders accept that they cannot hide their sleaze and ineffectiveness forever, as the truth will occasionally come out.
Simon Chege Ndiritu, is a political observer and research analyst from Africa, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.