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Reflexions lues dans la presse kenyane de ce jour...

Wrong signals on

Kenya should take note of recent shifts on the HIV pandemic and plan its future actions accordingly.

First was the announcement a month ago by senior officials of the World Health Organisation and UNAids that while HIV remains the biggest health challenge in man’s history, it no longer posed the danger of a global epidemic.

An HIV epidemic, they said, is only a reality in Africa, not the rest of the world.

Although seemingly unrelated, last week, a major pharmaceutical transnational, Roche, announced that it was suspending its HIV drugs research division for ‘‘lack of new scientific advances’’. This development comes soon after most of the world, including Kenya, suspended research on a vaccine against HIV.

These disappointments viewed with the new thinking – that HIV is mainly an African problem – could eventually shift the West’s attention to other ‘‘profitable’’ diseases in their own backyard.

This could translate into less funding for HIV control in Africa, less investment in new drugs, diagnostic tools, and vaccines. This is a development that could totally cripple Aids programmes in the country.

Not to be caught unawares, the Government must fund most of these activities from the national budget. Actually this should have happened a long time ago to minimise programme disruptions for lack of donor funding.

It is time Kenya, and Africa in general, took their destiny in their own hands.


Source :

http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgcontententry.asp?category_id=24&newsid=127551

New coalition government, old cast in Kenya


This article appeared on page A - 17 of the San Francisco Chronicle

To be sure, there are signs that Kenya is returning to normal.
But there are signs that Kenya is heading for another political calamity.

Kenya has requested $1.1 billion from international donors to avert a looming food crisis caused by rising prices, and just 15 percent of the national budget has been allocated for development programs, according to the Mars Group, a Kenyan anti-corruption watchdog organization.

Moreover, the newly created Cabinet positions will cost at least $800 million in office space, staff, bodyguards and state-issued luxury cars, more than a tenth of the national budget. Another $30 million, nearly the amount of the entire education budget, has been set aside for water and power utilities at the presidential estate. And more than $100 million has been allocated for debt payments on so-called ghost projects, including $70 million for a naval ship that has never been delivered and $100 million for a nonexistent fertilizer company, according to the Mars Group.

Why? Parliament has yet to debate the budget. Instead, lawmakers have spent much of their time fighting a plan to tax their annual salaries of $160,000. In contrast, a U.S. senator earns $169,300.

"If they dillydally, and invoke political dishonesty as we have seen in the past - take advantage of power to reintroduce tribalism, corruption, and benefit a nucleus of friends - then there is a likelihood that this will not be a lasting peace," said Omar Hassan, a commissioner with the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights. "The portrayal that Kenya was a unified, dignified, peaceful country, that same myth will be challenged and deconstructed a second time."

Source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/16/MNNU11JP4H.DTL

Article paru dans la presse kenyane de ce jour...un probleme sensible au Kenya et dans toute l'Afrique


EU plan to woo health workers from Africa extremely callous

The European Union plan to develop a “Blue Card” to attract highly-qualified migrants to meet its labour needs raises several urgent concerns, particularly for African governments grappling with critical shortages of health workers.

The International Organisation for Migration says Africa has already lost one third of its human capital and continues to lose skilled personnel at an increasing rate, with an estimated 20,000 doctors, university lecturers, engineers and other professionals leaving the continent annually since 1990.

The organisation estimates that currently, 300,000 highly-qualified Africans are in the diaspora, yet at the same time Africa spends $4 billion annually to employ 100,000 Western experts.

The effects of this brain drain are felt directly in key social sectors in Africa, particularly education and health.

Ten years ago, there were 1,600 doctors in Zambia; only 400 are left now. In Kenya, 90 per cent of the medical personnel migrate to the West every year.

There are more Ethiopia-trained doctors practising in Chicago alone than in the whole of Ethiopia, and more Malawian-trained doctors practising in Manchester than in their motherland.

Largely as a result of this massive haemorrhage of personnel, Africa has only three per cent of the global health workforce, despite bearing 25 per cent of the world’s diseases.

The health workforce is undoubtedly the driver of health systems. Immigration of this precious resource from Africa has resulted in severely weakened health systems that can barely provide services, leave alone pursue the aspirations of the Millennium Development Goals.

The proposed EU Blue Card, a special residence permit granted to immigrants, is only bound to aggravate the situation, legitimising labour movements to Europe at the expense of low-income countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

An exodus of health professionals will create even greater global imbalance, with host countries creating reservoirs of healthcare professionals to replenish their ageing workforce, while African countries have to put increasingly greater pressure on health systems that are already stretched to breaking point.

Ultimately, further depletion of Africa’s intellectual property will reverse gains made in eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, reduction of child mortality, improvement of maternal health, and the fight against HIV and Aids, malaria and other diseases.

The EU must consider the moral and ethical implications of its proposal before introducing the Blue Card. I would ask the EU to have an exclusion clause for health professionals.

But free movement is a human right, and African health professionals will move to Europe anyway, with or without the Blue Card.

Moreover, we cannot ignore globalisation, and the need for African health professionals to contribute to ameliorating the global burden of disease while enjoying the fruits of their hard work.

The challenges of stemming the brain drain are daunting, but certainly not insurmountable. But the efforts must be collaborative between African and Western governments and institutions that recruit from Africa.

To contain the health workers still on the continent and attract others from the diaspora, African governments must vigorously address the “push” factors that lead to migration.

They must provide health professions with employment, competitive salaries and incentives such as good housing, and career development, and health facilities with the necessary basic requirements.

Europe, too, must be proactive in ensuring that African health systems are not robbed of valuable human resources without compensation and restitution.

Support could be extended to programmes that train health workers for the African context, such as Amref’s’ Diploma in Community Health course, and the eLearning Programme that trains nurses virtually, allowing them to learn and work at the same time.

If Europe must recruit from Africa, it should invest in building the capacity of training institutions to enable Africa to train enough health workers for itself and to meet Europe’s needs.

With expanded physical and fiscal space, the EU could contract individual African countries to produce health workers for them.

Ultimately, both the EU and African governments must implement policies that address health workforce densities, the weakened African health systems and resultant inequities, and the global diseases burden.

written by : Dr Ngatia, Director for Capacity Building at the African Medical and Research Foundation (Amref)

Deja dans l'Antiquite romaine, les politiciens avaient pour slogan : Pour mieux diriger et regner, donnez des jeux au peuple.

Plus de deux mille annees plus tard, c'est toujours d'une efficacite evidente...

Rien ne mettra donc un frein a ce que je qualifierais, ou d'inertie, ou de betise humaine ???!!!

161 000 dollars US pour la préparation du Kenya aux JO de Pékin

Le gouvernement kenyan a annoncé, samedi, qu’il mettrait plus de 100 millions de shillings (161 000 dollars) à la disposition de ses athlètes pour leur permettre de préparer les Jeux olympiques (JO) et les Jeux paralympiques, prévus à Pékin, en Chine, en août prochain.

En annonçant la nouvelle à Nairobi, alors qu’il honorait de sa présence les préparatifs des Championnats nationaux d’athlétisme, le président de la République, Mwai Kibaki, a salué les bonnes performances de l’athlétisme kenyan sur le continent et sur la scène internationale.

« Je ne doute pas que la détermination de ces hommes et femmes nous permettront d’envoyer davantage de sportifs aux Jeux de Pékin », a-t-il ajouté, indiquant que tout sera mis en œuvre pour que la préparation des représentants kenyans se passe dans de bonnes conditions, afin de permettre au pays de remporter beaucoup de médailles aux JO 2008.

COMMENTAIRE : QUEL GASPILLAGE EHONTE !!!

Une triste realite, evoquee dana la presse kenyane de ce jour :

An illiterate society is an abomination


Just when Kenyans were showing off to the rest of the world how successfully they have implemented the ambitious free primary education programme, Education minister Sam Ongeri drops a bombshell.

It came as a rude shock when the minister revealed that close to half of Kenya’s 33 million people are illiterate, with the majority being youths in their most productive years.

Kenyans in general should be utterly alarmed that 39 per cent of youths aged between 15 and 25 years cannot read and write.

Immediate remedial measures are required since the education sector is a prime factor in achieving the Millennium Development Goals by the year 2015.

More so, the much-touted Vision 2030 might turn out to be a pipe-dream if half of the population will be largely illiterate. After all, young people comprise more than 60 per cent of the population.

While the minister has fingered poverty, the marginalisation of certain regions, and the high drop-out rate as some of the contributing factors, it would be prudent to look deeper into other issues that may contribute to such a sorry state.

The lack of education culture among Kenyans, and barriers to education due to traditional practices, must be tackled urgently.

Significantly, the high rate of the educated but unemployed youth has also led to negative thinking to the effect that education does not pay.

Entrenched corruption has also produced some very wealthy individuals, sending the wrong signals to impressionable youth that education is a waste of time.

An illiterate population in the 21st century is an abomination. It is an indictment of our value system as a society, and our education system.

It is now over 10 years since Kenyans started agitating for an overhaul of the education system to update the syllabus in keeping up with the market needs and social development. This has not happened.

However, such candour from a minister should give us hope. Now that he has recognised there is an urgent need, and he is in a position to do something about it, he should get moving with all deliberate speed.

Cet article pau ce jour dans la presse kenyane, a lire... :

Does anybody deserve to be so poor in a world of riches?

Lien : http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgcontententry.asp?category_id=25&newsid=125673

Le livre ayant pour titre "La Maasai Blanche" a eu un enorme succes aupres des lecteurs de tous pays, traduit en differentes langues et vendu a des millions d'exemplaires.
Je ne ferai pas ici de reflexions quant a la veracite des faits et ne tirerai pas de conclusions de l'experience vecue par Corinne Hofmann.
Mais la saga du business ne s'arrete pas et un autre livre vient de paraitre.
Voici quelques reflexions trouvees sur le Net au sujet de cette derniere publication.

A LIRE OU A NE PAS LIRE ??? LE LIVRE N'EST BIEN ENTENDU PAS ENCORE EN VENTE AU KENYA, je ne peux donc pas donner mon avis personnel.

EXTRAIT PUBLIE A TITRE INFORMATIF SEULEMENT !!!


Reunion in Barsaloi / Corinne Hofmann

Genre: Memoir
Main characters: Corinne Hofmann, Lketinga
Summary: This is the second sequel of a book that has kept me amazed throughout the years (I keep being amazed every time I think of it actually), called The White Massai. The hero of that book is a Swiss woman, Corinne, who is visiting Kenya with her fiance when she notices a local guy, Lketinga, a Samburu. She finds him so dashing that she instantly falls in love with him, abandoning her fiance and her life in Switzerland in order to go live with Lketinga in the bushes. The two marry and she bears him a daughter, but he starts treating her badly so after a while she takes her daughter and moves back to Switzerland. Fourteen years have passed between that moment and the beginning of this book, and Corinne has now decided to go back to Kenya to pay a visit to the African branch of her family and this book is her account of the trip.


First of all, let's get Lketinga out of the way. I have never understood how Corinne could see him so beautiful, I have always seen him as ordinary at best. Now he's fourteen years older and at times he looks like a really old man (though he's not). As for his behaviour... I have always thought of him as "stuck in the tradition". He never went to school so there are a lot of things that he doesn't understand. The word that comes through my head on thinking about him is "wariness", as one always has to be wary around him, he gets annoyed quite easily. Nevertheless he did his best to make a good impression on Corinne this time around -- but I somehow never trusted him enough not to spoil everything though (I was wrong, he behaved sort of okay until the end). A character I have really liked in both books is Lketinga's mother, Corinne 's mother-in-law. I can only imagine how surprised she had been at first on seeing that her son wanted to marry a white woman, a woman that knew nothing of the language and habits of the Samburu. Nevertheless Lketinga's mother has grown to love the stranger and she and Corinne ended up really close. It's sort of strange seeing the pictures of the woman, as she looks so... primitive -- she sure is in a lot of ways, but she does know how to love and make herself loved. Yep, I have really liked her and looked forward to each of her appearances in this book.

As for Corinne... she is now in a sort of pilgrimage to her strange past, a past that she looks back at with fond eyes though it hadn't been quite easy on her at the time. I liked her simplicity again -- the way she just told the stories without trying to over embellish them. I think of her as a very brave woman -- I heard some people referring of her as crazy, leaving Europe behind in order to go live in Africa, but I can only think about her as very brave, and I really admire her for that. Of course, the trip in this book had been nothing compared to what she did before, as she wasn't alone now and she was sort of a minor star -- I still admire her and think of her as brave, in the light of her past.

A lot of things have changed in this fourteen years. Modern life is starting to make itself felt even in the middle of the huts in Kenya (there are a lot of plastic bags everywhere now, a lot of stores, a lot of children now go to school). So much so that Corinne started feeling sorry (and I with her) that the people there are going to eventually lose all their wonderful traditions, everything that made them special (not that they have only wonderful traditions, mind you; for example they are still circumcising both boys of a certain age and girls before marriage). I know that eventually they'll be forced into civilization as there have been others before them -- and I cannot help being sorry for everything Corinne has known and found utterly beautiful all these years ago, such as the beauty of girls costumes or the impressiveness of warriors' getups. The world will probably be a little less colorful place without them.

What I liked most:
The changed way Corinne sees Barsaloi (her ex-husband's village) now. She finds it beautiful but she sees it with the eyes of an European -- this had never happened before. She had loved Lketinga so much she ended up disliking her home country and loving the dung houses village, where whole families lived in a hut no larger than a simple room. But now her love had passed and she sees everything like it is, like we the readers of her book saw it back then: different, interesting, beautiful at times but very hard to live in. And you get to realize: oh my God she really loved that guy.

What I liked least:
The fact that...well, nothing actually happens in the book. There's no intrigue, there's no tension. Sure I was curious to see how Corinne's family will treat her after all these years, but still. I would be hard pressed if I actually had to narrate the book, as it's only a string of visits to formerly known places. While we still get to find out some facts about the Masai (such as the adults are never called by their name in their presence -- after they have the first child they are called Mama name-of-child and Papa name-of-child; before that some generic words are used, "mparatut" (wife) and "lepayian" (husband)), there's nothing as fascinating as there was in the first book.

Recommend it? Only if you have read the first book.

BY : Kay's Bookshelf

In all ways, Kenya is facing very difficult times ahead

Reflexions lues dans la presse kenyane de ce jour

FELLOW KENYANS, WE ARE being buffeted by a second crisis. No, I am not talking about the post-election fallout and turmoil and the continuing standoff regarding who gets what piece of the action.

I am talking about the breathtaking spiralling cost of living, eating and just existing and how it is fast overtaking more and more people’s ability to manage and to feed their families.

Kenya has more than half its population living on the wrong side of the poverty line and is in the top 10 league of the most unequal societies in the world.

Much of the 1990s and early part of this decade were lost years in terms of economic progress.

Add onto that the endemic corruption, misuse of power and disproportionate economic progress and gains of the last few years. The latter is most important.

Tourism and horticulture may have raced ahead, but some vital economic and social sectors that millions of Kenyans depend on such as sugar, pyrethrum and cotton have languished.

NOW, LET’S ADD ON TO THAT THE present and get closer to the nub of the crisis. Regardless of the reasons behind it, the hard fact is that Kenya needs to import a large slice of its staple foods: two thirds of its wheat; three quarters of its rice; over a third of its sugar; much of its edible oils, and so on.

In a bad year, and this is likely to be one, we will also have a strategic deficit of maize and will need to import, especially in the third quarter of the year.

There was a time, not long ago, when several people, myself included, advocated that we should not build up strategic reserves of maize but import domestic shortfalls because the former was exceedingly expensive.

Now all that is turned upside down. Consumption of food is outstripping supply and that is not a temporary blip. World food stocks are at the lowest they have been for years.

This is for a number of well-documented reasons: increasing consumption particularly in the fast growing economies of China and India; poor harvests, and the diversion of some of these products into making biofuel.

Prices are literally going through the roof. Wheat prices have doubled in a year, and on average, world food prices have increased by some 40 per cent this year alone.

The price of locally grown maize is rising by the week and is in the region of Sh1,400 per 90-kilo bag. It will not be long until it reaches the world price which is now in excess of Sh2,000.

Indeed, countries are now imposing restrictions or taxes on food exports in order to safeguard or preserve their domestic supplies.

There are very few food products that will be unaffected. If supply tightens and prices rise, one shifts to a cheaper food.

Demand for that product increases and prices rise accordingly.

Secondly, Kenya is in no position to buck the world trend because of the quantity of food it needs to import.

To round off the picture, there are three other factors: fertilizer prices, the post-election mayhem, and fuel prices.

As farmers are finding out, the former has doubled in less than a year. If one can afford it, all well and good. But many farmers can’t and are either cutting back on the acreage, or using less fertiliser.

EITHER WAY, WE END UP WITH REDUCED harvests. It is estimated that the main crop from our breadbasket in North Rift and Trans Nzioa will be at least 30 per cent less this year.

The second factor resulted in some of our crop being destroyed, reduced acreage under cultivation and delays in planting. It is an important negative cause but should be seen in the context of the other issues and not blamed solely for the price rises.

Thirdly there is the oil factor. Oil prices are now in excess of $100 a barrel, an all-time high even in real terms, and the supply and demand equation is such that we are unlikely to see much relief from that.

The trouble with oil price increases is that they affect literally everything that requires to be transported whether goods or people.

In conclusion, Kenya, and the world, is in the early stages of a price explosion. It has many ramifications. It will plunge more people into poverty.

It will have a negative effect on virtually all our social indicators, particularly in the nutrition and health arenas.

It will continue to result in serious social unrest as those prices bite and scarcities spread. It will test sorely the competence and capacity of government in reducing the impact and keeping social order.


Handle the inevitable food crisis before it is too late

ONE OF THE FIRST TASKS of the new coalition government should be to steer Kenya away from an impending food crisis, which is already having a devastating impact in many parts of the country and is threatening to become a global crisis.
The World Bank has already announced that 33 food-importing countries could face social unrest in the coming months because of rising food costs.

The impact of the food crisis has been particularly hard on the urban poor, as they are less likely to grow their own food, and suffer most from inflation-inducing forces, including the rising cost of fuel, which has been partly blamed for the crisis.

According to UN-Habitat’s State of the World’s Cities Report 2006/7, “Even in situations where a country produces enough food, hunger may persist in urban areas because when inflation hits food supplies, poor urban families may be forced to use up to 80 per cent of their disposable income on food, which means they have little money left over for non-food items, such as rent, school fees and transport.”

A researcher at the Institute of Security Studies in South Africa has noted that the impact of the food crisis will be felt most acutely in African countries, where there is already a lot of anger in urban areas around issues such as unemployment and lack of basic services, especially among the poor.

Kenyans are not known to protest over food prices – we tend to take to the streets only to voice our support or opposition to a political party or leader, not because we cannot afford to feed ourselves or our families.

But given our fragile political situation, rising inflation (now at more than 20 per cent), high unemployment, an impending drought and a declining economy, it won’t be long before people begin to protest in other ways – through crime, looting and violence

High food prices can thus lead to other forms of social instability and anarchy. This scenario is too horrific to even imagine.

What our politicians don’t seem to understand is that survival issues have the potential to bring about regime change. If they are not careful, and if they dilly dally with the country’s future, they will be forced out of office through civil action on a massive scale.

The current food crisis, which is already being felt by Kenyans, could erupt into a political crisis.

Because we have not had a government in place for more than three months, and because thousands of our farmers are sitting idle and dejected in camps, any attempts made by the Government to mitigate the impact of the food crisis will be a little too late – unless measures are put in place right away to increase subsidies to farmers (especially on fertilisers) and subsidising the cost of essential food items, especially for urban poor families.

Kenya is not big on subsidies (it took us years to realise that free education is the cornerstone of every successful economy, both in the developed and in the developing world), but perhaps it is time to come to grips with the fact that without subsidies on basic commodities and services, we may be heading towards becoming a failed state, where the majority starve and the minority remain oblivious to the dying around them.

Unless the Government addresses the food crisis as a matter or priority, the country will be ungovernable in a few months.

What minister would want a portfolio that is so challenging, it is doomed to fail? Before we get to that stage, let the new government navigate us through rough waters that lie ahead before the leaking ship that is Kenya sinks.

ARVs: This is bad news

Article paru dans la presse kenyane de ce jour

Kenya’s efforts to stem the spread and mitigate the impact of HIV and Aids are getting derailed as attention slowly shifts from the scourge.

A report in our health pull-out Thursday made two revelations. The first was that the country’s stock of anti-retroviral drugs was running out.

The second was that the country risks losing Sh13 billion under the Global Fund for HIV/Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria due to inability to manage the money.

By last year, the country had recorded major success in the campaign against HIV and Aids. Prevalence rates had fallen to all-time low of 5.9 per cent, up from 11 per cent a few years ago.

The decline was achieved through aggressive sensitisation campaigns and use of ARVs to prolong the lives of those infected. And these were partly funded by the Global Fund.

It is understandable that the procurement of ARVs was halted in the past two months because of the political crisis that engulfed the country after the December polls.

But that is behind us, and the Health ministry has no reason for failing to provide new stocks.

The worst story, however, is that the country may not receive fresh disbursements from the Global Fund because of lack of accountability.

The national leadership must refocus attention to the anti-Aids campaign, procure the ARVs urgently and mostly importantly, give proper accounts for the Global Fund.








Lu dans le Monde du 06/04/2008 -- MORE HOPEFUL ???



Le Kenya dépensera l'an prochain 3,8 milliards de shillings (39 millions d'euros) pour permettre à 250.000 malades du sida d'accéder à la trithérapie, a indiqué le ministère de la Santé dimanche.

Actuellement, 190.000 patients sont soignés par des antirétroviraux, mais le chiffre augmente d'environ 5.000 unités par mois.

"Le coût du traitement de 190.000 malades pour un an est de 3,42 milliards de shillings et cette somme devrait atteindre les 3,8 milliards l'an prochain pour 250.000 personnes", souligne le communiqué du ministère, qui ajoute disposer des stocks de médicaments pour environ neuf mois.

Depuis l'apparition du sida au début des années 80, l'Afrique sub-saharienne représente 72% des décès attribués au sida et deux-tiers des personnes contaminées par le virus HIV.

La maladie a fait 1,5 million de morts au Kenya.

Mais le taux de prévalence de la maladie a été réduit de 5,9% en 2005 à 5,1% grâce à l'usage de la trithérapie et à la distribution de nouveaux médicaments pour lutter contre les transmissions de mère à enfant.


ET DANS LE SAMBURU DISTRICT ???

voir :http://209.85.129.104/search?q=cache:IQmxh3qVEWoJ:www.indigenous-info-kenya.org/publications/Nomadic%2520News%252011%2520HIVAIDS%2520and%2520the%2520Vulnerable%2520Groups%25202006/HIVAIDS%2520in%2520Samburu%2520and%2520DolDol%2520Kenya.pdf+the+white+samburu&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=117

Effets positifs et pervers du tourisme de masse en Afrique

Le tourisme de masse est-il une aubaine ou bien un désastre pour les pays du tiers-monde ? De retour à Nairobi tout juste quelques semaines après les troubles qui ont suivi les élections présidentielles au Kenya et qui ont fait au bas mot près de 1 500 morts entre le 28 décembre et la fin janvier 2008, j’ai retrouvé un pays vide de touristes, mais redevenu calme et ouvert au débat politique. Si rien de fâcheux ne se passe, les premiers charters vont revenir pour Pâques et le rythme de croisière des safaris et autres divertissements reprendra pour l’été. Est-ce un bien ou un mal pour le Kenya, c’est ce que je vais essayer d’analyser en prenant ce pays comme archétype.

Le tourisme peut-il tuer l’âme d’un pays tout en lui apportant un bien-être non négligeable du fait du flux financier qu’il génère ?

Au premier abord, le Kenya a souffert depuis Noël dernier du manque d’apport de devises dépensées par les touristes du monde entier qui venaient par centaines de milliers visiter les réserves animalières dans des paysages à couper le souffle et s’esbaudir tout en regardant danser des masaïs ou des samburus en costumes pseudo traditionnels, bonne occasion de faire quelques photos et de se préparer des souvenirs inoubliables.

De fait, le shilling kenyan qui s’échangeait à 90 KSH pour un euro avant la crise est descendu fin février à 110 pour se stabiliser désormais au-dessus de 100, malgré l’envolée de la monnaie européenne face au dollar américain. Les conséquences au niveau monétaire sont donc assez faibles, ce qui traduit une relative bonne santé de l’économie kenyane malgré tout fragilisée par la crise politique de fin d’année. Par contre, tout un pan de l’économie regroupant les hôtels de luxe et de catégorie moyenne a subi de plein fouet l’absence de touristes. Les agences de voyages tournent au ralenti, le marché local et les résidents expatriés n’étant pas suffisants pour remplacer le manque à gagner. Une foule de petits métiers gravitant autour des vacanciers a perdu son gagne-pain.

En 2007, Le Kenya a reçu plus d’un million de touristes, soit une hausse de 15 % par rapport à l’année 2006. Au niveau recettes, 95 millions de dollars, soit presque autant que l’exportation de fleurs coupées.

Le tableau est sombre pour le début 2008, avec seulement 27 000 visiteurs depuis le mois de janvier contre les 300 000 arrivées prévues d’après le chiffre du ministère du Tourisme du Kenya, soit une baise de 90 % !

Le compromis entre le gouvernement et l’opposition devrait permettre la relance de l’activité, si les émeutes sont remplacées par le débat d’idées.

Mais la Grande-Bretagne qui a interdit à ses citoyens de se rendre au Kenya est le principal pourvoyeur de touristes au pays et les Etats-Unis souvent pusillanimes ne sont pas prêts à fournir les mêmes contingents qu’avant les troubles. Heureusement la diversification de l’économie a atténué la crise, bien que l’industrie de la fleur coupée ait un peu souffert des émeutes à Nyavasha.

Heureusement, la Saint-Valentin n’a pas été touchée et le Kenya a expédié une quantité massive de roses rouge à la mi-février. L’avenir est plus dans ce genre d’industrie et la relance de la production agricole, orientée vers une meilleure qualité que le bas de gamme comme pour le thé ou le café.

Dans le secteur du tourisme, cependant, de nombreux employés sont au chômage technique, le personnel temporaire a été débauché. Guides, interprètes, chauffeurs et personnel hôtelier souffrent de l’absence de clients ; il en est de même pour les vendeurs de souvenirs de pacotilles, masques faits à la chaîne, bracelets atroces, croûtes peintes immondes et tissus dits africains made in China or Indonesia que les étrangères de passage s’arrachent deux fois le prix pratiqué chez Toto Sold ou à Barbès Rochechouart. C’est encore pire pour les prostituées et les gigolos de la côte, ces beach boys un peu rastas qui faisaient encore la saison dernière le bonheur d’Allemandes, Suissesses et Américaines ménopausées entre Mombasa et Lamu. Celles que l’on appelle Schengen faces quand elles sont Européennes ou Green card faces quand elles viennent des Etats-Unis, ne sont plus là pour remplir l’escarcelle de jeunes oisifs musculeux espérant un hypothétique visa si leurs performances ont été appréciées.

Il est d’ailleurs navrant de constater que ces consommateurs de folklore et d’animaux n’ont qu’une vague idée de l’endroit où ils se trouvent. Même en dehors de la consommation sexuelle, qui est relativement marginale comparée à la masse de touristes visitant les parcs et réserves en famille avec bambins et eau minérale, l’attitude du visiteur moyen est de s’époumoner en criant quelle nature, quelle beauté, sans réellement prendre les habitants en considération. Ce sont des Noirs et c’est tout. Qui s’intéresse aux ethnies, aux coutumes des différentes tribus du pays ? Qui accepte de manger des plats africains en dehors des nyama choma, la viande grillée que l’on trouve un peu partout et du passage obligatoire au Carnivore, le restaurant boîte de nuit où il est possible de savourer de la viande de crocodile, d’autruche, de zèbre et d’antilope à des prix prohibitifs ? Finalement bien peu de gens sur le nombre des visiteurs occasionnels, ceux qui remplissent les avions n’ont en général qu’une idée assez floue de l’endroit où ils se trouvent.

Cela dit, en Europe, en France, même le touriste étranger et aussi français n’est guère plus soucieux de son environnement humain et se comporte souvent de façon aussi ridicule. Il n’est qu’à écouter le ton péremptoire sur lequel un père de famille en short et espadrilles réclame un rouge sec (sic) qu’il a repéré à 18 euros la bouteille sur le menu, une sorte de Corbières ou un vin d’une coopérative de l’Aude qu’il contemple en pleine béatitude larvaire avant de le déguster goulûment avec fatuité devant bobonne et marmaille comme s’il venait de découvrir un Chambertin 1976 ! (Je n’irai pas jusqu’au 1964, car la fatuité a ses limites).

La différence en Afrique est que la manne est repartie de manière inégale et ne profite qu’à un petit nombre d’investisseurs locaux ou étrangers. Les salaires sont certes bas et l’emploi peu attractif dans le secteur de l’hôtellerie restauration en France, mais le prix chambre ne correspond pas à un mois de salaire d’une femme de ménage sauf si on s’adresse aux palaces et cinq étoiles. Et puis, rares sont ceux qui entrent chez un paysan du Rouergue comme en pays conquis en le prenant en photo devant une bouse crémeuse d’un bovin de concours à la satisfaction d’enfants braillards et hyperactifs essayant de taper sur un canard avec un parapluie ou un bâton. Ils se le permettent pourtant quand ils sont devant un éleveur kikuyu ou luo qu’ils prennent pour un masaï, une valeur sûre sur le marché touristique, et sont fort désappointés quand quelqu’un leur annonce le nom incompréhensible de la tribu du pâtre photogénique.

La pratique des voyages organisés tout compris, la fameuse formule all inclusive comprenant le voyage, l’hôtel, les repas et les excursions profite avant tout aux multinationales du tourisme et aux gros investisseurs locaux, les petits n’ont que les miettes et les touristes encadrés dépensent le peu d’argent qu’ils allouent aux extras uniquement dans les limites des complexes hôteliers de Nairobi et de la côte à Malindi, Watamu et autres destinations de rêve.

Le tourisme est bon pour un pays quand les recettes qu’il génère sont équitablement reparties entre un maximum de partenaires et non comme c’est le plus souvent le cas entre compagnies internationales de voyagistes et affairistes kenyans qui ne payent pas beaucoup de taxes sur leurs bénéfices. Qu’il existe une catégorie de professionnels au service des clients bien formés dans une école hôtelière est souhaitable, que toute une population soit obligée de singer des coutumes et porter des costumes se voulant folkloriques pour complaire à des vidéastes amateurs est à la fois déprimant et dévalorisant.

Le tourisme profite à un petit nombre et n’est pas sans risque sur la dignité, l’équilibre psychologique et la culture des habitants. Les dollars, euros et livres sterling dépensés par les touristes ont un impact à la fois positif, mais aussi négatif sur le bien-être et les mentalités. Hélas, si le PIB 555,8 dollars par habitant et le taux de croissance de 4,8 %, ce qui est plutôt bon pour un pays africain, le taux d’inflation est, lui, de 17,9 %. Le tourisme participe aussi à l’inflation ! Quant à la croissance, elle est inégalement repartie, tout le monde ne profite pas de l’afflux de devises des touristes, les salaires sont bas et la redistribution très faible. Le gouvernement a certes la sagesse de réinvestir une partie des taxes dans des projets de sauvegarde de la nature (il ne faut pas tuer la poule aux œufs d’or), mais les éléphants et les tortues marines en profitent plus que les habitants de base, en particulier ceux qui vivent en périphérie des parcs et réserves et ne sont pas en contact direct avec les visiteurs, mais subissent les restrictions dues à la sauvegarde de la faune. Sans oublier que les terres allouées aux animaux et réserves naturelles sont de plus en plus convoitées par des habitants ayant été spoliés par les gouvernements successifs depuis l’indépendance du fait du népotisme et de la corruption qui a régi le droit foncier. La poussée démographique modifie aussi la donne. Garder des terres pour les girafes, éléphants, lions et buffles n’a de sens que si les bénéfices tirés de la visite des animaux sont redistribués aux plus démunis ou, du moins, puissent permettre la reconversion de ceux qui n’ont pas assez de terres. Espérons que cela puisse se faire dans un secteur autre que le tourisme, car il me semble néfaste que toute une population soit directement ou non au service d’une classe de privilégiés étrangers.

Alors, certains bons esprits parlent de tourisme « vert », pourquoi pas s’il existe des retombées équitables pour le pays et ses habitants ! Mais, personnellement, je considère que les éléphants n’ont d’intérêt que s’ils servent à créer des recettes bien redistribuées. Je crois plus dans l’industrialisation et le développement du secteur tertiaire pour améliorer le pays sans le dénaturer.

ARTICLE ECRIT PAR : Georges Yang
http://www.agoravox.fr/article.php3?id_article=37530