The question is often asked why Ethiopia, which has brutally intervened in Somalia many times and which has a bigger ethnic Somali population than Kenya’s, does not suffer terrorist attacks. The answer is that Ethiopians are at once fiercely patriotic and much less corrupt than other East Africans with the possible exception of Rwanda under Paul Kagame. And not just Ethiopian public officials. Ordinary Ethiopians are the main guarantors of their nation’s peace. Perhaps because of their history with Marxism, they have the Nyumba Kumi (Ten Houses) community policing set-up which means that a suspicious stranger would be reported very rapidly to the authorities. In Kenya, the people charged with protecting the nation’s borders — the immigration department and the police — are legendary for their appetite for bribes. nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/Shabaab-exploiting-Kenyan-corruption/-/440808/2020138/-/1vhcex/-/index.html
Posted on: Sun, 06 Oct 2013 10:56:25 +0000