The Economist - UK (2022-06-04)

The Economist June 4th 2022 Middle East & Africa 43

pushing them farther north-west into Con-
go’s Ituri province. Uganda’s bigger aim is
to provide security for building roads into
eastern Congo, including territory close to
the area where Rwanda and Uganda con-
verge. Uganda’s president, Yoweri Museve-
ni, hopes to draw more of eastern Congo’s
trade, including the illicit flow of minerals,
through Uganda rather than Rwanda. But
in February Mr Kagame sneered at Ugan-
da’s operations in Congo and implied that
the adf had linked up with Rwandan Hutu
rebels implicated in the genocide. “We will
wage war where it started,” he said. “We do
what we must do, with or without the con-
sent of others.”
To get his way Mr Kagame may try to ex-
ploit divisions within Uganda’s ruling cir-
cle. While at loggerheads with President
Museveni, he has been cosying up to the
Ugandan leader’s son, Muhoozi Kaineru-
gaba, who commands Uganda’s land forc-
es. Lieutenant-General Kainerugaba has
hinted on Twitter that he might like to suc-
ceed his ageing father at the next election,
in 2026. He has also advertised his warm-
ing friendship with Mr Kagame.
Uganda’s president is plainly annoyed
by Mr Kagame’s ploys. The father can still,
it seems, make his son jump. On May 17th,
just hours after the Ugandan general said
he would withdraw his troops from Congo,
he abruptly changed his mind and said on
Twitter that the mission would carry on for
at least another six months. Mr Museveni,
not to be outdone by Mr Kagame, or by his
own son, has said he too would send troops
to Mozambique.
The un, which has been trying in vain
to keep the peace in Congo for more than
20 years and still has 16,000 soldiers and
police there, has already been drawn back
into the fray—and is hitting them23. But
the un’s special envoy needs first of all to
make Congo’s competing eastern neigh-
bours accommodate each other. Other-
wise, the eac’s hopes of becoming an eco-
nomic powerhouse may be dashed within
months of its enlargement. 

TANZANIA

KENYA

UGANDA

North

Kivu

Goma

Ituri

CONGO Clashes involvingrebel groups, 2022*

RWANDA

BURUNDIBURUNDI

Lake

Victoria Nairobi

Kampala

Kigali

150 km

RWANDA

BURUNDI

Infrastructure projects

Sources: ACLED; government reports *To June 1st

Roads Electricity lines

Criminal justice in Kenya

Inequality before the law

F

ighting an electioncampaign is a

time-consuming business. Prudent

candidates therefore like to rid themselves

of distractions well beforehand. Aisha

Jumwa, an mp running to become a county

governor in Kenya’s general election on

August 9th, is a model of efficiency in this

regard. On April 5th, after a judge ruled that

prosecution evidence had been withheld

from Ms Jumwa’s lawyer, she secured a

five-month delay in a trial where she is ac-

cused of murdering a political rival’s uncle.

Six days later she persuaded a magistrate

hearing a separate case in which she is

charged with embezzling constituency

funds to grant a similar postponement. Ms

Jumwa denies both charges.

Mathew Lempurkel was meant to be

missing August’s election since he was in

prison after being convicted of assaulting

the woman who unseated him as mp the

last time Kenyans went to the polls, in 2017.

In December, however, a judge agreed to

release him pending an appeal. Mr Lem-

purkel, a populist who is also on trial for

hate speech, has been cleared to run

against his former victim.

A decade or so ago the idea of Kenyan

judges granting bail was as outlandish as

the prospect of a politician appearing in

their courts. Defendants often languished

in custody for years. But since a new con-

stitution was adopted in 2010, judges must

now allow bail in almost all cases, no mat-

ter how serious the charge. Campaigners

have welcomed this move, since it should

strengthen the presumption of innocence.

The reality is often different. If you have

the misfortune to be hauled before a Ken-

yan court, your immediate fate often de-

pends on how much cash you have. Magis-

trates and judges may grant bail, but poor

Kenyans often cannot afford to raise it. Big-

wigs rarely have this problem. Between

2016 and 2020, official data show that Ken-

ya’s jails held an average of just under

120,000 remand prisoners a year, more

than 60% of the total prison population.

None was a politician.

Kenya has made impressive strides in

improving political accountability in re-

cent years. Anti-corruption agencies and

prosecutors have shown greater stomach

for pursuing the powerful. Stroll through

the corridors of the anti-corruption courts

and the list of well-connected defendants

is striking. On May 30th, for example, Mo-

hammed Swazuri, a former chief of the Na-

tional Lands Commission, was facing

fraud charges. The ex-head of Kenya’s state

power utility was later up before the same

magistrate to answer corruption allega-

tions. In a second court a county governor

was explaining how he had nothing to do

with the disappearance of funds from a

World Bank project.

Yet this progress is being undermined

because it is still far too easy for big shots

to game the system and slow the judicial

wheels while out on bail. This is partly be-

NAIROBI

The police and the courts smile on the powerful and punish the poor