SCHROEDER HAILS

KENYA DEMOCRACY REFORM

Tuesday, 20 January, 2004 10:52

By Helen Nyambura

NAIROBI (Reuters) - German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, calling newly-democratic Kenya a model for Africa, has announced a doubling of aid to the country to help strengthen its transition from decades of authoritarian rule.

On the second leg of an Africa tour, Schroeder said after talks with President Mwai Kibaki bilateral aid would double to 25 million euros per year for 2004 and 2005.

"Germany pays tribute to the reform efforts of the new government and actively supports Kenya in its historic transition," said a statement by Schroeder's delegation, adding the money would go mainly to water, health and farming projects.

"The increased bilateral contribution underlines the fact that Kenya is a key partner for Germany in the region and a model for the continent."

Kenya recorded one of the most remarkable democratic changes in Africa just over a year ago by peacefully retiring one of the continent's last old-style political strongmen, Daniel arap Moi.

Analysts say corruption flourished among a predatory elite of businessmen, MPs and civil servants in Moi's 24-year rule which ended in December 2002 with a huge election win for Kibaki.

FIGHTING CORRUPTION

Kibaki has moved strongly to fight corruption and recently suspended half the country's top judges for taking bribes. He is also working to recover up to $4 billion (2.2 billion pounds) in public funds his officials say was stolen and hidden abroad during Moi's rule.

Schroeder, who flew in on Monday evening from Ethiopia, is on his first official visit to the continent and will go on to South Africa and Ghana. Accompanied by business executives, Schroeder is focusing on aid, trade and security.

German diplomats say the countries were chosen because they are pillars of stability in Africa and their recent political history provide examples of peaceful democratic transition.

Kenya, whose palm-fringed Indian Ocean coast is a favourite German holiday destination, is of particular concern to Berlin because of its proximity to neighbouring Somalia, seen as a potential haven for Muslim militants, German officials say.

"One of the biggest security problems of our time is no longer strong states who could be a threat to their neighbours, but it is mainly weak states... notorious 'failed states' or 'states at risk' which are like black holes from which phenomena like terrorism can arise," Bernd Muetzelburg, Schroeder's foreign policy advisor, told reporters in Berlin this month.

Germany's naval forces help patrol sea routes off the east African coast, its principal contribution to a multinational security mission set up in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks amid fears the Horn of Africa could harbour Muslim extremists.

Those fears were realised when 15 people were killed in an attack on an Israeli-owned Mombasa hotel in November 2002 which coincided with a failed attempt to bring down an Israeli airliner with two shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles.

The attacks, claimed by al Qaeda, also hit Kenya's economy by scaring tourists away for months. U.S. officials say al Qaeda was also responsible for attacks on the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 which killed more than 200 people.

U.N. security experts said in a report last year that the Mombasa attacks were organised by al Qaeda fighters armed and trained in neighbouring Somalia.