{UAH} May God punish us with a well-paid standby force - Comment - www.theeastafrican.co.ke
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May God punish us with a well-paid standby force - Comment
At the recent African Union Summit in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta drummed up the call by African ministers of defence for member countries to pull their weight to ensure an African Standby Force is ready for deployment by 2015.
However, Kenyatta is aware that Kenya doesn't pay the bills for its troops in the African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia, Amisom. The West does.
And he noted that fact when he said, "Our partners and friends have been of great help to us. But to rely on outside help for our security would be to sully our independence. In any case, the help is often inadequate to our needs, and its application inflexible."
The AU could not even build its own new headquarters in Addis Ababa. The Chinese coughed up a $200 million grant for the 20-storey complex.
Should the African Standby Force come into being in 2015, someone will still have to pick up the tab. It will either be the Chinese, Americans, or Europeans. It is highly unlikely that African states will write any cheques for it.
Yet, I am really looking forward to the African Standby Force, because I think it has very positive subversive and disruptive possibilities.
Take Somalia. Though some commanders and military chiefs are chopping and pocketing part of the UN-sourced salaries paid to soldiers in Amisom, what the troops are left with is still better pay than they get back home. And, unlike back home, the Amisom salaries are paid on time.
Now Burundi is a major troop contributor to Amisom, and the African Union peacekeeping force in the Central African Republic (CAR). However, as President Pierre Nkurunziza plots to change the constitution so he can run for a third term, tensions are mounting in Burundi as he purges those opposing his project. His party is even raising private militias.
If Burundi melts down, the role of its troops in Somalia and CAR would have to end. Will Burundi soldiers agree to go back home, wear tattered uniforms, go without pay for months, and watch the country revert to its nightmarish past? Probably not — unless the regime keeps them happy with Amisom-style pay.
Therefore, as the peacekeeping industry by African armies grows, and the African Standby Force comes into being, soldiers from troop-contributing countries will develop a vested interest in stability at home.
And we could therefore see a return of coups, as they fire presidents who jeopardise the peacekeeping gravy train, and hire those who will keep it on its tracks.
But also, if China and America are supplying the dry rations, boots, and paying the salaries of Africa's soldiers, it will give them greater leverage than they have today.
Therefore the solution to problems in places like Mali, South Sudan, CAR, Somalia that African presidents should be pursuing if they want to remain in power, is to hold free elections, end corruption, focus on economic growth, nurture democracy, and deliver on services.
Africa's big — and three women — should be careful what they ask of the gods. They may well answer their prayers and give them an African Standby Force — as a punishment.
Charles Onyango-Obbo is Nation Media Group's executive editor for Africa & Digital Media. E-mail: cobbo@ke.nationmedia.com. Twitter: @cobbo3
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