For the past two weeks, rumors that school milk and children`s immunization drugs were laced with contraceptives have spread across the country like brush fire.
The rumors have heightened distrust among segments of the population already suspicious of the government and its programs, disrupted schools and impeded family planning and immunization efforts at a time when the government is struggling to reduce a runaway population growth rate and protect children against fatal diseases.
The persistence of the rumors and the extent of government efforts to scotch them illustrate the political uneasiness just below the veneer of calm in daily life here.
In rural areas such as this one north of Nairobi, and in the central part of the country, fearful parents told their children to rush home if stangers or unfamiliar vehicles came to their schools. A week ago students ran screaming from their classes at Mugumoini Primary School and took to the bush when a Kenya Commercial Bank vehicle arrived.
Parents are reluctant to talk about the incident for fear of arrest.
”It is the kind of fear that causes dissatisfaction with the government, and I have no doubt that the rumors are the work of people who want to discredit the government,” a health care worker said.
”The rumors have forced government and private agencies to pull back on family planning until this thing blows over, and health-care researchers doing surveys in remote areas have dropped questions related to family planning,”
the worker said.
”These are simple rural people who just want to be left alone and allowed to tend their shamba (garden) and make a living for themselves. But the government is always in their lives, telling them what to do and when, what to plant and how to plant it,” said an aid worker who also requested anonymity.
”People in small villages are even compelled to attend local government meetings or to devote time to help building schools. If they don`t show up they may be fined,” the worker said.
The government has variously blamed political antagonists, students, teachers and others for what officials call an ”antisocial and
antigovernment” rumor campaign.
President Daniel arap Moi stepped into the fray last week, asserting that the rumors were the work of colonialist agents. He ordered that rumormongers be arrested and brought to trial. So far, two students and a metalworker have been jailed and charged with threatening breach of the peace.
Others blame distrust of government officials and government heavy-handedness, which they said create fertile ground for such rumors to take root.
”The government controls everything we do and what we can say,” said a city worker from central Kenya, speaking in the hushed tones and with the periodic glances over the shoulder that are a part of political discussions here.
”We may not like something the government is doing, but it is not allowed to speak out against the government,” the worker said. ”That is why we have such rumors. People believe them because they think it is another way for the government to control them.”
Asked why he spoke in a hushed tone, the worker said, ”I should not speak, for one cannot tell who is listening.” He then recalled the arrest of Musa Otieno Adongo, a senior lecturer at the University of Nairobi who was jailed last August and charged with sedition for allegedly mutilating four 100-shilling notes and declaring that there was no government in Kenya during an argument at a popular hotel restaurant.
Freedom of speech and of the press is generally respected in Kenya and is proclaimed in its constitution. But in the aftermath of a foiled coup attempt in 1982 and efforts by the government to consolidate power in this one-party state, freedom of speech is narrowly defined.
It is generally accepted that the government may be criticized as long as Moi is exempted from the criticism or it is pointed out that the president has spoken out or acted against the alleged government wrongdoing.
There are regular worrisome rumors of an imminent coup, but residents are reluctant to offer much comment for fear that what they say may be construed as seditious. In addition to Adongo, another Kenyan was charged with sedition because of comments allegedly critical of the government contained in a letter that never reached the addressee.
In May, William Ochieng, a prominent professor of African history, was detained and interrogated for two days after the publication of an article in which he was quoted as saying that to describe Kenya`s economy as a free-enterprise system was a ”hoax.”
”They were furious over the article, as they thought the tone contrary to Kenya`s ideological standpoint,” Ochieng said.
In November Moi fired an assistant minister for allegedly quoting founding father Jomo Kenyatta in a ”derogatory and contemptuous manner.” The dismissed minister, Martin Shikuku, allegedly imitated Kenyatta`s manner of speaking while quoting him as saying that, while some Kenyans fought for independence, others were allied with British colonialists.
Shikuku, a longtime government critic, also had attacked Moi`s chief Cabinet secretary and head of the civil service, Simeon Nyachae, for reportedly saying some members of parliament talked too much. He alleged in parliament there had been a breakdown of law and order in his constituency and that civil servants were harassing people.
Moi said anyone who attacked a civil servant was attacking the president. In late 1984 Moi expelled 15 members of his ruling Kenya African National Union, including Charles Njonjo, once a close ally. Njonjo was accused of plotting to overthrow Moi.
