Author: Japheth O. Ogollah
Date: February 6, 2007
Type of article: Letter
Source: The Daily Nation - only available online by registration and paid subscription fee

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The just-concluded World Social Forum in Nairobi received varied responses from delegates. For those who know of the 150,000 participants at previous annual meetings in Brazil and India, the 50,000 delegates in Nairobi was a mockery. 

This was the seventh forum and the first in Africa. Due to the heavy presence of civic society in Kenya, the organisers had expected 150,000 delegates. 

Interestingly, the venue of the forum was a few kilometres away from Korogocho slum with a population of about 120,000. With better mobilisation, Korogocho would have provided about 50 per cent of the delegates.

The delegates were equally shocked. Though the forum is supposed to advocate against global injustices which continue to impoverish the so-called developing world, the situation at Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani, the venue of the forum, was not very different from Davos, Switzerland where the World Economic Forum was going on at the same time. 

The organisers ensured that participation was expensive. This locked out a majority of Kenyans who could not afford to pay for registration. As a result, the forum was turned into an elitist exercise dominated by non-governmental organisations. 

The tragedy is when people participate not because they share in the spirit of the cause, but because they are paid lucrative allowances.

Their loyalty is not to the common vision of “making another world possible”. They pledge their loyalty to their paymasters.

That Kenyans had either snubbed or were locked out of the forum was evident at Uhuru Park during the official opening ceremony. A majority of delegates present at the largely empty park were clearly non-Africans.

Uhuru Park, which hosted Kenya’s independence ceremony in 1963, is usually filled to capacity during political rallies or evangelical crusades. This time around, there were only a few thousand delegates.

Besides this, registration was by Internet yet most Kenyans still do not have access to the Internet and e-illiteracy is prevalent. The organisers being Kenyans were well aware of this.

Also, catering was by two five-star hotels.

The prices of food and water were increased by more than 300 per cent. 

There were two demonstrations by both local and foreign delegates against the high prices. Though organisations participating at the forum did well to save it from collapse, many tents remained empty throughout the three days of the forum.

I support the delegates who are proposing that the forum returns to Nairobi in 2009. However, the National Secretariat should work on the massive failures, which we witnessed this year. 

Let the organisers open up the preparations to different stakeholders with varied skills and abilities so that the forum becomes an open space it is supposed to be. 

This is a very important forum to this country and the whole world. We cannot afford to be seen to be privatising it among a few NGO personalities.

All the Kenyans who attended this year’s forum should ensure that if the forum returns to Nairobi, about 80 per cent of the delegates will be Kenyans themselves. And they will attend not because somebody will cater for their expenses, but because they identify with the cause.

JAPHETH O. OGOLLAH,
Nairobi.