# 13 FAILED STATE

Kenya’s standing in a “Failed State Index” compiled by US researchers has fallen for the fourth consecutive year, with the country now ranked 13th among 20 states in a “critical condition”.

Kenya is said to be in greater danger of collapse than North Korea or Iran in the annual stability ranking of 177 countries. The index is the product of Foreign Policy magazine and the Fund for Peace, a Washington-based NGO.

An accompanying list of “the world’s worst dictators” includes the leaders of several countries that are given higher grades than Kenya.

They include Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni, Rwanda’s Paul Kagame, Isaias Afewerki of Eritrea and Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.

Kenya’s listing in the index issued on Monday will present new headaches for the country’s diplomats and its lobbying team in Washington, who have been working to dispel impressions of Kenya as a corrupt and violent society.

But Kenya does have a vibrant civil society and a free press, so why is it ranked so poorly? A senior associate at the Fund for Peace, Mr Will Ferroggiaro, defended the rating.

He told the Daily Nation that Kenya scored worst with regard to “demographic pressures” and “delegitimisation of the state”, two of the 12 ranking criteria that are, in turn, based on what the index’s researchers say are 90,000 public sources.

Factionalism

The demographic criterion includes Kenya’s high rate of poverty, while delegitimisation refers to “extreme factionalism” among political parties and “heavy group grievances,” Mr Ferroggiaro said.

“These are very high pressures that should serve as a warning to Kenya,” he added. Kenya fell one notch this year from 14th place in the 2009 index. It was ranked 26th in 2008 and 31st in 2007.