Dickson Omondi is the National Democratic Institute’s regional director for Southern and East Africa. He has over 20 years of experience in political party strengthening, legislative development, advancing electoral integrity, and civil society development work. His experience at NDI has involved long-term and short-term assignments to over 10 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa including Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, South Sudan, Sudan, Ethiopia, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, and South Africa.
You’ve been around much of Sub-Saharan Africa at the National Democratic Institute for over 20 years. When you are working in Sub-Saharan Africa, what makes a democracy work? What do we need to do more of right now that we’re not doing?
President Kennedy from the US talked about democracy being a call to untiring effort. You talk in the American context about the pursuit of a more perfect union, denoting this whole idea that it’s always a work in progress, that there are times that there might be a bit of regression. For those who are committed to the ideals of democracy, that in itself is a call to do more.
When you look at Africa in specific, at the traditional structures of governance, there were elements of democracy in those structures. Democracy is not contrary to traditional African values. But the intense period of colonization and the formation of nation states brought different ethnic identities into states without proper, organic processes for them to moderate how they joined. In the 1950s and ‘60s, those states became independent and started struggling with how to organize themselves. Many of them, for better or worse, determined that a strong man rule, single party rule, and a strong central state, were important to unite these African countries and build strong nations. That was unfortunate, because a couple of years later, there was evidence of a lot of failure, corruption, and little tolerance of divergent political opinion.
Then people started agitating. The movements in both Francophone and Anglophone Africa in the ‘80s and ‘90s reintroduced the whole concept of multiparty democracy, which is a critical vehicle to get the other elements of democracy. The argument has then been made that there was a sort of a stall there, that many of these countries became multiparty democracies, but did not do sufficient work around other elements of democracy: rule of law, constitutionalism, human rights and fundamental freedoms, creating strong countervailing institutions. If you look at the work of NDI and other organizations, we have really tried to engage on these aspects.
I also think we need to focus ourselves, again, on the idea of constitutionalism. There’s a difference here between constitutions and constitutionalism. Constitutionalism is the whole idea that we are held to account and live and are guided by the spirits of the constitutions that we enacted. If you think about the countries in Africa that are having challenges, you see many of them as countries where there have been attempts to tinker with the constitution, to solidify strong, authoritarian, central governments. Those countries are experiencing significant challenges. Constitutionalism is a very important area for people to focus on.
In other conversations you have mentioned the narrative coming from China that democracies do not really work. Accompanying that language from China there is some research on democratic backsliding all over the world. How do you think about backsliding and continued progress?
You are talking about illiberal influences. You are talking about other countries that are also protecting their own value systems. They are making the argument, “economic development first, and then we can worry about the politics.” The response to that, for me, is always very simple. Many African countries, if we take the average of the early 1960s, to maybe around the mid-1980s, were essentially single party states that did not provide for any opportunities for political competition. Why is it not that those countries were able to progress economically, as has been suggested by this whole idea of a strong authoritarian, powerful central government?
I knew an Ethiopian activist who once told the late Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, “Give us freedom, that is what we want. Don’t say you will give us bread or food, what we want is freedom, because with freedom we will be able to achieve all these other elements.” I think, democratic solidarity and being acutely aware that there is an alternative model of governance being promoted, is really important for me. The democracy summit that President Biden organized is part of that democratic solidarity that we are looking for, investing in African countries which are showing a commitment to move along that path of democracy: Botswana, Zambia, where we recently had a peaceful transition of political power, and where President Hichilema has committed himself to all these elements we’re talking about, are examples of countries where we all should show support.
One of the principal concerns in America is that U.S. democracy promotion via the National Endowment for Democracy or USAID is colored by our geostrategic interests and by the continuing legacy of colonialism in Africa and Southeast Asia. How do you at NDI address the violent history of western relations with African countries? How does NDI focus on the countries where they work and not the interests of their donors?
There are several important things. The first is the international character of NDI. We have been funded by many different organizations from across the world, so it is not wholly an American enterprise. It is headquartered in DC; it has its origins in Washington, DC; but it is international in character. If you look at the people who work at NDI, myself, I am a Kenyan. I work with NDI because I believe democracy is the best system of government, that democracy is what will deliver sustainable outcomes to people reflecting human dignity. Our staff, national staff from each country, are committed to improving their own houses of democracy. The demand and work to build democracy is not an American enterprise. It is an enterprise that brings together people from across the world who believe in human dignity, and who believe that the most sustainable way to bring about better outcomes is through a democratic system of government. Certainly I think there are challenges, but those should not discourage us. I think they should challenge us to think about what we can do better to appreciate our own vulnerabilities, including the U.S., that there might be things that you need to do within your own house of democracy.
If you asked me today, I can tell you “oh things are very bleak.” But if I cast my eyes into the past—and I am in my mid-40s now—and I look back to when I was just in high school, Kenya was a single-party state. Having this conversation I’m having with you would probably land me in jail. Working with an organization like NDI was sufficient reason for me to be detained. Now, it has significantly improved to the point where we are having this debate about where the challenges are. I think the contributions of NED, USAID, other international partners from Europe and the UK, should really be viewed with that longer-term perspective. They have helped to advance a lot of countries, including Kenya, where I’m seated right now. While there might be outstanding challenges, to me that reflects the fact that every generation will have to deal with its own context. That is the history of human progress. We can differ about the pace and speed, but I would rather have that debate than throw the baby out with the bathwater.
I would love to hear about your own life. What drew you to NDI? And what reflections do you have now, after 20 years of working on these issues?
I’m very lucky that I was always politically conscious. I lived in Kenya and at around age seven, there was a coup attempt. There was a lot of discussion between my family and myself, asking very tough questions about why we were indoors and not able to go out, why there was shooting outside. At that particular point, it was expressed in just one word—power: that those who were going out with guns were fighting for power.
I lived through a very intense period when the government cracked down on all forms of political opinion. Dissent was outlawed. You did not have a right to think differently from what the ruling party and the president wanted you to think. Very famous freedom fighters, democracy activists in this country were taken to jail: Kenneth Matiba, Charles Rubia. Raila Odinga fled to exile. I was talking about this with a young friend of mine, classmate then, and God bless his soul, he was very conscientious. He read his newspapers every day, and he’s the one who would tell us, “Look, today they’ve arrested Ken Matiba, Charles Rubia.” We got into trouble when we would flash the two fingers, just the demand for multipartisanship. It really got me. I kept questioning, “why for instance do we have KANU [the political party] between us arresting people using their youth wing members?”
By the time I got to university, the political system had opened up quite significantly. I was lucky because when I went through my undergraduate studies, one could talk about politics without the risk of going to jail, which my mother was deeply concerned about. I recall her telling me, “Don’t involve yourself in politics, because I don’t want to see the photos of my son detained without trial, in solitary confinement, probably being tortured, and never to be seen again.” In that whole context, I stayed away from organizing until one day we went to a private university. I looked around and the streets were paved, the lights were working, the library was well stocked. Surprise, surprise, we were told that the student governing body was involved in managing quite a lot of those services. I asked myself, “Why aren’t we, in public universities, organized the same?” My friend and I started organizing to bring together youth. Out of that I got some experience and interest in youth organizing.
When I finished university, I went to work for the League of Women Voters. The singular reason they allowed me to join them was that history of youth organizing. It is really in that context that I then learned about NDI. I saw an advertisement from NDI which was pinned on the board, asking for somebody to come in as a program assistant. There started my role. I worked with them in Kenya, in Uganda, in Ethiopia, in Zanzibar, Tanzania, and I went out to Nigeria. One thing added to another and suddenly we’re talking about these things not just from an African perspective, but from a global perspective. I could relate to the struggles of the Eastern European countries and what they were trying to do, the struggle in Latin America.
It’s been a very satisfying journey for me, being able to work on things that I’m committed to. People ask me, “You’ve stayed for 20 years. How is that possible?” It’s not just possible because I’ve been able to do this in different countries. It’s possible because I really believe in this whole concept and mission of building democratic societies. As somebody who lived in absolute poverty, abject poverty in the slums of Kibera, Kenya, I can see how governments that are well managed, that are held accountable, that are responsive to citizen needs, can contribute to changing outcomes for citizens. I can contribute to helping fellow citizens achieve a life of human dignity.