How Burundi role in region has diminished

President Uhuru Kenyatta. PHOTO | FILE 

Uhuru asked Burundian president to postpone poll

By CHARLES ONYANGO OBBO

As I thought about the recent violence in the Central African nation of Burundi, I recalled a trip I made there three years ago.

I realised that something I’d seen in 2012 was a key to why the coup attempt in May by a group of army officers had failed. The capital city, Bujumbura, is bordered by hills that roll down toward Lake Tanganyika.

A short drive away, though, is one of the exclusive resorts you’d expect to find, given the setting: the Hotel Club du Lac Tanganyika. During my visit, at least, few of the guests were tourists. Instead, the hotel was bustling with American and European military advisers.

The reason these trainers were in town was because Burundi was supplying troops to the African Union’s peacekeeping force in Somalia, known by its acronym, Amisom.

In 2007, an African Union resolution established the Somalia mission. Uganda was the first to send in forces. Then, to the surprise of many, Burundi contributed more than 5,000 soldiers.

Peacekeeping in Somalia quickly became one of Burundi’s most important economic activities. The monthly take-home pay of a private in the Burundian Army was about $20. But if he served in the internationally funded Amisom force, the same soldier was paid $750.

With their Amisom wages, the thousands of Burundian soldiers soon made up a large part of the country’s new middle class. Their wealth also helped to create a boom in the housing market around Bujumbura.

This prosperity came under threat, however, when President Pierre Nkurunziza announced in April that he would run for a third term. Critics and opposition politicians cried foul, arguing that this move broke the Constitution’s two-term limit for the presidency.

Demonstrators clashed with police, and with police officers using live fire to disperse protesters, as many as 30 people have been reported killed. Amid the violence, the African Union delayed the next deployment of Burundi troops - a rebuke that would have been unthinkable three years ago.

Last month’s coup attempt against Nkurunziza was thus not primarily because he was clinging to power, but because his actions had jeopardised the military’s most lucrative prize - its place in the Somalia peacekeeping operation.

The African Union decision also drew a warning from the State Department that American aid to Burundi could be suspended.

The African Union thus cancelled what was the principal means by which elements of the military leadership outside Nkurunziza’s circle of patronage nevertheless enjoyed institutional benefits.

Burundi’s status has diminished since 2012 for reasons beyond the control of anyone in Bujumbura, which are more to do with a reconfiguration of continental politics.

The writer is editor of The Mail and Guardian Africa.