The Kebele System - Ethiopia



The Kebele System - Ethiopia

 

The Kebele System is a tight system of neighbourhood administration and control in urban Ethiopia (‘kebele’ – Amharic for ‘neighbourhood’).

Historically the Kebele became the urban equivalent to the so-called Peasant Associations (PAs), founded by the military revolutionary government (the Derg), after dismantling Ethiopia’s monarchy and finally arresting Haile Selassie I. During the revolutionary year of 1974 the imperial exploitation of the rural population was identified as one of the main reasons for national poverty and underdevelopment, so land reform was first on the Derg’s political agenda. Peasant Associations were assigned to redistribute land and persecute ‘anti-revolutionary elements’ with their own militias. Especially in the capital the Derg rivalled with the student-backed Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party (EPRP) on ideology and influence. This resulted in the so-called Red Terror period of 1977/78, when the military sought consolidation of its power and elimination of EPRP-members through 'revolutionary' neighbourhood committees, the Kebeles.[1]

From the beginning this administrative institution served political means. So the distribution of donated food in the different historical periods of food crisis (e.g. 1984/5) has been channelled through this instrument as well as the allocation of housing and infrastructure facilities. Due to its practicability the Kebele System has been kept by the succeeding EPRDF-government[2] successfully seizing power in 1991 after a long guerrilla-war.

Every neighbourhood in Ethiopia’s larger cities has its own Kebele office, comprising around 500 households per unit. Addis Ababa has 330 Kebeles, organised in 28 Woredas[3] – the next higher administrative unit, equivalent to a district. Today’s Ethiopia contains more than 30.000 Kebeles in total.[4]

While some of Addis Ababa’s poor and densely populated quarters may appear unclear and chaotic, all houses, huts and the respective heads of households are registered at their Kebele office. As state ownership of house and ground is common, house rent has to be paid to the Kebele as well as electricity and water. Also for most bureaucratic affairs the Kebele has to be approached - for the issue of an Identity Card, for birth or marriage certificates or support letters for higher authorities and various job offers.[5] Certain health programmes and public education can only be accessed via the Kebele office. An ID card can usually be applied for at the respective Kebele, if two witnesses state one's name and origin. In case of a specific political affiliation, known or suspected by the Kebele staff one might however be unable to do so. Consequently one will be unable to apply for a passport or for any services where an ID is needed. In the current modernisation process of Ethiopian cities, the Kebeles serve as administrative instruments in clearing urban building ground and allocating apartments in the then newly erected ‘condominium’ residential buildings. While this can bring an improvement to citizens, who are able to pay for the increased rent, poor people rarely get the necessary support in case of their displacement. However there seem to be no legal means to prevent, change or at least publicly discuss the governmental construction plans at Kebele-level.

The need to hold elections to keep the international donors' support brought the Ethiopian government into a dilemma as it had to accept international election observers in the country. Especially during the local and national elections of 2001, 2005 and 2010, the Ethiopian government used its administrative system beforehand to register or not to register voters or to intimidate political activists by door-to-door-visits of Kebele officials in their respective neighbourhoods.[6] Suspected supporters or open members of opposition groups might thus be excluded from community services, while members of the ruling party EPRDF are likely to be rewarded by access to subsidised or free food, grain etc. In the war years with neighbouring Eritrea (1998-2000) the urban Kebeles have been decisive in identifying, dispossessing and deporting potential Eritrean citizens. For the Ethiopian government it has become indispensible not only to control the national government, the parliament and the regional governments (through related regional parties), but to control each and every Kebele. This practice is widely known and documented - and tolerated by the international donor states. The EU decided to keep critique on the national elections 2010 to a low profile.[7] Opposition leaders such as the political scientist Merera Gudina, however, identify the use of state administration as party instruments as an obstacle to a pluralistic, democratic state.[8]

 

 

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Dr. Magnus Treiber

Universität Bayreuth

Fachgruppe Ethnologie

GWII Universitätsstr. 30

95440 Bayreuth

Email: magnus.treiber@uni-bayreuth.de

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[1] See Donham, Donald: Marxist Modern. An Ethnographic History of the Ethiopian Revolution. Berkeley 1999: 27-30; Bahru Zewde: The History of the Red Terror. Contexts and Consequences. In: Tronvoll, Kjetil; Schaefer, Charles; Girmachew Alemu Aneme (eds.): The Ethiopian Red Terror Trials. Oxford 2009: 17-32

[2] Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front

[3] Mekete Belachew: Modern Addis Abäba. In: Uhlig, Siegbert (ed.): Encyclopaedia Aethiopica. Vol. 1. Wiesbaden 2005: 85-89

[4] Shinn, David H.; Ofcansky Thomas P.: Kebele. In: Shinn, David H.; Ofcansky Thomas P. (eds.): Historical Dictionary of Ethiopia. Lanham, Maryland et al. 2004: 237-238

[5] Pausewang, Siegfried; Aalen, Lovise: Blighting the Seeds of Democracy. The 2001 Local Elections in Addis Ababa and the Central Region. 184. In: Pausewang, Siegfried; Tronvoll, Kjetil; Aalen, Lovise (eds.): Ethiopia since the Derg. 2002: 179-199

[6] Pausewang, Siegfried; Aalen, Lovise: Blighting the Seeds of Democracy. The 2001 Local Elections in Addis Ababa and the Central Region. In: Pausewang, Siegfried; Tronvoll, Kjetil; Aalen, Lovise (eds.): Ethiopia since the Derg. 2002: 179-199

[7] See e.g. Human Rights Watch: Ethiopia. Donor aid supports repression. 18.10.2010. (en/news/2010/10/18/ethiopia-donor-aid-supports-repression); Human Rights Watch: One Hundred Ways of Putting Pressure. Violations of Freedom of Expression and Association in Ethiopia. 24.05.2010; German Foreign Policy: Disziplinierungshilfe. 12.11.2010 (de/fulltext/57945)

[8] Merera Gudina: Electoral Politics and Regime Changes in Africa: The Ethiopian Experience. 120 In: Bruchhaus, Eva-Maria; Sommer, Monika (eds): Hot Spot Horn of Africa Revisited - Approaches to Make Sense of Conflict. Berlin 2008: 114-131; See also German Foreign Policy: Inherent Racist. Interview with Berhanu Nega. 04.10.2010 (en/fulltext/57874)

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