Mombasa Letter: Befores visiting Kenya, whenever I used think of it, the film White Mischief would spring to mind. It was the scene where the deliciously dissolute Sarah Miles character walks to her big window, draws the curtains, looks out over a beautiful African dawn and says in an ever-so-jaded tone: "Oh God, not another facking beautiful day." John Moran reports from Kenya.
It is in fact exhilarating to experience the wild savannah and to observe the fiery Kenyan dawn so playfully dismissed in that film which epitomised the low-life behaviour in the 1940s of an unhappy upper-crust British colony living in a place known then as Happy Valley.
While the wealth depicted in the film is mirrored today in the better parts of Mombasa, with walled and gated mansions on tree-lined avenues decorated here and there by blazing bougainvillea, it is a world away from the lives of the great majority of its citizens.
In parts of town, extreme poverty screams out from ramshackle roadside shacks and stalls where hawkers mend bicycles, shave heads and sell shoes and other wares, while passing women balance unfeasibly large loads on their heads, and crowds mill around in the sweltering equatorial heat.
In Kenya's cooler inland capital, Nairobi, I am told, residents of steamy Mombasa are regarded as being somewhat lazy.
But in this Indian Ocean dhow port, the second city of Kenya, which is dominated by the five centuries-old fortress of Fort Jesus, the oppressive heat and humidity impose an atmosphere of tropical torpor and induce an air of general indolence, making economy of movement a matter of necessity for its half million inhabitants, and more so for European visitors.
Tourists come to Kenya for its beaches, deep-sea fishing, scuba-diving, and of course the safari experience to see in the flesh the Big Five - elephant, buffalo, rhino, lion and leopard.
Eco-tourism and ventures involving local communities have increasingly become the focus of all major Kenyan tour companies.
There is some consolation for the visitor in knowing that the tourist dollar goes some way towards improving the lot of many ordinary Kenyans - the majority of whom live beneath the poverty level - not only for those working directly in the industry, but the dollar also trickles down to the roadside vendors who supply affordable goods and services, and out further to the farmers and fishermen whose produce are geared towards the tourist market.
In Kenya, the tourism industry is second in importance only to agriculture.
The war on Iraq, however, dealt a huge blow to tourism. Since then, there has been a dramatic decline in the number of visitors. The industry had begun to recover after two terrorist attacks in November in Mombasa, one on an Israeli-owned hotel and another a failed missile attempt to down a chartered plane heading for Israel.
This blow to the Kenyan economy could not have come at a worse time for the popular new government of Mwai Kibaki, whose coalition, the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC), had come into power in a landslide victory in December on promises to impose measures to tackle inefficiency and corruption. Kibaki has huge support from all sections of society for these measures, which are seen as vital to get the economy back on track and to attract foreign investment and aid.
Even without the war, the new administration had more than enough problems on its plate. Since independence from Britain in 1963, Kenya has had only two rulers, both from the same party, the Kenyan African National Union (KANU). The country's first president, Jomo Kenyatta, initially brought some stability but later abolished the opposition and opponents had a tendency to disappear.
Kenyatta died in 1978 and was replaced by Daniel arap Moi. Despite a promising start, corruption and inefficiency became the order of the day.
Moi was unopposed in three presidential elections and was obliged by the constitution to stand down last year.
The Kibaki coalition government has set its course firmly on accountability and anti-corruption. Some cynics say corruption and inefficiency will inevitably return. "Africa Wins Again" or just "AWA" is a knowing phrase you hear from some, in something like the same resigned way as when it rains in Ireland people say "normal service resumes". Kibaki's ambitious programme, however - which has already delivered free primary education, promises 500,000 new jobs per annum and statutory minimum wage increases of between 11 and 15 per cent - could very well confound the critics.
But tackling corruption and turning the economy around is not the only major challenge facing Kibaki. Kenya caters for well over 200,000 refugees, fleeing endemic instability in Ethiopia, fleeing a 20-year civil war in Sudan, and fleeing the chaos surrounding the virtual disintegration of Somalia. These outside burdens come on top of huge indigenous ones.
The country's AIDS crisis, which has caused an estimated 2.2 million deaths so far - up to 700 a day - has left up to one million orphans. At roadsides here and there you can see lines of newly-made coffins.
Then there's malaria, a preventable disease against which all visitors are inoculated, but as a result of which more than 70 children die every day. Life expectancy is just 46 for males and 47 for females.
Wealthy countries have been reluctant or unable to provide aid and investment in part because of instability and inefficiencies and corruption. In recent months, however, these countries have looked on in approval as President Mwai Kibaki and his coalition government has embarked on his programme of change.
Last month, Kenya's leaders embarked on their first major test when more than 600 delegates from all walks of political, religious and civil society convened in a national conference where they were presented with a draft constitution, itself the product of lengthy discussions and country-wide consultations. It proposes wide-ranging reforms, including the creation of the post of prime minister, a shake-up of the judiciary and a drastic reduction in the president's powers. The process of debate to fine-tune the draft document is expected to last for a month.
It is an understatement to say that the delegates have their work cut out but should a new constitution be agreed, and should an emboldened Kibaki pursue further measures in his attempts to clean up the government and administration, foreign aid and investment should begin to flow and Kenya's tremendous potential might at last begin be realised.
