Kefaya:The government eats kebab while we eat beans

“The government eats kebab while we eat beans.” This was one of slogans chanted by activists of protest group Kefaya who gathered in central Cairo to mark the movement’s second anniversary.

“Kefaya is coming back,” chanted the protesters days after seven members of the group’s founders broke away, saying it is all opposition rhetoric.

The group plans a conference next month, seen by analysts as a bid by the group to show it is still relevant.

“There have always been basic differences among the members of Kefaya,” said Islamist Magdi Ahmad Hussain, one of those who decided to quit.

“The secularists tried to eclipse the others who had adopted religious points of view and this caused friction,” he told Gulf News.

He added that the only thing that kept the group together was the ultimate goal of bringing about the democratic transformation in Egypt. “Kefaya has not developed a platform for future action,” Hussain said.

“This is sheer nonsense,” said Emad Syam, another founder of the group.

“Kefaya is not supposed to have a programme simply because it is not a political group. Ours is a group which comprises people from all walks of life in Egypt, who have different ideas based on one objective, which is to make room for genuine democratic elections in Egypt,” he told Gulf News.

When created in 2004, Kefaya, an outspoken critic of President Hosni Mubarak’s 25-year-old rule, made strong ripples in Egypt’s often languish politics. The group attracted liberals, Leftists, Islamists and secularists, who would defy security restrictions and take to the streets in protest a long taboo in Egypt.

Monopoly accusation

Hussain accuses Kefaya of being hostile to Islam after backing the Minister of Culture Farouq Hosni during a recent row over his comment on the hijab headscarf. “Some figures have monopolised the decision-making process in the group which would soon be history. Its slogans sounded increasingly hollow,” Hussain argued.

“We are the conscience of the nation and that never dies,” said Hoda Hergazy, a founding member of Kefaya.

“I aspire to live in a country where there is justice, equality and prosperity,” she added, as she pointed defiantly to hundreds of riot police, who cordoned off the place outside the Bar Association building in downtown Cairo.

Corruption in Egypt	Kefaya Movement of Egypt