It’s over- the US Election. Barack Obama is President. Kenyans dance in the streets of Nairobi. I’d like to think that they don’t just dance because he is half Kenyan, but because they have heard Obama’s message and it resonates with them.
I would like to hope that Kenyan voters will take the message of hope and change to heart next time it comes to making decisions about the country’s future. In the crowd at Grant Park was a mix of people. It was a multi-generational, multi-ethnic crowd that stood and listened to Barack Obama speak. I hope Kenyans can see that it’s not what we are but what we believe in that really matters. I hope that this man has inspired a new generation of leaders in Kenya. Not the kind that buy people’s votes, run negative campaigns, use tribe to divide, proceed to parliament to earn fat paycheques while their constituents suffer. But the kind of leaders that show courage, have vision and a passion to serve others. The biggest failure of leadership in Kenya is usually attributed to the elected leaders themselves, but I think it should be attributed to us, the citizens who have given the mandate time and again to a cadre of people whose united desire for personal gain/power/fame outweighs their love and pride in Kenya.
I hope that if one thing comes from Barack Obama winning, it is a change of focus by Kenyans on what true leadership means and what they deserve from their leaders. Surely amongst the 32 million or so of us, there are some true, great leaders to choose from? I dare to hope.
3 Comments
November 5, 2008 at 6:16 pm
WHAT IS KENYAS GIFT TO OBAMA???
Even as we celebrate Obama’s success story, even as we with fingers closed wait for his inauguration as the 1st half black President of the USA. We need as Kenyans to ask ourselves this fundamental question. What has been our contribution to Obama Success?
His BIOLOGICAL father was a Kenyan, who however abandoned his son and escaped any responsibilities of child support. Infact Obama confesses that he learnt more form his Kenyan ‘father’ absence than from his presence. This is kenya’s EMBARASSMENT NO. 1. So his real father was the parents who took Obama in and saw him through his childhood and teenage years giving him the values that he now holds. That’s the reality Kenyans.
His ‘Cousin’ Raila has all along been a source of discredit to his good reputation. Raila with his VIOLENT NATURE, COMMUNIST ORIENTATIONS, MUSLIM ASSOCIATIONS have all been used against Obama. Infact, Raila in himself has cost Obama some support and Obama campaign team had to work hard to show how distant in thinking and association these two men are. This is Kenya’s EMBARASSMENT 2. It has not gone unnoticed to the Mc Cain campaign team that Raila call for mass protest in Kenya led to over 1500 deaths. This explains why Obama banished Raila from any visits to his campaign or why Obama campaign team has consistently turned down on 4 occassions RAILA’S MONETARY CONTRIBUTIONS totaling 40,000 USD.
Obama’s Aunt who also happen to be Kenyan has been an illegal immigrant in US for a while. This was also ANOTHER EMBARRASSMENT from yet another Kenyan.
Infact, we OWE OBAMA AN APOLOGY AS A COUNTRY. With all these bad publicity from Kenya’s heritage, Obama has been understanding enough not to talk ill of us. For that we should be grateful.
Looking on the other side, Obama’s real family in the US has been a SOURCE OF INSPIRATION AND GOOD PUBLICITY. Yet, they have been quite about it as we in Kenya tell the whole world how Kenyan Obama is.
So the reality is that KENYA HAS BEEN AN EMBARASSMENT TO OBAMA.
You clearly feel strongly about this, having posted your comments across several blogs
. Whatever your opinion, the point of this post was that there are lessons to be learned from the American election, that Kenyans should go beyond delight ‘just because he has a link, however distant to Kenya’ and draw on this historical win to change our own political landscape. As for whether Kenya has been an embarassment, I’d like to think that it was really more like an irrelevant footnote than an embarassment in this election.
November 12, 2008 at 2:18 am
I sincerely hope most have learned something as I have; to hope against hope.
November 12, 2008 at 8:33 am
It is a damn shame, I tell you. It is so shameful, that some people have the audacity to be in a dilemma on where to pledge their allegiance to Kenya or the US. This takes away the beauty of President-elect Obama’s success.