1. WHAT PRESIDENT OBAMA SHOULD TELL UHURU WHEN
HE COMES TO KENYA…
is what Madam Hilary Clinton told Kenyan officials when she
made a visit to Kenya in 2012 as US Secretary of state. When
she made the journey she paid a courtesy call on two very
important governance institutions in the land. She went to the
judiciary and held a confidential chat with the Chief Justice Willy
Mutunga. After that she visited the independent Election and
Boundaries Commission (IEBC) and held face to face talks with
its Chairman Isaack Hassan.
At that time many people took these visits by Mrs.Clinton as
normal courtesy calls. Later after the election in March 2013 is
when the real significance of the courtesy calls dawned on most
people. The two bosses Clinton visited ignored her appeals for
free and fair conduct of elections, went ahead to assist or
connive at the election rigging of that year. President Obama
after that visited Africa and called Willy Mutunga to Senegal to
explain what had taken place. The besieged newly rigged rulers
at home raised a hue and cry, through surrogates, lamenting
that Mutunga would betray them spilling the beans.
That was the diplomatic way of doing things, the Hilary Clinton
approach. Nothing untoward had happened then and it could
not be right to prejudge anybody. But at least Mutunga and
Hassan should have learnt the significance of those calls.
However our leaders never learn. That is why I would like to
humbly call upon President Obama to change tack this time
round and face the facts with our leaders. Not that he should
confront his hosts. That again is unAfrian. In fact he should first
pamper Uhuru as being a fairly down-to-earth and realistic
president. A president who can wear his pair of jeans and
mingle easily with the people. He has got that rare popular
appeal many heads of states find themselves lacking. He is
fairly young and has a long way to go in African politics. Why,
he struck a rapport in the continent just months after taking
power.
Obama should tell Uhuru Kenyatta that rigging elections is bad,
and can lead to a total collapse of a country. There is nothing
clever in outwitting people through trickery, Obama should tell
Uhuru, and that Kenyans are advanced and smart enough to
see through such misguided and simplistic foolery. They are
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2. practices basically for the unenlightened but Kenya is amongst
the most advanced countries in Africa, even the world.
Obama should avoid being too diplomatic, as impunity easily
takes advantage of that. Hillary Clinton was diplomatic because
unlike Obama she had not witnessed the bitter fruits of election
rigging. If necessary President Obama should point out to Uhuru
that Kenya is too crucial a partner in the world geo-political
scene to be left to go to the dogs, that if rigging persists they
would intervene to right wrongs. He should remind Uhuru that
countries enjoy sovereignty when they do the right things for
their citizens. But when they disenfranchise them through
rigging, and trap them in terrorist slaughters, then sovereignty
ceases to be for a country’s leadership. We cannot have
sovereignty for a select few at the top only.
President Obama should tell Uhuru that his first and last tribe
should be Kenya. At least as a president he should rely on
Kenya rather than his ethnic group for personal survival and
political advancement. The US President should remind him that
tribe is just an accident of birth, and that being a Luo has not
stopped him being president of the United States of America.
Though a Luo, he is first and foremost an American and Uhuru
also, though a Kikuyu, should be first and foremost a Kenyan.
He should eschew banking on tribal support, even worse
exploiting tribal sentiments to gain political mileage, something
which they have spilt over even to America itself, where Kenyan
tribal jingoism is trying to raise its ugly head.
The president should try to take his time, and talk to Uhuru
earnestly as a brother, who is indeed his agemate, and who
admired him much during his initial campaigns for presidency of
Kenya, dressing like him in folded long sleeves and swaggering
his walk like that US president. They surely have something in
common and so he extended his arm in South Africa to greet
Uhuru, the first such open western handshake Uhuru received
after taking the leadership mantle controversially in March
2013. Obama should remind Uhuru to open up and see the vast
opportunities for his peoples. That without the bitterness and
resentment caused by their tribal bigotries Kenyans would go
very far, not only in Africa but also in the world, being so
enterprising, outgoing and erudite. By being inward looking,
tribalistic and narrow Kenyans and especially their leaders, are
limiting themselves, making them an object of undue scrutiny,
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3. suspicion and profiling round the world, like the ICC case they
have had at the Hague.
Finally President Obama should remind Uhuru that being out of
power is not the end of the world, and that he too would leave
power sometime next year and would not die as a result. Power
is not everything, and raiding the national granary dry before
leaving power is no insurance against future personal security
but a liability one would later regret. Indeed, with Uhuru he is
lucky as the Kenya constitution allows one to lead again even
after dropping from power. It is honorable to be a former
president, and trying to lead for ever is unrealistic, no matter
how popular and powerful. Uhuru has a chance to invent himself
and the nation.
One thing President Barack Obama should remind Uhuru
Kenyatta about is that, this time round, election rigging is not
negotiable. Kenyans are settled on that issue and are ready for
anything, even mass murder, to achieve victory over election
rigging. Because without confronting this evil there can be no
meaningful achievement for the country. The international
community, especially the United States of America, is ready to
go to any lengths to ensure that this aspiration of Kenya is met.
Uhuru’s co-operation in combating the vice would be most
welcome, and this rapport with the US should be viewed
essentially as a good bye charter to rigging.
BY:
FREDERICK OWINO OYARO
e-mail: fredrickoyaro@gmail.com
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