Kenya’s honeymoon with Obama has turned sour
Jun 04, 2009
THE adage that misfortunes never come in singles seems to be applying to Kenya with unusual frequency. Kenya’s run-in with the Obama administration seems to be gathering momentum. <br>A week never passes without an unpleasant message from the White Ho
Jerry Okungu
THE adage that misfortunes never come in singles seems to be applying to Kenya with unusual frequency. Kenya’s run-in with the Obama administration seems to be gathering momentum.
A week never passes without an unpleasant message from the White House, State Department or the local American ambassador who has lately made it his pastime to intimidate and even threaten the current Kibaki administration.
This state of affairs is so different from the 2008 euphoria when a foreigner could have been forgiven for thinking that Kenya was America’s 51st state whose votes were guaranteed for then Senator Obama, the man with roots in Kogelo in western Kenya. Recent reports that Obama was not happy with the slow pace of reforms and his subsequent snub of Kenya have not gone down well with the Kibaki administration, least of all with many ordinary Kenyans who have a soft spot for the American President.
The fact that Obama has decided to make Ghana and Egypt his first destinations of choice has fundamentally embarrassed Kenya in more ways than one. And as if to add insult to injury, Obama’s sudden invitation of Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania to the White House instead of Kibaki has spoken volumes of his opinion of Kenya’s current leadership.
However, this week, this rather worsening relationship has hit a new low when the US Homeland Security Department decided to hand Kenya another blow below the belt. The cancellation of the Delta Airline flights to Kenya hit this country like a thunderbolt. It could only have come from a person that does not mean well for Kenya and the region in general.
In the past several weeks, so many bad things have been happening to the Kenya government; what with police extrajudicial killings, Mungiki ritual murders, corruption scandals and the endless bickering between the coalition partners!
Just about when Kenya was about to forget the bad news about Obama snubbing Kenya, one UN Human Rights Special Rapporteur, Philip Alston was heading to Geneva to table Kenya’s report in which he had indicted Kenya’s Attorney General and Police Chief for violations of human rights and recommended their immediate sacking.
And as preparations were in top gear to send a government delegation to defend the government against accusations, a new split emerged in the coalition culminating in two feuding delegations heading for Geneva.
This later Delta debacle took place at a time when the Geneva fiasco was still unfolding. And as one local TV newscaster put it this week, “It would appear that Kenyan politicians were now ready to wash their dirty linen in public for the rest of the world to see!â€
To observers, the Geneva drama will most likely be the final nail in Kenya’s political coffin because after that, no government will take this country seriously. The reason I say this is because in the present world order, there can only be two types of government. Either a government is autocratic or democratic. Either way, they share a few ideals in common.
Both of them cherish order and discipline in their ranks. On the public arena, no government has ever contradicted itself. Kenya is the first and will probably be the last in 100 years.
The Delta fiasco is a blow not only to Kenya but the rest of Africa. This flight would have made travel between East Africa and North America a mere 12-hour flight as opposed to the current 20-hour journey with between four and 10-hour layoffs in Europe.
For those who frequent the US, Delta was a welcome change from the harrowing experiences of removing shoes, belts and coins multiple times between Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and American cities. Getting into a plane once and dropping off at an American city such as Atlanta would have reduced our jetlag, costs and time by half.
Delta Airline was going to benefit our entire region. Tanzanians, Ugandans, Rwandans and Burundians would equally have faster connections through Nairobi. West Africans too would pick it on its way from Nairobi and vice versa. Now all that is water under the bridge until one man in the State Department will give another signal that all is now clear.
As East Africans that were booked on that inaugural flight are nursing their frustrations, one hopes that Delta Airlines will do the most honorable thing by not only putting them on the next available flight but also compensate them for inconveniences caused to avoid lawsuits that are likely to spring up from this fiasco.
jerryokungu@gmail.com
THE adage that misfortunes never come in singles seems to be applying to Kenya with unusual frequency. Kenya’s run-in with the Obama administration seems to be gathering momentum.
A week never passes without an unpleasant message from the White House, State Department or the local American ambassador who has lately made it his pastime to intimidate and even threaten the current Kibaki administration.
This state of affairs is so different from the 2008 euphoria when a foreigner could have been forgiven for thinking that Kenya was America’s 51st state whose votes were guaranteed for then Senator Obama, the man with roots in Kogelo in western Kenya. Recent reports that Obama was not happy with the slow pace of reforms and his subsequent snub of Kenya have not gone down well with the Kibaki administration, least of all with many ordinary Kenyans who have a soft spot for the American President.
The fact that Obama has decided to make Ghana and Egypt his first destinations of choice has fundamentally embarrassed Kenya in more ways than one. And as if to add insult to injury, Obama’s sudden invitation of Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania to the White House instead of Kibaki has spoken volumes of his opinion of Kenya’s current leadership.
However, this week, this rather worsening relationship has hit a new low when the US Homeland Security Department decided to hand Kenya another blow below the belt. The cancellation of the Delta Airline flights to Kenya hit this country like a thunderbolt. It could only have come from a person that does not mean well for Kenya and the region in general.
In the past several weeks, so many bad things have been happening to the Kenya government; what with police extrajudicial killings, Mungiki ritual murders, corruption scandals and the endless bickering between the coalition partners!
Just about when Kenya was about to forget the bad news about Obama snubbing Kenya, one UN Human Rights Special Rapporteur, Philip Alston was heading to Geneva to table Kenya’s report in which he had indicted Kenya’s Attorney General and Police Chief for violations of human rights and recommended their immediate sacking.
And as preparations were in top gear to send a government delegation to defend the government against accusations, a new split emerged in the coalition culminating in two feuding delegations heading for Geneva.
This later Delta debacle took place at a time when the Geneva fiasco was still unfolding. And as one local TV newscaster put it this week, “It would appear that Kenyan politicians were now ready to wash their dirty linen in public for the rest of the world to see!â€
To observers, the Geneva drama will most likely be the final nail in Kenya’s political coffin because after that, no government will take this country seriously. The reason I say this is because in the present world order, there can only be two types of government. Either a government is autocratic or democratic. Either way, they share a few ideals in common.
Both of them cherish order and discipline in their ranks. On the public arena, no government has ever contradicted itself. Kenya is the first and will probably be the last in 100 years.
The Delta fiasco is a blow not only to Kenya but the rest of Africa. This flight would have made travel between East Africa and North America a mere 12-hour flight as opposed to the current 20-hour journey with between four and 10-hour layoffs in Europe.
For those who frequent the US, Delta was a welcome change from the harrowing experiences of removing shoes, belts and coins multiple times between Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and American cities. Getting into a plane once and dropping off at an American city such as Atlanta would have reduced our jetlag, costs and time by half.
Delta Airline was going to benefit our entire region. Tanzanians, Ugandans, Rwandans and Burundians would equally have faster connections through Nairobi. West Africans too would pick it on its way from Nairobi and vice versa. Now all that is water under the bridge until one man in the State Department will give another signal that all is now clear.
As East Africans that were booked on that inaugural flight are nursing their frustrations, one hopes that Delta Airlines will do the most honorable thing by not only putting them on the next available flight but also compensate them for inconveniences caused to avoid lawsuits that are likely to spring up from this fiasco.
jerryokungu@gmail.com