- Add new comment
- 39 views
Barack Hussein Obama (BHO), America’s 44th President is scheduled to visit Kenya in July. After nearly seven years in office, US President and half Kenyan-Luo Barack Obama is going to Kenya to attend the Global Entrepreneurship Summit.
POTUS is coming to a Kenya his late father Barack Obama Sr. would not have dreamed of in many ways. Barack is returning to a Kenya whose soul is still in turmoil; where the tribalism and corruption that exacerbated his father’s personal foibles and led to his abuse of alcohol are back with vengeance.
The country Obama Jr. will see in approximately four months is as different from the one he last visited in 2006 when he was the junior Senator from Illinois as it is similar. Kenya has undergone significant economic development and has one of the world’s most dynamic economies. It has also made a dramatic tilt away from the west towards the east forming strong (economic) ties with China. Kenya has made said strides even as it continues to struggle with a level of corruption and kleptomania way beyond what Sen. Obama alluded to in a speech during his last visit.
Finally, Obama Sr.’s Kenya is now dealing with q “new normal†of home-grown extremism, exacerbated in part by the very ills the two – father and son – talked about and whose senselessness was in stark display in Garissa days after his son’s visit was announced.
Unsurprisingly, POTUS’s pending visit has elicited a mixture of absolute euphoria in some quarters with the Daily Nation figuratively exhaling the headline “Welcome to Kenya Finally!†shortly after the visit was announced. Even Chris Kirubi’s Capital News which carried a piece in August 2014 curiously titled “Why I Honored Obamas Invite this Time Round†had a picture of Mr. Kenyatta and Mr. Obama shaking hands at Nelson Mandela’s funeral under the heading “US President Obama to visit Kenya in Julyâ€. It is the face-to-face meeting between the two baby-boomers in South Africa that also prompted some rather snarky comments about Obama’s upcoming visit from some of the most balanced and rational-sounding commenters on this site:
That Barack Obama, a man who repeatedly attracted crowds of 100,000 to as many as 200,000 (at Germany’s Brandenburg Gate), made the decision to visit Kenya because he “witnessed Mr. Kenyatta stand up to speak and immediately attract a thunderous applause from the tens of thousands in attendance as well as a standing ovation†during Mandiba’s funeral.
Seriously?
Frankly I have detected the same farcical (home-grown) tribal divide in the reactions to Obama’s visit that I witnessed here in the US, first during the 2008 presidential elections then again in 2012. The sad reality is that some Kenyans in the diaspora have brought with them their tribal proclivities and have reacted to Barack Obama – his candidacy and presidency – much like FOX News and the conservative right wingnuts have done since he took office. Even more disconcerting is the fact that some of the irrationality and vitriol directed at Obama have oftentimes overshadowed genuine policy and philosophical differences.
In a slight digression, the August 2014 article by Olive Burrows in Capital FM News underscored its owner “DJ†Chris Kirubi’s inflated sense of self that is on par with another one of Obama’s famous detractors and “birther†extraordinaire Donald Trump. BHO and Seth Meyers took care of the latter’s braggadocio with a series of stinging roasts during the 2011 White House Correspondence Dinner. Mr. Obama’s ridicule of “The Donald†was even more impressive given that unbeknownst to all but a few, the roast of Trump occurred shortly after Obama had ordered SEAL Team Six to take out Bin Laden.
Now that is SWAG, to use a term my son frowns upon.
I write about Barack’s historic run for the White House in my book “WUODHA: My journey from Kenya to these United Statesâ€. I spent Election Day – November 4, 2008 – glued in front of the TV with my then-5year old American-born son. I hugged him so tightly when CNN’s Wolf Blitzer called the state of California in Barack Obama’s favor effectively sealing the presidency for Sarah Obama’s step-grandson that he worriedly called out “Daddy, you are hurting meâ€.
I went on to write about how proud I was (and still am) to have witnessed Obama’s first victory with my son; how the trajectory of his life continues to inspire the lives of children all over the world, my son’s included. Kenyans believe that their president Uhuru Kenyatta aka “Mutongoria Jamba†has rejuvenated Pan-Africanism; that he was more warmly received at Nelson Mandela’s funeral than Barack Obama was.
That may as well be true.
I would also offer that President Kenyatta’s new-found passion for Pan-Africanism has been more out of self-preservation than genuine altruism or Africanism. Additionally, while Mr. Kenyatta’s appeal in SA may have trumped Obama’s based on the “thunderous applause…†he received, the latter’s appeal and impact was and continues to be global in scope and import: Somewhere, not only in Kenya, but in the world, including in China Kenya’s newest BFF, is a child who continues to be inspired by the unparalleled and historic achievements of one Barack H. Obama.
My son and all his tweenage friends, regardless of race, nationality, ethnicity or tribe, have come of age knowing as their country’s (America) president someone who is a half-African, half-Kenyan and half-Luo!
SWAG-SQUARED!
Those who point out that Son Of K’Ogelo is not “black†or “African-American†are indeed correct. Barack Obama is the bi-racial son of a white woman from Kansas and a Kenyan Luo man from K’Ogelo. These same people should also read up on America’s history on race especially during the period Obama Sr. was a student in America even though children of my son’s generation barely relate to race and definitely not tribe!
Simply put, Barack Hussein Obama’s ascension to the US presidency – a position invariably referred to as “the leader of the free world†and “the most powerful man in the world†– shattered the hitherto held belief that African-Americans could never occupy the Oval Office as it did, albeit tangentially, the narrative that the Kenyan presidency was a duopoly. It also spoke to the possibilities America offers to ANY and to ALL.
President Barack Obama’s personal and professional accomplishments – husband, father, trailblazer, icon, brainiac (Occidental College, Columbia, Harvard Law School where he was the first black president of its law review), Lecturer – Constitutional Law – UofChicago, Nobel Laureate, America’s 44th President – were achieved not because of his race, ethnicity, last name or tribe. America’s first non-white male president strung together the foregoing list of firsts IN SPITE of his race, ethnicity, and last name.
Rather than garner the White House using Lee Atwater’s racist “Southern Strategy†(America’s version of Kenya’s tribal-based “tyranny of numbersâ€) perfected by the Republican Party back in the 60, 70s and 80s, Mr. Obama, the original and demonstrable “digital president†used technology to cobble together a winning coalition of Asians, Blacks, Latinos, and Whites not once, but twice!
SWAG-CUBED!!!
Someone named “Menelik†wrote the following about Barack Obama’s upcoming visit:
“This is a plus for Kenya; it will give the people of Kenya a chance to show case who they are politics aside. Obama has Luo blood flowing in his veins that is a fact. So if you are Luo be proud of it, if you are not, swallow it and move on. We all know there are leaders from all tribes but Obama is Luo. I am not a supporter of Nyanza politics but I support Obama 100% as a global leader. WELCOME to KENYA President Obama.â€
I will add this paraphrase from my book:
“Whether you support President Obama’s presidency is an entirely fair discussion to have. However, we can all learn from his life: His determination, focus, discipline and fortitude are qualities we ALL can admire and learn from regardless of our political or tribal stripes.â€
KARIBU KENYA MR. PRESIDENT!
By Washington Osiro | marloow@yahoo.com
Mr Osiro, I am happy you have some cause to be happy amidst all this doom and gloom caused by some addle-headed miscreants in the name of al Shabab in Garissa. Good for you, sincerely. For the past almost one week now since this brutal incident happened, I can barely afford a smile
You correctly point out the many extra ordinary achievements this US president has achieved during his life and to just let you know, I, too, greatly admire him. I have defended him in various situations although I don't agree with most of his policies - I live in a predominantly Republican area. In 2008, while whiling away time in a pub whose patrons at that exact moment were almost 100% white (I and my friend were the only blacks), I made a decision to support his candidacy after witnessing a blatant show of sheer racism and disrespect for him and his running mate Joe Biden made by a performing musician. He had just concocted a song that went something like this, "I went to the White House and found a monkey and.........." I couldn't believe my eyes and ears and after a few minutes, we excused ourselves and left. I have never entered that pub again mpaka wa leo. Anyway, that's too much unsolicited info. My point is this: I have worked and lived in Luo Nyanza for a reasonable length of time to know how fanatical the folks there can be to the point of neglecting their own interests. It is this kind of sycophancy for RAO that has ensured the area lags too much behind other regions of the country yet folks from the area who have abandoned this mindset have progressed beyond measure, wherever they go and whatever they set their eyes on. I think you may just be one of them. What I completely don't understand is how a whole village or town or city goes standstill just because a certain politician is in town, be it UK, RAO or BO. In 2008, BO came right to my "village", a mere mile from where I live for a town hall meeting and I and others I know never gave a hoot about being there in spite of fact that we were supporting him. I am simply averse to the idea of worshiping or belittling individuals whatever their station in life might be. I, too, welcome Barack Hussein Obama to Kenya but I am also alive to the fact that he is first and foremost the American Numero Uno and he will once again, as expected of him by his constituency, be promoting America's interests in the country of his exceedingly smart father who abandoned him anyway