Predictably the Kenyan government hit back at Senator Obama.
Let the world know that the Kenyan people are not behind President Kibaki's government and the Senator is right on target and actually speaking the mind of the Kenyan people.
The senator rode a Matatu with ordinary Kenyans as recently as 1987 during a month's visit to the country. When was the last time most of the cabinet rode in a matatu with ordinary wananchi? When is the last time President Kibaki visited Kibera slums?
I felt that this comment in another blog accurately portays the exact situation here. You can read it in detail for yourself at the Booker Rising blog.
"My response: Sen. Obama is correct. But of course, African officials will remain willfully negligent of the obvious: corruption grips the continent, including in Kenya. Notice that Mutua went the ad hominem attack route, instead of addressing the substance of Sen. Obama's accusation. Perhaps Mutua should look at the bribes that foreign media had to pay to even get out of the airport in the country during Sen. Obama's visit (which the senator unsuccessfully tried to get refunded to the journalists). Or the months - even years - that it takes to even set up a business in Kenya, with bribes as a requirement. Such government irresponsibility is a key barrier to African advancement.
Obama's sticky switch from media darling to media-hounded
ReplyDeleteNovember 7, 2006
BY LYNN SWEET Sun-Times Columnist
For the first time, Sen. Barack Obama was playing defense with the press. It was after a get-out-the-vote rally on Monday. Instead of the usual fawning Washington reporters tossing softballs as they worked up adoring stories about him running for president in 2008, Obama was taking questions from the City Hall news crew about his astoundingly bad judgment.
They drove up to Waukegan to find out for themselves why on earth Obama had anything to do with the shady, recently indicted Tony Rezko.
WLS radio reporter Bill Cameron put it this way in the lead-off question: "What in the world were you doing in a real estate deal with Tony Rezko?''
For the next 14 minutes, Obama had what for him was a new experience: explaining himself in public for questionable personal conduct.
Obama's inquisitors were reporters who knew him for years and were neither awed nor intimidated by him. It was just another grilling of yet another Chicago pol who got caught in a sticky situation.
Put another way, Obama was being treated just like everybody else.
"This is the first time this has happened and I don't like the feeling,'' Obama said. "It's frustrating to me, and I'm kicking myself about it."
Book deal leads to real estate deal
To recap: Obama inked a book deal after winning election to the Senate in 2004. With his new wealth, in June 2005, Obama bought a $1.65 million mansion in Kenwood, some $300,000 below asking price. Rezko's wife Rita paid $625,000, the list price, for an adjacent empty lot the Rezkos may develop.
The deals closed the same day because the seller insisted both parcels be sold at the same time.
When the deals went down, Rezko -- who befriended Obama when he was a nobody Harvard law student -- was already cast in news stories as a controversial figure and political fundraiser.
By January 2006, when Obama bought a strip of Rezko's yard, Rezko's status was elevated to politically radioactive, since it was known he was under investigation by federal prosecutors.
The Rezko story broke last week, when Obama was wrapping up a national tour serving several purposes: promote his new book, The Audacity of Hope, raise money and stump for Democrats, and lay the groundwork for a possible 2008 White House bid.
******this is the same guy who was calling kenya corrupt