Matatu-Riding American President And The World Economic Melt Down

Kumekucha stood alone for a long time predicting Barrack Obama’s march to the White House. Now the people who were telling me that I do not understand American politics are bold supporters of the Senator who came from nowhere and will remind nobody of their earlier views.

After the debate between Obama and McCain a few hours ago, all indications are that this man of Kenyan descent will be the next president of the United States of America.

However my big concern just now is the kind of world that Obama will walk into as President next January. It seems to me that the odds are all stacked very heavily against him. No previous American president has ever had to face what Obama will have on his plate in a few months time. While I wish him the best and will be rooting for him all the way, I just wonder…

Obama’s ascension to the highest office in the land will also mark the most dramatic shift in the fortunes of Africa ever witnessed in history. There are some economic pundits who believe that the world economic melt down is already ushering in a new world economic order that will greatly favor Africa for the first time. Personally I see plenty of evidence to support that kind of thinking.

Kindly bear with me for a few minutes. I know how boring economics is, more so in a hot political site like Kumekucha, but I believe this is important.

This is the second time that greed and speculation are bringing the world economy to its’ knees. Chances are that we may just go back to the old ways like having gold in a central bank to back the currency out there. My view is that the sophisticated bail outs will not work and that even if there is a brief initial respite, things will only get worse.

Africans are poised to be major players in the world economic order because trends clearly show that food prices will continue to head North and since the continent is primarily agricultural country, I see farming becoming more profitable than it has ever been in history. Then there is the continent’s highly skillful labour force that has for a long time been locked out of Western economies. Whatever happens, that valuable resource will greatly benefit the continent in the years to come even if it is in the form of repatriated earnings (although I have a feeling that it will be much more than that). In Africa Kenya is clearly the country to watch here.

Then there is the World Wide Web and the cell phones which have given Africa instant infrastructure that is already fuelling unprecedented economic activity on the continent.

The world as we knew it has changed forever and Africans and especially Kenyans need to follow Senator Obama’s example and rise up to the occasion. This is our time.

Some Obama articles in Kumekucha from the past

President of the US who rode in a matatu

Predictions of democratic nomination for Obama

All Kenyan blogs except Kumekucha said Obama had no chance

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Verdict: The Hague is Beckoning

Justice Waki may have tempered his language to avoid bruising political egos, but the thrust of his verdict lies in the fine print that most Kenyans will conveniently ignore as they shout themselves hoarse in chasing shadows. The report lays bare the root cause of post election violence as LACK OF LEADERSHIP that is/was singularly enshrined in IMPUNITY. But trust Kenyans to shamelessly cheer their tribal chiefs even when they are all collectively led to the edge of a cliff.

The verdict on NSIS is damning. No country runs without a dependable intelligence service and ours is reputed as one of the best on this side of the planet. The NSIS knew about the suffocating tension before the polls but their interest rested elsewhere secure in the knowledge about the voting pattern and outcome. Gichangi and his team disregarded professionalism to pay back the piper. His only grave mistake was use of old models based on stereotypes while chronically underestimating the resolve and anger of Kenyans collectively.

The truth is that right from 2005 referendum, Kibaki knew his political fate and he consequently played it safe while scheming to have the last laugh. Not until events took unpredictable turn and not even the NSIS could sermon any quick fix from its reservoir of magic in containing the fast escalating superhighway to apocalypse. Waki has painted it in black and white that Kibaki obtusely failure to offer POLITICAL leadership in his first term as president.

Waki couldn’t have been more candid. Our problems were more political than anything else. And the good judge didn’t mince his words in declaring that Kibaki failed to unite the country. Instead Emilio and his cronies allowed feelings of marginalization to fester into the inevitable post-election violence. The import of that is that Kibaki’s actions and omissions raped him of moral legitimacy which fueled national animosity only in need of a less than civilized contest to explode. And in deed we have lived to tell the story.

So what next or where do we go from here? Well, nothing and nowhere actually. Our short memory and selfish clarion call to MOVE ON will soon relegate this explosive report to the archives. We have no institution to speak of and the office bearers have no legitimacy either. We remain a country held hostage at the whims of scoundrels hell-bent on feathering their nests at our collective peril. Maybe by tracing the origins of PEV to 2002 MOU, even Waki refused to move on. On the contrary he is latently warning about the perils of DECEPTION.

Handsome rewards of impunity.
Even the cabinet’s adoption of Kriegler’s report was a gimmick to create an impression of motion with no commensurate movement. The composition of the sub-committee couldn’t have been more revealing with the same faces still smarting from distrust and raw anger at each other. The headlines may as well be the apt obituaries of these reports.

With no political or moral BALLS to confront challenges, the present leaders have bequeathed on us the curse of living a national lie in postponing Armageddon. But the truth never mutates and the lives of more than 1500 Kenyans were not lost in vein. Well, cheap political shots often derive pleasure in trivializing those lives as mere statistics with their pedestrian accusations.

Nothing lasts forever and one day and very soon the real perpetrators of these murders will ultimately pay for their crime singularly or severally. It is only a matter of time and only a Nairobi or Hague tribunal will appease those departed souls