Even as Kenyans cheer and celebrate Obama there are folks in the country who are not quite as excited about the Obama presidency. If anything they will not sleep too well tonight.
In his speech a few hours ago, the new commander in chief in Washington, made it very clear that America will not work with leaders tainted by corruption. Indeed the fact that President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga were NOT invited to the inauguration is a clear indicator that President Obama is not pulling any punches on this one.
But what must really worry the political class tonight is the fact that no American president in history has understood Kenyan problems more. The 44th American president rode on Kenyan matatus and slept on couches in middle class estates. Not to mention the fact that he traveled to many parts of the country. Not the kind of person who will be hoodwinked on policies and decisions on Africa and mostly Kenya.
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The Bush administration in sharp contrast tended to look the other way when dealing with Nations that would help America in some way in the fight against terror. President Obama is clearly a completely different kettle of fish and so it will be fascinating to see what happens.
P.S. It is really sad that Obama senior died a very frustrated man in 1982 having given up on life. It would have been really nice for him to have lived to see today. The lesson here is that no matter how bad things are in your life, you never know what will happen a few pages later in the novel of your life.
I mean Obama Jnr is now the most powerful man in the world. President Bill Clinton in his biography talked about that man with the nukes briefcase following him all over the place at all times. That is exactly what’s happening to President Obama from this day onwards.
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Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Monday, January 19, 2009
Tears For Obama And The Other Guy Who Didn’t Make It
Above Tom Mboya next to President John F. Kennedy and left No 44 tomorrow.
I can’t remember the last post I wrote on this blog with tears freely streaming down my cheeks, but it has been a long time. I am a man who gets moved and the tears flow freely. That’s me. But in recent times circumstances of life have been such that I have been greatly hardened and that soft part of me has been in hibernation it seems.
So why the tears when writing this post?
The tears are for an unsung Kenyan hero 6 feet under and forgotten. A man that younger Kenyans these days try to compare to politicians of today like Raila Odinga. Something that makes me want to be sick. But that is a story for a different day.
The man I am talking about is the real inspiration behind this blog. The reason why I became interested in politics in the first place. The inspiration behind my launching Kumekucha. An ordinary man no doubt, but the greatest political son of mother Kenya who ever lived. I challenge you to study his life and see if you can contest that statement. Sorry guys, half baked ignorant tribal comments won’t wash here and I will not give them even the benefit of a glance.
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That man is the reason why the world will stand still tomorrow as a black man with Kenyan blood flowing through his veins is inaugurated in Washington.
I am of course talking about Thomas Joseph Odiambo Mboya whom most Kenyans came to know as simply Tom Mboya or TJ to his friends.
On the eve of the inauguration of one Barrack Obama, TJ must be turning in his grave and if it were possible to chuckle 6 feet under, he is no doubt doing just that. Why? Because once again it has been proven that you can kill a man but you can never kill his ideas, his good works and legacy. Gosh!!! TJ still seems to have his hand shaping major world events almost 40 years after an assassins bullet cut short his brilliant political career on the streets of Nairobi.
Tomorrow when President Barack Obama emerges from the swearing in as the 44th president of the United States, TJ will have been vindicated many times over although his killers still roam Kenya free and unafraid.
The airlifts that saw Obama senior land in the United States were the brain child of Tom Mboya (see this Wikipedia post for details).
But what is really amazing are the similarities that Obama and Mboya share. Mostly how the two men were able to make use of so little to do the unthinkable. That is how I will always remember both.
I am not one to brag, but it is of course not lost on me that it was on the pages of this very blog that the “ridiculous” idea of having an upstart like Obama in the White House was first put into words. That fact humbles me more than anything else and also inspires me to believe that nothing is impossible.
It has disgusted me that maize thieves and looters of the Kenyan economy have used the Obama slogan liberally in recent times. It has been greatly defiled…
But as I toast to the two men on my mind today I just have to say….
Yes we can.
TJ, it is not over yet. No way!!!
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