Date: Sun, 14 Jun 2009 11:48:14 +0300
From: Hassan Ole Naado
Subject: NYC Re: Fw: Obama Kenya Snub, What Exactly was it About?
Benbella Oyalo,
I appreciate your argument; but it seems to me that you did not understand the gist of the argument and reacted to it emotionally. The issue of whether we want change as country is not debateable. Its long overdue as some of us believe that we have never been independent as a country since independence. All the points raised by your goodself on corruption, impunity etc are genuine and again not debatable.
What I think you did not understand is linking my argument on America’s double standards when pursuing their political and economic interests with our worsening situation. You cannot justify in anyway rationale of visiting Egypt and not Kenya in pretence of encouraging countries that are promoting democracy, human rights and the rule of law. For your information Egypt has been a police state for the last 28 years and this information is known tom everyone. If the visit was to promote America’s political and economic interest and not promoting the basic tenets of democracy and human rights, then my argument becomes irrelevant. But, democracy, human rights and the rule of law should not be mentioned in such situation otherwise it loses its meaning.
I am aware of most of the many things you think made Obama to visit Cairo. It has all to do with America’s strategic interest in the Arab world than in the Muslim world. I suggest that we direct our energy to improve our own local situation and we raise the red flag when things are not doing well elsewhere
Many thanks.
Haassan Ole Naado
Date: Sat, 13 Jun 2009 09:33:12 -0700 (PDT)
From: benbella oyalo
Subject: NYC Re: Fw: Obama Kenya Snub, What Exactly was it About?
Hassan,
That was a very good article you wrote. It was nice for me to go through your article and get some sense out of it. You are absolutely right but .. there are many things to consider over why Obama decided to chose Ghana and Egypt.
If i were him, i would have dnoe the same… We are better democratically than Egypt as you put it, but still this is not helping us, We are living a mirror life.. reflecting what should be done and not doing what has to be done in practice.
Yeah, this is where his Papa was born, no big deal.. that is our culture.. he grew up in a different setting but still, the lad has big love for Kenya. We need Change and I myself just like Obama want to see reforms …. don’t you ?
Talk of the freedom of press and Media.. did it help during the General elections ? yes it did to some point then ? there was a coup.. everything went back to zero ( impunity, dictatorship and there was nothing we could do.
Maize, oil, errors with the budget, extra judicial killings,Kenren fertilizer company, hefty pay for our MPs, Kenya is being taken away from we Citizen and we need to take it back…
Obama is part of we taking it back the country to the Citizens, you are part of it, I am and many other Kenyans.Oscar Kamau Kingara and John Paul Oulo were shot dead, who shot them ? we need reforms brother…. we need not to do it on paper, actions … Lets us non violent methods to speak out our hearts, and he did give us an example by snubbing Kenya for Ghana and Egypt.
Why is it always on Tv, Newspaper i see Kenyans go to this rallies organised by our corrupt leaders ? why can’t we guys snub going to such meetings and go ahead doing our chores e.t.c ? people still go.. Makes me sick… Change.. Just like a Mirror it is.
Date: Sat, 13 Jun 2009 17:20:11 +0300
From: Hassan Ole Naado
Subject: NYC Re: Fw: Obama Kenya Snub, What Exactly was it About?
Hi Guys,
Attached herewith is my article that was published by Nairobi Star on June 4, 2009 for
more information on the above subject matter.
Regards
Hassan Ole Naado
Double standards.doc [application/msword] 30 KB
Obama Africa visit betrays America’s double standards
By Hassan Ole Naado
Barack Obama is scheduled to make his first tour of Africa as president of the United States this June with a first stop in Ghana and then Egypt.
While in Ghana, President Obama is expected to use the visit to reiterate the need for clean democracy in Africa, and warn African leaders who are not ready to embrace good governance that their relationship with Washington will not be business as usual. And while in Egypt, the US leader is expected to use the forums to speak to the Muslim world and market his policies to the Middle East.
But while on his first tour of Africa as US president, Obama will not visit Kenya, the country where his father Barack Hussein Obama Sr came from.
Many had expected the President to visit Kenya on his first trip to the continent while in the White House, but according to the US embassy in Nairobi, Washington is impatient with the slow pace of reforms that the grand coalition government is undertaking, and would therefore not dignify this lethargy with a visit by the US president.
The White House is on record to have made it clear that it is not satisfied with how the grand coalition government is handling the reform agenda, especially issues cited in Agenda 4 of the National Reconciliation Accord.
The main issues in Agenda 4 include constitutional and institutional reforms that would enhance democratic governance aimed at ending corruption and impunity, land and resource distribution reforms aimed at addressing socio-economic disparities and electoral reforms aimed at restoring the confidence of Kenyans in ballot.
US government officials in Nairobi and Washington have clarified that Obama’s choice of Ghana over any other African country was encouraged by the exemplary democratic credentials that the country exhibited during its recent general elections in which power was transferred smoothly to the then opposition party led by John Atta Mills after it won a closely contested poll.
In this regard, President Obama will be going to Ghana as a sign of approval of the country’s democratic credentials and he is expected to tout it as an example to be emulated by other African countries.
However, whereas it is encouraging that the US president has chosen to travel to Ghana in order to shore up support for the democratic credentials in that country, there is a lot to be desired by his choice to go to Egypt.
The question is, if President Obama snubs Kenya because of her lethargic pace in implanting much needed democratic reforms, why would he find it appropriate to visit Egypt? If democratic credentials are the measure of how Obama’s administration will engage with African countries, then the President should have chosen Kenya over Egypt because, when compared to Egypt, Kenya’s democratic credentials are far much better than Egypt’s.
If anything, Egypt does not have any democratic credentials to write home about! This a country where any challenge to the ruling elite in Cairo is met with repression. Most opposition figures are either in jail or banned from participating in any electoral process based on the accusation that they are Islamist hardliners bent on propagating acts of terrorism.
It is therefore difficult to accept that there is meaningful democracy in a country that has been ruled by one President for the past 28 years and analyst says he is grooming his son to succeed him.
Besides Egypt does not enjoy a free media the way Kenya does, and Egyptians have been living under emergency law since 1967, except for an 18-month break in 1980. Emergency laws have been continuously extended every three years since 1981, and these laws sharply circumscribe any non-governmental political activity like street demonstrations, non-approved political organizations, and un-registered financial donations are formally banned.
Under the “state of emergency”, the government has the right to imprison individuals for any period of time, and for virtually no reason, thus keeping them in prisons without trials for any period.
And the excuse presented by the government to keep the state of emergency going is to fight terrorism.
Opposition groups like the Muslim Brotherhood could come into power in Egypt if the current government did not forgo parliamentary elections, confiscate the group’s main financiers’ possessions, and/or detain group figureheads; a move which is virtually impossible without emergency law.
However, critics would argue that this goes against the principles of democracy, which include a citizen’s right to a fair trial and their right to vote for whichever candidate and/or party they deem fit to run their country.
In this regard, when compared to Egypt, Kenya’s human rights record and democratic credentials are far much better than Egypt’s. Hence for President Obama to snub Kenya for the reasons given by his ambassadors but go to Egypt is a show of double standards.
If democratic credentials and good governance are the conditions for friendly engagement with the Obama administration, it would be fair that they be applied equally across the board.
Despite occasional obstacles which are common to all budding democracies, Kenya should be commended for at least walking the talk towards good governance and democratization.
So far, Parliament has put into place the legal framework for comprehensive constitutional and electoral reforms which President Obama should have dignified with a visit in order to encourage the country to move in that direction.
The writer is a Chevening Fellow and the Chief Executive Officer of the Kenya Muslim Youth Alliance
—–Original Message—–
From: nicholas oyoo
Sent: Jumamosi, Juni 13, 2009 4:25 PM
Subject: NYC Fw: Obama Kenya Snub, What Exactly was it About?
I got the letter below from one of contributions to the letters to the editor.
Though I have no problem with US President Barack Obama urging Kenyan
leaders to speed up institutional reforms, I have a problem with his apparent doublespeak.
His recent decision to skip Kenya from his Africa itinerary was not based on poor
leadership as many claimed. If that was the case, he should have
visited countries that would set an example for Kenya not Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
Undoubtedly, Kenyan leaders are far much ahead of the dictators of Egypt and Saudi Arabia in terms of tolerance, freedom and respect for democracy. In Saudi, for instance, a woman minister must obtain permission to address the media. And in Egypt, there is no opposition at all. Though Kenyan leaders often disagree, they agree on many issues.
Also there are more extra-judicial killings in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Kuwait and other Arab US allies than in Kenya and Zimbabwe. Therefore, Obama simply snubbed Kenya based on other US interests rather than democracy and bad leadership.
Abdullahi Abdirahman, Wajir.
My take
The Obama snub had to do with the security questions.
The Delta airline question is an indicator that top intelligence at the administration
had specific intelligence of such bad security options and not comfortable with the
security headache Al-Qaida via Al-Shabbab would present and the possibility of inability of Kenyan security forces to face the challenge without resulting to human rights violations.
If memory serves me correctly, Obama himself said his administration would change the
notion that somehow not visiting and talking to your adversaries is punishment enough. Or is it another about turn?
Just yesterday CNN had an in-depth coverage of the apparent relocation of Al-Qaida to
Somalia.