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It is refreshing to watch how excited Kenyans are about Barack
To be fair to Kenyans, Obama is a politician loved across the world. People are convinced the world is going to be a much better place during Obama’s tenure.
You really sympathise with him considering the expectations he has to carry. For Kenyans, the feeling of affinity to Obama is natural because his father was Kenyan.
Yet for everything that Obama represents, the Kenyan leadership and political class represent the exact opposite. Obama is a politician who has risen from obscurity to become the president of the US. In the country, however, to get to positions of national leadership it counts a great deal to bare the name of a prominent household. Here, people do not rise from obscurity to become national leaders, if it has ever happened it is in the extreme minority.
Obama’s campaign was built and anchored upon ordinary people. He raised record-breaking campaign money because ordinary people were allowed to contribute to the campaign. So successful was his fundraising that after clinching the Democratic ticket he helped Hillary
Currently the businessman behind the Sh7.6 billion-oil scandal involving the Kenya Pipeline, Mr Yagnesh Devani was among the top business people who attended the Sh1 million a plate luncheon for President Kibaki’s re-election bid in 2007.
The Americans judged Obama on the content of his character, ideas and ideals. Here at home it makes no difference that one has brilliant ideas and philosophies. It does not count that one has a character of high standing. All that matters is whether one comes from the "correct" tribe.
Obama took the oath of office at the age of 47. In this country it is unheard of that someone that young can become president.
There has been a joke since Obama was elected, about how when Obama was born some people were already in Government. Forty-seven years later when he becomes president of the US these same individuals are still in Government. That we have had the same crop of leaders for all that time probably explains why 45 years after independence we are still going round in circles.
During the US presidential campaigns the Republicans tried in vain to tarnish Obama’s character and image. The more they tried, the more desperate they looked. In Kenya, it is almost an unwritten rule that to rise to positions of national leadership one must carry a questionable past. Most of our national leaders are alleged to be involved in various scandals. It is as if the more questionable your moral and ethical standing, the easier it is to rise to positions of national leadership. It is no wonder we always go from one scandal to the next.
Obama, on the one hand, has nominated, to his Cabinet, a number of former rivals in the presidential campaign. The most prominent is Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Obama has even nominated a Republican to the position of Labour secretary.
The norm in Kenya, on the other hand, is to confine your political rivals to obscurity. You must keep your opponents as far away as possible lest they rock the boat. Local presidents surround themselves with their cronies and sycophants to feel safe during their tenure.
So much could be said of the difference between Obama and our politicians.
Beneath Kenyans’ celebration of Obama is a silent cry for a leader of Obama’s stature. Obama typifies what many Kenyans yearn for in their leaders, yet they realise that in the current crop of political leaders that is a far-fetched dream.
Who knows, some young Kenyan somewhere is getting prepared and may one day emerge to capture the aspirations and hopes of the country. The Standard
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