Post by miguna on Nov 8, 2006 5:39:17 GMT 3
RAILA WOOS FOREIGN GOVERNMENTS AND EXPATRIATE KENYANS AS THE WHITE HOUSE KEENLY WATCHES THE 2007 PRESIDENTIAL CONTEST
By MIGUNA MIGUNA* - © 6 November 2006
‘With big public health worries and a shaky economy, Kenya hardly needs new tensions from warring states on its borders. But those are among the challenges awaiting the country’s next president. And Raila Odinga says he’s up to them. He’s a career politician whose resume includes several years in cabinet, and several years in detention without trial. And he is tipped as one to watch in next year’s Presidential contest, which will be watched, with interest, by the White House. It views Kenya as an “anchor state” stabilizing the region and providing a safe harbour from which to operate in East Africa. Meantime, Raila Odinga, or “The Agwambo” as he’s known, criss-crosses the globe wooing foreign governments and expatriate Kenyans. He sat down with Rick during a campaign stop in Canada.”
That is how the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s (CBC’s) internationally acclaimed weekly foreign affairs program, Dispatches, hosted by Rick Macinnes-Rae, introduced Raila both on air and in its website.
Raila was interviewed at the CBC Toronto studio for one hour on a wide-range of national and international issues on Friday, October 27th, 2006. The interview was aired live on Thursday, November 2nd to both Canadian and international audiences.
A few minutes after recording the interview, I accompanied Raila to a lunch at the University of Toronto’s Faculty Club. Here, Professors Sean Hawkins and Richard Sandbrook discussed historical, political, economic and social issues with Raila. Prof. Sandbrook recalled that the last time he met a prominent Kenyan politician was in 1969. He met T.J. Mboya exactly one week before he was assassinated.
Later, Prof. Sandbrook elaborately introduced Raila, detailing his accomplishments as a former lecturer at the University of Nairobi’s Faculty of Engineering, as a deputy director of Kenya Bureau of Standards, as a pro-democracy activist, a cabinet minister and now a prominent political operative aspiring to be the next president. Prof. Sandbrook drew a direct connection between Jaramogi Oginga Odinga’s struggles for Kenya’s liberation from colonialism with Raila’s struggles for a free, united and prosperous Kenya.
When Raila took to the podium to lecture scholars and students at the University of Toronto that afternoon and later to Kenyans and friends of Kenya on Saturday, October 28th at the same institution, he unveiled and articulated his vision and electoral platform. He drew sharp distinctions between the Narc Government of President Kibaki, which he stated has betrayed all its electoral promises by refusing to enact a people-focused constitution within 100 days of taking power; by reintroducing and entrenching tribalism into the affairs of state, and by condoning and perpetuating corruption; and both the Orange Democratic Movement-Kenya (ODM-K) and his platform.
In speeches reminiscent of academy award offerings, Raila gave detailed historical account of the hopes, dreams and aspirations Kenyans had during the struggle for independence. The people’s hopes, dreams and aspirations were dashed and shredded as soon as independence had been attained by greedy, selfish and unprincipled leadership. Instead of eradicating poverty, disease and ignorance, Raila said that our post-colonial leaders grabbed land, looted our economy and stashed looted money abroad. That was how the pre-independence promises our founding fathers made to the people were betrayed.
What followed were orchestrated deceptive politics based on the manipulation and misuse of our ethnicities; massive abuse of power and public resources; grand corruption; and political oppression of unimaginable scale. Raila recalled how all attempts by courageous and patriotic Kenyans between 1966 and 1969 were met with repression and brutality by the Government. This was the period that saw the formation of Kenya People’s Union (KPU) by Jaramogi and others. KPU was proscribed in 1969 amidst intense intrigues, suppression, massacre of innocent Kenyans in Kisumu and detention without trial of all its leaders. Kenya was thus transformed into a de facto one party state.
After the 1982 coup attempt by members of the defunct Kenyan Air force, President Kibaki (then Moi’s vice-president) introduced an amendment to the Constitution by enacting section 2A that made Kenya a de jure one-party state. Between 1982 and 1992, Kenyans saw the worst kinds of repression. Political dissent was criminalized. Many who dared question or challenge the Government like Raila found themselves arrested, tortured, detained without trial for long years, exiled or killed. Others were convicted after tramped-up charges had been preferred and trials conducted by kangaroo courts
Raila gave many examples like the one of the former student leader of the University of Nairobi, Titus Adungosi, whom he saw vomiting blood after one of the torture sessions. He himself was kept “swimming” in water at the Nyayo House torture chambers until his wife, Ida Odinga, made a successful habeas corpus application, after which he was detained without trial.
Section 2A was repealed in 1992 after many years of struggle, during which time Kibaki remained Moi’s and Kanu’s vice-president. Raila with Jaramogi, Paul Muite, Martin Shikuku, James Orengo, Kenneth Matiba, Mashinde Muliro, Charles Rubia, Anyan’g Nyong’o and others, formed the Forum for Restoration of Democracy (Ford).
On the issue of the use of violence or revolution to effect political changes, Raila gave the example of Nelson Mandela’s speech at Rivonia in which he paraphrased Madiba as stating that in as much as he preferred peace and peaceful change; and in as much as he would do everything in his power to struggle for change in a non-violent manner; if all peaceful avenues to change are blocked through state repression and brutality, a people have the right to use all available means to bring about positive change in society, and if that means using violence or revolution, so be it. He, however, stressed that before resorting to violence we must exhaust all peaceful avenues for change. He then gave the example of the 1982 coup as being such instance when the people of Kenya felt that there were no longer any peaceful avenues of effecting change.
Raila stated that he contested and lost the presidential elections of 1997, with Moi emerging as number one, Kibaki becoming number two while he was number three in a field of fifteen candidates. Moi apparently got less than 40 percent of the votes cast and counted, while the combined opposition had more than 60 per cent. As such, Raila, explained, Moi did not win the 1997 election; the opposition lost the election. Having realized this, Raila decided that for an effective change to occur one of two things must happen. First, the opposition had to unite. And second, Kanu had to be weakened and destroyed. Because it was then impossible to unite the opposition, he decided that his then party the National Development Party (NDP) would cooperate with Kanu, principally to extract necessary concessions for national development and policy changes. Raila recognized that fighting Kanu from the outside without opposition unity was futile. The cooperation was subsequently transformed into a merger between the NDP and Kanu.
When he was later challenged to explain how he could justify cooperating with Kanu and Moi and helping them stay in power longer than was desirable, especially given the fact that Moi had detained him for more than eight years, Raila responded that if Mandela could cooperate with members of the apartheid regime like De Klerk, then he saw no justification why he could not do the same. He reminded the audiences that bitterness and retribution did not solve any problems; that he leaves punishment and retribution to God.
Eventually when Raila and his Rainbow Coalition emerged from Kanu in 2002 in the form of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), the latter was much bigger, stronger and more potent than either Kanu or the NDP. Kenyans responded positively to the Raibow movement leading to the formation of the National Alliance Rainbow Coalition (Narc), which essentially united the LDP and the National Alliance Party of Kenya (NAK). The latter group was headed by Kibaki, Wamalwa Kijana and Charity Ngilu. The LDP and NAK alliance was solemnized through two Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs). The MoU that was signed at the Serena Hotel was publicly announced at Uhuru Park while the second one dealing with power-sharing arrangements was ratified at the Hilton Hotel. Kibaki signed both documents.
Raila recounted how he led a blistering campaign against Moi in the run-up to the 2002 elections as both Kibaki and Wamalwa lay ill at a London hospital. Kibaki had been involved in a serious motor vehicle accident while Wamalwa suffered from other illnesses. During the campaigns, at polling stations and shortly after Narc won, Kenyans united without regard to ethnic differences and stereotypes. Finally, we Kenyans had placed the nation ahead of sectarianism and ethnic divisions. There was promise that Kenya could follow Tanzania’s example of building a country on national ideals rather than parochial interests.
Opinion polls conducted of Kenyans immediately after the 2002 elections registered them as the most optimistic people in the world. Not any more.
No sooner had Kibaki assumed power following Narc’s electoral victory, than he quickly trashed the MoUs that brought him into power, disregarded the Narc Summit, refused to consult with his coalition partners in Narc, made cabinet, civil service, military and diplomatic appointments primarily on the basis of tribal affiliations, patronage, nepotism and cronyism. Meritocracy that Narc had promised Kenya would be applied in all public appointments was thrown out of the window. Grand corruption quickly smelt hay and danced. It was business as usual.
In Raila’s assessment, the betrayal our people’s dreams and aspirations that Kenyatta and Moi before Kibaki had perfected into an art is now back in fashion. Instead of accountability, transparency and good governance being entrenched in Government, the bad old ways of doing business was auditioning in town. Raila stated that he quickly realized that nothing had changed with the Kibaki presidency. People who fought Narc during the 2002 elections are now occupying key government positions simply because they happen to come from the same area as the president.
It is the struggle for fundamental changes that Raila and the Orange Democratic Movement-Kenya (ODM-Kenya) are championing.
During the Question and Answer Sessions at both functions, Raila electrified his audiences and tickled them in equal measure. When asked the myth about Luos, circumcision and why a Luo cannot be elected president, Raila wondered why some men appear concerned about an issue that does not seem to bother Kenyan women. He asked why a few men appear obsessed with uncircumcised genitalia while women have never complained. He went further and stated that leadership was not the province of what was between the legs but what was between the ears. He stated that nobody is asking whether the President of the United States, George W. Bush or the British Prime Minister Tony Blair were circumcised or not. Why should Kenya, which is not even developed like the two countries care about such irrelevant and trivial things?
When asked to comment on the issue of Tiomin, a Canadian company whose intention to invest in mining in Kwale District in Kenya ran into both bureaucratic and environmental troubles, Raila gave what has now become vintage Raila allegories. After pillorying the Government for refusing to deal with bureaucratic red-tape on important matters affecting the ordinary people of Kenya, Raila turned on the environmentalists and compared them to a parent who is interested in a grandchild but refuses to accept that in order for that to occur, his or her daughter’s virginity must be broken. “You either accept or come to terms with the virginity being broken before getting a grandchild or you forget about the grandchild all together.”
A question was put to him regarding the low number of female parliamentarians in Kenya. As usual, Raila gave an original answer. Unlike men, Raila stated, women in Kenya are married away from their places of birth. Most women, he explained, are married in different constituencies from where they were born. So, while men grow up, go through initiations, attend schools and other rituals together and bond with each other from the same constituencies as they grow up, women invariably get dislocated through marriage. Almost all women are strangers where they live in an African (rural) context. As such, whereas men call on their kinsfolk to vote for them in elections, women find themselves disadvantaged with their relatives, friends and kinsfolk back in their homes or constituencies of birth. This logically leads to lack of or very low number of female parliamentarians or political leaders. In order to solve this situation, Raila calls for an affirmative action program that reserve a specific minimum number of seats for women.
On why he was working closely in ODM-K with some leaders who have been accused of wrongdoing, Raila reminded his audiences that the rule of law requires one to be presumed innocent until proven guilty. That one should not be condemned unheard and untried. He stated further that unless or until one has been convicted through due process of law, it would be unjust, unfair and contrary to the principles of natural justice to call such a person a criminal. He warned against witch-hunting. This last answer, more than anything else, demonstrated Raila’s commitment to fairness. Had he been after cheap publicity and raw ambition, he could have lumped on his rivals by besmirching their reputations. The fact that he strongly resisted such temptations is an attractive trait in a leader.
Raila challenged the economic growth figures being given by the Government. He stated that a developing country like Kenya should be registering annual growth rates of 10 to 20 percentile points; not 5.8 as claimed by the Government. He gave the examples of Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and other Asian Tigers that grew at much higher rates in the 1970s and 1980s. Raila blamed the successive Kenyan Governments for failing to catch up with these Asian countries which were economically at par with Kenya in the 1960s but have now grown more than forty times and left Kenya behind.
Raila also delved into the issue of conflicts, insecurity and the refugee problems in the East African region. He stated that Somaliland (the breakaway northern part of Somalia), although not internationally recognized, has done very well. It has had a stable government, an operating airport and peacefully co-existed within the region. He also mentioned that the Islamic Court System that has taken over most of the turbulent southern part of Somalia seems to have brought relative peace and order in that part of the country and therefore should be given credit and an opportunity to institutionalize order. He promised to work closely with the Somali people and the international community to bring about long-lasting peace in the region. He mentioned that without peace in Somalia, neighbouring countries such as Kenya cannot experience meaningful peace.
On the East African Federation and African unity, Raila reiterated his Pan-African commitments of seeing unity in both the region and of the entire continent. He stated that without unity, Africa cannot develop and become as strong as other world powers. Raila comfortably illustrated this by citing the history of Germany and China. Bismarck, he stated, had long realized that without German unity, the German people would become second-class citizens of Europe. Although Germany is made up of diverse and distinct peoples, Bismarck explained to the Germans that their only survival lay in the unity of Germany. Similarly, China is currently threatening the dominance of the United States as the world’s only super power through unity and industry. Africa cannot be an exception, he said.
Raila’s audiences were impressed by his wit, intelligence, thorough grasp of history, politics, international affairs, philosophy and his ability to “suck air” out of his crowd like Bill Clinton often does. More than any other contemporary Kenyan leader, Raila truly connects to the people. He is capable of debating both lofty theoretical issues as easily as he cracks jokes with his audiences.
The Agwambo is on his way back to Kenya after an exceptionally successful whirlwind tour of North America. He has surely wooed and won over many new supporters. He has also generated vigorous and healthy debate among expatriate Kenyans - not just on the type of leader we deserve - but also on what kind of vision our leaders must have before we can realize the pre-independence dreams that have been haunting us.
Kenyans should fairly and objectively discuss Raila’s vision and platform vis-à-vis the other presidential candidates before making an informed choice; not on the basis of their genitalia.
______________________________________________________________________
*The writer is a Barrister & Solicitor in Toronto, Canada. He comments on political, legal and constitutional issues. Miguna@migunamiguna.com
By MIGUNA MIGUNA* - © 6 November 2006
‘With big public health worries and a shaky economy, Kenya hardly needs new tensions from warring states on its borders. But those are among the challenges awaiting the country’s next president. And Raila Odinga says he’s up to them. He’s a career politician whose resume includes several years in cabinet, and several years in detention without trial. And he is tipped as one to watch in next year’s Presidential contest, which will be watched, with interest, by the White House. It views Kenya as an “anchor state” stabilizing the region and providing a safe harbour from which to operate in East Africa. Meantime, Raila Odinga, or “The Agwambo” as he’s known, criss-crosses the globe wooing foreign governments and expatriate Kenyans. He sat down with Rick during a campaign stop in Canada.”
That is how the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s (CBC’s) internationally acclaimed weekly foreign affairs program, Dispatches, hosted by Rick Macinnes-Rae, introduced Raila both on air and in its website.
Raila was interviewed at the CBC Toronto studio for one hour on a wide-range of national and international issues on Friday, October 27th, 2006. The interview was aired live on Thursday, November 2nd to both Canadian and international audiences.
A few minutes after recording the interview, I accompanied Raila to a lunch at the University of Toronto’s Faculty Club. Here, Professors Sean Hawkins and Richard Sandbrook discussed historical, political, economic and social issues with Raila. Prof. Sandbrook recalled that the last time he met a prominent Kenyan politician was in 1969. He met T.J. Mboya exactly one week before he was assassinated.
Later, Prof. Sandbrook elaborately introduced Raila, detailing his accomplishments as a former lecturer at the University of Nairobi’s Faculty of Engineering, as a deputy director of Kenya Bureau of Standards, as a pro-democracy activist, a cabinet minister and now a prominent political operative aspiring to be the next president. Prof. Sandbrook drew a direct connection between Jaramogi Oginga Odinga’s struggles for Kenya’s liberation from colonialism with Raila’s struggles for a free, united and prosperous Kenya.
When Raila took to the podium to lecture scholars and students at the University of Toronto that afternoon and later to Kenyans and friends of Kenya on Saturday, October 28th at the same institution, he unveiled and articulated his vision and electoral platform. He drew sharp distinctions between the Narc Government of President Kibaki, which he stated has betrayed all its electoral promises by refusing to enact a people-focused constitution within 100 days of taking power; by reintroducing and entrenching tribalism into the affairs of state, and by condoning and perpetuating corruption; and both the Orange Democratic Movement-Kenya (ODM-K) and his platform.
In speeches reminiscent of academy award offerings, Raila gave detailed historical account of the hopes, dreams and aspirations Kenyans had during the struggle for independence. The people’s hopes, dreams and aspirations were dashed and shredded as soon as independence had been attained by greedy, selfish and unprincipled leadership. Instead of eradicating poverty, disease and ignorance, Raila said that our post-colonial leaders grabbed land, looted our economy and stashed looted money abroad. That was how the pre-independence promises our founding fathers made to the people were betrayed.
What followed were orchestrated deceptive politics based on the manipulation and misuse of our ethnicities; massive abuse of power and public resources; grand corruption; and political oppression of unimaginable scale. Raila recalled how all attempts by courageous and patriotic Kenyans between 1966 and 1969 were met with repression and brutality by the Government. This was the period that saw the formation of Kenya People’s Union (KPU) by Jaramogi and others. KPU was proscribed in 1969 amidst intense intrigues, suppression, massacre of innocent Kenyans in Kisumu and detention without trial of all its leaders. Kenya was thus transformed into a de facto one party state.
After the 1982 coup attempt by members of the defunct Kenyan Air force, President Kibaki (then Moi’s vice-president) introduced an amendment to the Constitution by enacting section 2A that made Kenya a de jure one-party state. Between 1982 and 1992, Kenyans saw the worst kinds of repression. Political dissent was criminalized. Many who dared question or challenge the Government like Raila found themselves arrested, tortured, detained without trial for long years, exiled or killed. Others were convicted after tramped-up charges had been preferred and trials conducted by kangaroo courts
Raila gave many examples like the one of the former student leader of the University of Nairobi, Titus Adungosi, whom he saw vomiting blood after one of the torture sessions. He himself was kept “swimming” in water at the Nyayo House torture chambers until his wife, Ida Odinga, made a successful habeas corpus application, after which he was detained without trial.
Section 2A was repealed in 1992 after many years of struggle, during which time Kibaki remained Moi’s and Kanu’s vice-president. Raila with Jaramogi, Paul Muite, Martin Shikuku, James Orengo, Kenneth Matiba, Mashinde Muliro, Charles Rubia, Anyan’g Nyong’o and others, formed the Forum for Restoration of Democracy (Ford).
On the issue of the use of violence or revolution to effect political changes, Raila gave the example of Nelson Mandela’s speech at Rivonia in which he paraphrased Madiba as stating that in as much as he preferred peace and peaceful change; and in as much as he would do everything in his power to struggle for change in a non-violent manner; if all peaceful avenues to change are blocked through state repression and brutality, a people have the right to use all available means to bring about positive change in society, and if that means using violence or revolution, so be it. He, however, stressed that before resorting to violence we must exhaust all peaceful avenues for change. He then gave the example of the 1982 coup as being such instance when the people of Kenya felt that there were no longer any peaceful avenues of effecting change.
Raila stated that he contested and lost the presidential elections of 1997, with Moi emerging as number one, Kibaki becoming number two while he was number three in a field of fifteen candidates. Moi apparently got less than 40 percent of the votes cast and counted, while the combined opposition had more than 60 per cent. As such, Raila, explained, Moi did not win the 1997 election; the opposition lost the election. Having realized this, Raila decided that for an effective change to occur one of two things must happen. First, the opposition had to unite. And second, Kanu had to be weakened and destroyed. Because it was then impossible to unite the opposition, he decided that his then party the National Development Party (NDP) would cooperate with Kanu, principally to extract necessary concessions for national development and policy changes. Raila recognized that fighting Kanu from the outside without opposition unity was futile. The cooperation was subsequently transformed into a merger between the NDP and Kanu.
When he was later challenged to explain how he could justify cooperating with Kanu and Moi and helping them stay in power longer than was desirable, especially given the fact that Moi had detained him for more than eight years, Raila responded that if Mandela could cooperate with members of the apartheid regime like De Klerk, then he saw no justification why he could not do the same. He reminded the audiences that bitterness and retribution did not solve any problems; that he leaves punishment and retribution to God.
Eventually when Raila and his Rainbow Coalition emerged from Kanu in 2002 in the form of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), the latter was much bigger, stronger and more potent than either Kanu or the NDP. Kenyans responded positively to the Raibow movement leading to the formation of the National Alliance Rainbow Coalition (Narc), which essentially united the LDP and the National Alliance Party of Kenya (NAK). The latter group was headed by Kibaki, Wamalwa Kijana and Charity Ngilu. The LDP and NAK alliance was solemnized through two Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs). The MoU that was signed at the Serena Hotel was publicly announced at Uhuru Park while the second one dealing with power-sharing arrangements was ratified at the Hilton Hotel. Kibaki signed both documents.
Raila recounted how he led a blistering campaign against Moi in the run-up to the 2002 elections as both Kibaki and Wamalwa lay ill at a London hospital. Kibaki had been involved in a serious motor vehicle accident while Wamalwa suffered from other illnesses. During the campaigns, at polling stations and shortly after Narc won, Kenyans united without regard to ethnic differences and stereotypes. Finally, we Kenyans had placed the nation ahead of sectarianism and ethnic divisions. There was promise that Kenya could follow Tanzania’s example of building a country on national ideals rather than parochial interests.
Opinion polls conducted of Kenyans immediately after the 2002 elections registered them as the most optimistic people in the world. Not any more.
No sooner had Kibaki assumed power following Narc’s electoral victory, than he quickly trashed the MoUs that brought him into power, disregarded the Narc Summit, refused to consult with his coalition partners in Narc, made cabinet, civil service, military and diplomatic appointments primarily on the basis of tribal affiliations, patronage, nepotism and cronyism. Meritocracy that Narc had promised Kenya would be applied in all public appointments was thrown out of the window. Grand corruption quickly smelt hay and danced. It was business as usual.
In Raila’s assessment, the betrayal our people’s dreams and aspirations that Kenyatta and Moi before Kibaki had perfected into an art is now back in fashion. Instead of accountability, transparency and good governance being entrenched in Government, the bad old ways of doing business was auditioning in town. Raila stated that he quickly realized that nothing had changed with the Kibaki presidency. People who fought Narc during the 2002 elections are now occupying key government positions simply because they happen to come from the same area as the president.
It is the struggle for fundamental changes that Raila and the Orange Democratic Movement-Kenya (ODM-Kenya) are championing.
During the Question and Answer Sessions at both functions, Raila electrified his audiences and tickled them in equal measure. When asked the myth about Luos, circumcision and why a Luo cannot be elected president, Raila wondered why some men appear concerned about an issue that does not seem to bother Kenyan women. He asked why a few men appear obsessed with uncircumcised genitalia while women have never complained. He went further and stated that leadership was not the province of what was between the legs but what was between the ears. He stated that nobody is asking whether the President of the United States, George W. Bush or the British Prime Minister Tony Blair were circumcised or not. Why should Kenya, which is not even developed like the two countries care about such irrelevant and trivial things?
When asked to comment on the issue of Tiomin, a Canadian company whose intention to invest in mining in Kwale District in Kenya ran into both bureaucratic and environmental troubles, Raila gave what has now become vintage Raila allegories. After pillorying the Government for refusing to deal with bureaucratic red-tape on important matters affecting the ordinary people of Kenya, Raila turned on the environmentalists and compared them to a parent who is interested in a grandchild but refuses to accept that in order for that to occur, his or her daughter’s virginity must be broken. “You either accept or come to terms with the virginity being broken before getting a grandchild or you forget about the grandchild all together.”
A question was put to him regarding the low number of female parliamentarians in Kenya. As usual, Raila gave an original answer. Unlike men, Raila stated, women in Kenya are married away from their places of birth. Most women, he explained, are married in different constituencies from where they were born. So, while men grow up, go through initiations, attend schools and other rituals together and bond with each other from the same constituencies as they grow up, women invariably get dislocated through marriage. Almost all women are strangers where they live in an African (rural) context. As such, whereas men call on their kinsfolk to vote for them in elections, women find themselves disadvantaged with their relatives, friends and kinsfolk back in their homes or constituencies of birth. This logically leads to lack of or very low number of female parliamentarians or political leaders. In order to solve this situation, Raila calls for an affirmative action program that reserve a specific minimum number of seats for women.
On why he was working closely in ODM-K with some leaders who have been accused of wrongdoing, Raila reminded his audiences that the rule of law requires one to be presumed innocent until proven guilty. That one should not be condemned unheard and untried. He stated further that unless or until one has been convicted through due process of law, it would be unjust, unfair and contrary to the principles of natural justice to call such a person a criminal. He warned against witch-hunting. This last answer, more than anything else, demonstrated Raila’s commitment to fairness. Had he been after cheap publicity and raw ambition, he could have lumped on his rivals by besmirching their reputations. The fact that he strongly resisted such temptations is an attractive trait in a leader.
Raila challenged the economic growth figures being given by the Government. He stated that a developing country like Kenya should be registering annual growth rates of 10 to 20 percentile points; not 5.8 as claimed by the Government. He gave the examples of Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and other Asian Tigers that grew at much higher rates in the 1970s and 1980s. Raila blamed the successive Kenyan Governments for failing to catch up with these Asian countries which were economically at par with Kenya in the 1960s but have now grown more than forty times and left Kenya behind.
Raila also delved into the issue of conflicts, insecurity and the refugee problems in the East African region. He stated that Somaliland (the breakaway northern part of Somalia), although not internationally recognized, has done very well. It has had a stable government, an operating airport and peacefully co-existed within the region. He also mentioned that the Islamic Court System that has taken over most of the turbulent southern part of Somalia seems to have brought relative peace and order in that part of the country and therefore should be given credit and an opportunity to institutionalize order. He promised to work closely with the Somali people and the international community to bring about long-lasting peace in the region. He mentioned that without peace in Somalia, neighbouring countries such as Kenya cannot experience meaningful peace.
On the East African Federation and African unity, Raila reiterated his Pan-African commitments of seeing unity in both the region and of the entire continent. He stated that without unity, Africa cannot develop and become as strong as other world powers. Raila comfortably illustrated this by citing the history of Germany and China. Bismarck, he stated, had long realized that without German unity, the German people would become second-class citizens of Europe. Although Germany is made up of diverse and distinct peoples, Bismarck explained to the Germans that their only survival lay in the unity of Germany. Similarly, China is currently threatening the dominance of the United States as the world’s only super power through unity and industry. Africa cannot be an exception, he said.
Raila’s audiences were impressed by his wit, intelligence, thorough grasp of history, politics, international affairs, philosophy and his ability to “suck air” out of his crowd like Bill Clinton often does. More than any other contemporary Kenyan leader, Raila truly connects to the people. He is capable of debating both lofty theoretical issues as easily as he cracks jokes with his audiences.
The Agwambo is on his way back to Kenya after an exceptionally successful whirlwind tour of North America. He has surely wooed and won over many new supporters. He has also generated vigorous and healthy debate among expatriate Kenyans - not just on the type of leader we deserve - but also on what kind of vision our leaders must have before we can realize the pre-independence dreams that have been haunting us.
Kenyans should fairly and objectively discuss Raila’s vision and platform vis-à-vis the other presidential candidates before making an informed choice; not on the basis of their genitalia.
______________________________________________________________________
*The writer is a Barrister & Solicitor in Toronto, Canada. He comments on political, legal and constitutional issues. Miguna@migunamiguna.com
