By Kap Kirwok

Here is a sad truism about our country: Shame is dead. Well, almost. This is not breaking news, I know; but have you noticed that whatever remains of shame is being buried along with humility, integrity and love of country?

Have you noticed the giant twin monuments of greed and impunity we have erected on the graveyards of wisdom and honour?

Greed, impunity, smallness of mind, and indifference to suffering: these are the tenets of what appears to be the fastest growing religion this side of the misery kingdom. It is a gospel practiced by the political apostolate and encouraged by a chorus of hosannas from the power elite and tribal congregations.

Shame and honour are endangered and may soon be extinct. How do we know this?

We know it is when Government officials squander public resources on useless foreign trips at a time the country is in the grip of famine.

We know it when, while the Government declares a “disaster” and begs the world for food, grain reserves are looted for personal gain.

We know it when the findings of an expensive commission set up to investigate the irregular sale of a hotel are ignored and those most culpable rewarded with ministerial positions.

We know that integrity and executive competence are in terminal decline when political cronies in their mid 70s continue to head Government state enterprises when younger, qualified Kenyans are available.

You can tell the depth of shamelessness to which we have sunk when our business and academic elite go to the World Economic Forum to ‘intelligently‘ talk about the ‘State of Africa‘, and return home to promote narrow ethnic interests.

In a recent article, Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai argued the presidency is not to blame for out-of-control corruption and greed. She put the blame on a faulty constitution. Really? Does she really believe that a new constitution is a substitute for leadership integrity and competence? Those with executive power serially ignore the current laws.

Stand against Moi regime

I suspect the good woman was merely doing a complicated tap-dance around the truth. This would be unfortunate. We do not want to associate the illustrious professor with cowardice and political apologetics, would we? After all, it was her fearless stand against Moi’s regime that helped build her reputation as a courageous freedom fighter ? a reputation that was partly responsible for the Nobel Prize.

There was also the curious statement by Michael Ranneberger, the United States ambassador to Kenya, defending Government efforts in fighting corruption.

Later, in the company of other envoys, he appeared to reverse course. Will someone tell the ambassador to please kindly zip-up? Kenyans know the hanky-panky and highly suspect role he played in the 2007 presidential elections and its tragic outcome. Enough of your wisdom sir.

But we cannot be too hard on the ambassador. He is, after all, trying to secure the interests of his country ? however baffling his methods may appear to us. It is up to us to secure our own.

Can anything be done about greed, executive incompetence and impunity?

Some think the answer is in a national conference, ‘The Kenya We Want‘. I have no quarrel with conferences if they are structured to actually achieve tangible results. But I think we have our priorities wrong.

Kenya we want

For a start, if we must have a conference, let it be called “How to Get the Kenya We Want”.

We know what kind of Kenya we want; it is getting it that is the problem. For this reason, I think the conference should have been an internal affair focused on the question: “Can We Advance National Interests through Pursuit of Narrow Ethnic Interests?”

The participants should have been economic and academic elite in general and tribal think-tanks in particular. The sooner we have such a conference the better.

Do we really need foreigners to tell us why Molo Town has no fire engine? We need a frank and open discussion about ethnically-motivated and elite-enabled greed, impunity and executive incompetence. This is the real issue. Why dance around it?

I have a question for the elite (myself included): when we dine and wine in posh clubs and hotels at home and overseas, what do we really think about those horrid pictures of poverty-stricken Kenyans living like wild dogs?

And to the mass media: Thanks for your service to the country, but remember that a steady drumbeat of depressing news soon becomes harmless background noise. New, creative approaches are needed to continuously jolt the nation into shame and action.

Do not allow shame to die.

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By WALTER MENYA

Mama Sarah Obama, grandmother of American President-elect Barack Obama, was on Monday at the centre of World Aids Day activities in Kisumu where she flagged off an awareness marathon.

As soon as residents got wind that Mama Sarah was at the Jomo Kenyatta Grounds [Click To View Picture], a huge crowd converged.

A jovial Mama Sarah, who arrived in a two-car convoy escorted by female security personnel, waved cheerfully at the crowds. Her security detail had a torrid time trying to stop the excited crowd from shaking her hand.

‘Kogelo ber kata an be angima (DHOLUO for Kogelo is fine and am also doing well),’ she told the crowd.

She, however, sidestepped a question about her travel plans to the US for Mr Obama’s inauguration.

PICTURE: Ms Sarah Hussein Obama, grandmother of US President-elect Barack Obama, cuts a tape to officially open a children’s park during the World Aids Day marathon at Jomo Kenyatta sports ground in Kisumu on Monday. On her right is Ms Betty Okero, an Aids activist. World Aids Day celebrations were marked in various towns countrywide.

Earlier, the 86-year-old Mama Sarah, who slipped into Kisumu quietly on Sunday, had flagged off the World Aids Marathon at seven in the morning.

Organisers said that they had chosen Mama Sarah because of her high profile.

They also said the fact that President-elect Obama had undergone HIV counselling and testing in Kisumu on his 2006 trip was more reason to choose her.

‘There is a lot of interest in the Obama family,’ said Betty Okero of the Civil Society Network, one of the organisers.

‘If her presence here today will help reduce new infections and give hope, we welcome that,’ said Ms Okero.

Ms Alie Eleveld of Safe Water and Aids Project said Mr Obama’s involvement with the World Aids Marathon was the main reason for choosing Mama Sarah to flag it off.

‘Barack Obama has been a great supporter of the World Aids Marathon, so we thought it would be a good gesture to invite his granny,’ said Ms Eleveld.

Speaking to the Nation after the function, Mama Sarah said that she was happy to be part of the event.

‘I feel greatly privileged to be invited because my grandson is very concerned about the ravages of HIV,’ she said.

Pictures of President-elect Obama taken at the VCT clinic during his 2006 visit are extensively being used to drive the campaign against HIV and Aids.

Staff at the clinic began distributing the posters in the run-up to the US election.

On election night, the VCT clinic set up a temporary facility at the Kogelo dispensary where villagers kept up with events in the US on a giant TV screen.

A Liverpool VCT clinic official said the events were geared towards reducing HIV infections in Nyanza Province.

The province leads in HIV prevalence rates in the country at 15 per cent, double the national rate of 7.4 per cent, according to the latest Kenya Aids Index Survey by the National Aids/STI Control Programme.

The survey further found that 1.4 million adults in Kenya are living with the virus with Nyanza contributing the highest percentage.

‘She is very supportive because she knows HIV and Aids is a killer. She believes in prevention and giving hope to those who are living with the virus,’ said Ms Okero of Mama Sarah.

The change was evident immediately after the man whose roots are in the village became the leader of the world’s most powerful nation, the United States of America.

   Kenya Power and Lighting Company workers connect the village of Kogelo to the mains on Thursday

   The President-Elects First Press Conference, Friday

Talking to Mr Barack Obama, according to his brother and family spokesperson, Mr Malik Abong’o was an ordinary affair before Thursday.

Everyone’s lips

‘We spoke last night, he told us he was doing great. He was happy that we are fine. We congratulated him and wished him well in the new challenges that come with the presidency,’ said the first born son of the Obama family.

Although grandmother Sarah Onyango Obama did not speak to the media on Thursday, all she could say to visitors who had come to congratulate her was ‘Nyasaye duong‘ (God is great).

And despite the rainy day and the muddy paths, the once sleepy village hosted thousands of visitors on Thursday, driven by a curiosity to see the roots of the man whose name is on everyone’s lips.

The world spotlight is firmly on the hitherto sleepy village because President-elect Obama’s late father, Mr Barack Obama Snr, was born here.

According to Luo customs, a child belongs to the father, hence the strong bonds of kinship to the American president-elect in Western Kenya.

A second bull and several goats and sheep were slaughtered on Thursday as celebrations entered the third night.

Bearing gifts

And one of Prime Minister Raila Odinga aides, Mr Samuel Aduol delivered five bulls from his boss with a congratulatory message that he (the PM) would be visiting soon.

Busloads of students and curious visitors from as far as Tanzania and Uganda drove to the village, with some bearing gifts for the family.

American nationals in Kenya also thronged the home in what they described as an encounter with the roots of the man who now holds the world’s destiny in his hands.

Although the Obama family said on Thursday that they would not like to be treated differently, the signs point to the fact that they are no longer simple villagers.

‘We can no longer account for who is who in the home — people danced the night away and today’s holiday gave many an opportunity to come to the home,’ said Mr Abong’o.

Before Wednesday, the road leading to the homestead was a bumpy path that was a driver’s nightmare whenever it rained. But by Thursday, it had miraculously been cleared and levelled.

Fresh coat of paint

Kenya Power and Lighting Company was expected to have connected electricity by Thursday night. This is a complete contrast to the situation when Mr Obama visited three years ago.

Then, Mama Sarah lived in a semi-permanent house which has since been rebuilt and is sparkling from a fresh coat of paint.

The compound, which was surrounded with indigenous shrubs, has since been fenced and boasts a police post manned 24 hours a day by eight officers.

The police were deployed to the home after thieves tried to steal the family’s solar panel.

Siaya District Commissioner Boaz Cherutich on Thursday said that security had been beefed up to cope with the influx of visitors.

The main road passing through the village to Bondo town, which was until last week no more than a dusty and bumpy path, has undergone major repairs in what Mr Abong’o last week said was just but a sign of things to come.

Not shed light

The family draws water from a well at the corner of the homestead but in the new scheme of things, this is likely to be a thing of the past.

The nearby Nyang’mo Kogelo secondary school acquired the name Senator Obama Secondary School soon after Mr Obama was elected to the US senate.

School officials could not shed light on whether the name would be changing to President Barack Obama High School.

The village has suddenly become the most well known in the Western Kenya region, if not in the world, as visitors come from near and far to see the home and the people from whose lineage came the first African-American president.

References:

1. Take a Bow, America — We still have two wars to deal with and a severe economic crisis. But we should not lose sight of the profound significance of this week.

People carry an U.S. flag as they celebrate U.S. President-elect Senator Barack Obama’s historic White House victory in Nairobi’s Kibera slum on Wednesday. Kenyans in Obama’s ancestral homeland sang and danced with joy on Wednesday as the Illinois senator they see as one of their own became the first black U.S. president.

Kenyan relatives of U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Senator Barack Obama celebrate his victory in Nyangoma Kogelo village, 430 km (267 miles) west of Kenya’s capital Nairobi on Wednesday.

   [Enlarge]

NYANGOMA KOGELO, KENYA Some of Senator Barack Obama’s Kenyan relatives — from left to right, Said Obama, Mama Sarah and Auma Obama — met with reporters on Wednesday to talk about Mr. Obama’s victory.

James brown,say it loud I’m black and I’m proud

Mock U.S polls in Kisumu, Kenya

Obama victory celebrations in Kisumu, Kenya

Victory Celebrations in Kogelo, Kenya

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki declares public holiday

ReTHUGliTOM Dinesh D’Souza is attempting to embarrass Mr Obama by soliciting donations to a “Compassion Fund” for the senator’s half-brother, George Onyango Obama, who lives in Nairobi’s Huruma estate.

By KEVIN J KELLEY in New York and ERIC OLOO in Kisumu, Kenya

More mud is being flung to discredit US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, even as robbers raided his grandmother’s home in Siaya.

Prominent US conservative Dinesh D’Souza is attempting to embarrass Mr Obama by soliciting donations to a “Compassion Fund” for the senator’s half-brother who lives in Nairobi’s Huruma estate.

The writer, a supporter of Republican candidate John McCain, told the Nation on Tuesday that the fund-raising was meant part to highlight Sen Obama’s “hypocrisy.”

“The Democratic candidate has been “harping on the theme of helping the underprivileged while doing nothing to help his half-brother,” Mr D’Souza said.

George Onyango Obama, a 26-year-old son of Barack Obama Snr, attends college in Nairobi, and has been at the centre of Western media.

On Wednesday, Sen Obama’s relatives in Kenya rubbished the fund, saying it was motivated by malice.

Mzee Abong’o Obama a paternal uncle to the said the fund was not set up “good faith“. Ms Auma Obama, a sister to the senator said those behind the fund had been ill informed by negative publicity in the Western media.

Ms Auma said that the family was never approached with any offer for help and dismissed any such need.

“We wonder where D’souza got the information about family misery. He should have come down to Huruma to see whether George is suffering,” said Ms Auma, adding that D’souza was only after tarnishing the image of the senator.

But D’esouza said money collected for the “George Obama Compassion Fund” will be forwarded to Sen Obama’s presidential campaign on the condition it be used to help the senator’s half-brother.

He wrote in his blog on Tuesday that he had seeded the fund with $1000 of his own. He urged his readers to send contributions to a post office box in California, saying “even a few thousand dollars would completely transform this man’s life.”

“Let’s foster Obama family values, and give a break to a guy who really needs it,” Mr D’Souza added in his appeal for donations. Because the effort has just begun, Mr D’Souza said, he did not know how much might be raised.

He has never spoken with George Obama, Mr D’Souza said, and does not know whether the senator’s half-brother wants help from American conservatives using him to help elect Sen McCain.

Mr D’Souza said he was unaware whether George Obama even wished to move out of Huruma.

George Obama has previously told reporters that he was content with his situation. He also defended his half-brother from charges of being neglectful of his Kenyan relations.

Mr D’Souza said he had not contributed to organisations that strive to improve housing conditions for thousands of Kenyan slum-dwellers because his “philanthropic activities were focused on India,” where he was born.

But in Siaya, the Obama family is demanding police protection after a robbery attempt. The senator’s grandmother, Mama Sarah Obama, said robbers broke the kitchen door and attempted to remove a solar panel from the roof of the main house.

“I only realised something had gone wrong when I went to make breakfast. I did not hear anything as it was raining”.

Mama Sarah said she saw a ladder against the wall at the back of the main house.

Although the incident appeared like an ordinary robbery, the family was not taking chances with security, given that their grandson was gunning for US presidency, she said.

“I don’t understand the motive of the thieves, since nothing had been stolen from the kitchen,” she said, adding that police needed to provide security to the family But these are just people from the village who know every corner of the home,” she added.

A month ago, the family requested for security from the Siaya police station, but their request fell on deaf ears.

District commissioner

On Wednesday, the Siaya police officer Johnston Okasida and district commissioner Boaz Cherutich visited the home and pledged that a patrol base would be erected at Kogello Village.

It also emerged that the State might indeed consider granting the Mama Sara security, but this can only be done after the provincial security committee led by Nyanza PC Paul Olando recommends it to the commissioner of police.

Deputy spokesman of police Charles Owino said depending on the analysis of the security situation on the ground, the local administration and regular police could consider deploying policemen to the home as they awaited the commissioner’s word.

“A local analysis will have to be done to ascertain the risk and recommend to the commissioner who also in consultation with other offices might approve and assign officers to her,” said the commissioner’s spokesman.

The family was also advised to seek the intervention of the divisional police officer in cases of clear and present danger.

Additional reports by Michael Mugwang’a and Dan Obiero

References:

1. One People’s Project — Dinesh D’Souza is soft-spoken genteel man at times (and we say this because listening to him can make you forget how much of an asshole he is), he is also a major conservative player, and as we see with black and other conservatives of color, frank and often pathetic deconstructions of our racial concerns become the order of the day. D’Souza is best known for this, courtesy of a 1995 book called the End of Racism: Principles for a Multiracial Society, which was so controversial, even black conservatives took offense to it.

2. Debunking Dinesh D’Souza’s “The End of Racism”

3. From HellBlazer.com — Dinesh D’Souza’s stinky loaf entitled Two Cheers for Colonialism provides a really great sniff test for this point of view. After reading this article, I had the distinct impression that D’Souza is nothing more than an Uncle Tom. A toady for the ruling class.

4. Dinesh D’Souza’s right-wing postings — | TownHall.com | Aol.com |

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