US Ambassador, Mr Michael Ranneberger, said Obama’s win would have tremendous impact on Kenya.

Kenyans have welcomed Senator Barack Obama’s nomination as the Democratic Party candidate for the November US presidential elections.

Proud Grandma: Mama Sarah Obama and one of her grandsons, Mr. Wycliffe Omondi read The Standard at her Kogelo village home, Siaya District, Kenya on Thursday. Mama Sarah is the grandmother of Senator Barack Obama. Picture by Titus Munala.

Congratulatory messages continued to pour to The Standard newsroom from Kisumu, Nairobi, Mombasa, Garissa and even Moyale, with Kenyans wishing the Illinois senator the ultimate victory in the November election.

President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga were not left behind. In a statement from Arusha, President Kibaki congratulated Obama, saying the victory was a manifestation of the faith and confidence the Democratic membership had in his leadership.

On his part, Prime Minister Raila Odinga said Obama’s victory was a momentous occasion in history.

“Barack Obama’s success will inspire us all to break the shackles of ethnic preoccupations in determining political leadership,” Raila said in a statement by his spokesman, Mr. Salim Lone.

Obama’s grandmother, Mama Sarah, 86, led villagers of Alego Kogelo, Siaya, where the senator’s father — Barack Obama Senior — was born, in thanking American voters for no,inating her grandchild.

At the home of Obama’s father, relatives, neighbours and students celebrated the triumph, whose campaign now promises to capture the psyche of Kenya in the run up to the presidential elections.

Obama’s Kenyan Kin Celebrate

   Barack Obama speaks to residents of Nairobi’s Kibera area,
   Kenya, in August 2006.

   Obama and Kenyan Grandmother (Mama Sarah)… Earlier Visit

   Kenya Flag

   Obama and Kenyan Relatives … Earlier Visit

Mama Sarah spent most of on Wednesday morning talking on the telephone to her relatives in America, UK and South Africa about Obama’s victory against Mrs. Hillary Clinton in the hotly contested primaries.

“I will travel to America to witness his swearing in because I know he will win. But I will not stay in the country for long,” she said.

Vice-President, Mr Kalonzo Musyoka, hailed the victory as historic, saying Obama had won the nomination with dignity.

“Indeed, he may make history as the first American president with African roots,” said Kalonzo in Nairobi.

US Ambassador, Mr Michael Ranneberger, said Obama’s win would have tremendous impact on Kenya.

“Over 350,000 Kenyans live in the US, with another 7,000 traveling there annually, which explains the great interest in the race,” Ranneberger said.

Back at Obama’s father’s home in Siaya, residents basked in international glare as CNN led other international media teams in airing to the world live the joy of the village.

   Barack Obama Jr. / Barack Obama Sr.
CNN was live at Alego Kogelo at 10am, showing villagers holding bottles of ‘Senator’ beer to celebrate the Illinois Senator’s win.

Journalists, armed with sophisticated satellite equipment, began arriving at the sleepy village from as early as 6am on Wednesday.

Many installed their equipment at the home as they waited for permission from the family to interview the senator’s grandmother.

Other international media at the home included BBC, Reuters and Al Jazeera.

However, the media had to wait for more than two hours before they could get access to Mama Sarah, who has become the biggest local celebrity.

The number of people claiming to be related to Obama also increased as the news of his victory filtered into Nyanza.

More ‘relatives’ show up

Mr. Tom Ombaka, a Kisumu businessman, said: “Everyone now claims he or she is a cousin of the senator. I have met more than ten people this morning who tell me they are Obama’s blood relations.”

Amid song and dance, Mama Sarah announced she was preparing for an epic journey to America to witness the swearing in ceremony of her grandson as the country’s first black president.

She said: “I will go there to witness the swearing in ceremony, and to pray for him, his family and the people of America for demonstrating unity and love beyond race and colour by picking a black person to lead them.”

She went on: “I love Africa. I am too old now and America is too cold for me to settle. So I will only be visiting once in a while if I am still alive by God’s will.

“I was highly elated when his sister, Rita Auma Obama, in South Africa phoned me to break the news. I said glory be to God,” she said, beaming with joy as she greeted the journalists.

She quipped: “I know what brings you here this early. But don’t worry, feel welcome. I will attend to your needs,” she said as she ushered in visitors to her compound.

“I had prophesied that Obama would win and my dream has partially come true. I am sure he will also win the final contest, God willing. This is my honest and humble prayers,” she said.

She said of her grandson: “His father loved people, development and education. These are the traits that Obama inherited and I can assure you he will go far.”

At the nearby Senator Barack Obama-Kogello Secondary School, which neighbours Mama Sarah’s home, students danced, sang and shouted: “Obama Juu! Obama Juu!”

The school principal, Ms Yunita Obiero, said she announced the good news to the students at assembly in the morning after hearing of Obama’s victory on BBC’s Swahili Service radio.

In Nairobi, ODM congratulated Obama for clinching the Democratic presidential nominations. Secretary-General, Prof Anyang’ Nyong’o, said the primaries were free and fair and Obama won convincingly.

“His global leadership is cut out for him,” said Nyong’o, who is also the Medical Services minister.

Win-win situation

Lands minister, Mr. James Orengo, said the Obama victory was a win-win situation for Kenya and US. “The US electoral process offers a rare opportunity for men and women of good character. Any Kenyan should, therefore, be able to win nomination locally irrespective of gender, tribe, race or religion,” Orengo said.

Previous Visit To Kenya

In Mombasa, the Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya Organising Secretary, Sheikh Mohamed Khalifa, urged Obama to stick to his manifesto which has earned him wide support and to steer away from US President George W’ Bush’s “confrontational policies”.

“Apart from being close to Africa, we expect Obama to move away from confrontational policies and unite the US and the rest of the world if he finally wins the presidency,” Khalifa said.

ODM-Kenya nominated MP, Ms Shakila Abdalla, said Obama’s victory was an achievement for Kenyans and Africa.

“Because Obama has roots in Kenya, we expect the US and Kenya to forge close ties. We are praying for his victory in the presidential poll,” Shakila said.

And North Eastern Province on Wednesday took delight in Obama’s victory. The predominantly Muslim province came to the limelight during the primaries early this year when Obama’s rival, Mrs Hillary Clinton’s campaign team circulated pictures on the Internet of Obama in Somali traditional attire taken in Wajir.

An elder, Mr Mohammed Hassan Mumin, who was photographed dressing Obama during the senator’s visit to Wajir, said they were happy that Obama was a step away from the presidency.

Mr Maalim Hussein, a teacher at a Quranic school in Garissa, said: “He was a victim of smear campaigns from the Clintons for embracing our attire, but we kept praying for his success and we are celebrating today.”

He added: “We also pray that he becomes the next US president so that he can help our impoverished province and Africa.”

Mr Christopher Njoroge, who lives in Washington, Seattle, said on the telephone: “This is great victory. It is victory for all America that wants real change.”

And from Des Moines, Iowa, Ms Nancy Mwirotsi, a key Obama supporter and mobiliser in a State that gave Obama his first victory, shed tears.

“For me, Obama’s victory is not just about himself and his family, it is about many young Kenyans here who look up to him as their role model,” she said.

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Societies that cannot stare the truth in the eye and call it by its correct name will perish. They will pack up under the burden of dishonesty, hypocrisy and multiple standards. For one hears, today, a cacophony of insincere passionate pleas from just about everybody to President Kibaki and to ODM leader Mr Raila Odinga.

The entire world is asking them to “sit down and agree on the formation of a Cabinet”. The truth of the matter is that all these pleas are founded on anything but sincerity. Why, I must remind you again of the great poem by E G White, on the greatest want of the world. For E G White wrote:

The greatest want of the world

Though the heavens fall.

Then I have to remind you of the novelist Ahmadou Kourouma of Ivory Coast, where he has written about the naked truth. He says in the novel Waiting for the Beasts to Vote that nakedness and the truth are two things society cannot squarely face up to. We know you when you are naked. Away from the trappings of fine linen and stuff, we see you as whom you truly are; the naked you. The world is most uncomfortable with this. “The world is for clothed peoples. We cannot enter this world unless we clothe ourselves, unless we abandon our nakedness,” he says. And so we dress up the truth in lies.

We fear the truth in the same degree that nakedness embarrasses us. The only time we accommodate either, is in private whispers. No wonder someone coined the expression “the naked truth”. Those who do not hide either become the mad men and women. Society simply has no place for them. That is why we must go on listening to tired songs about Raila and Kibaki needing to “sit down and give Kenyans a Cabinet.” The naked truth is that President Kibaki is the problem. He is increasingly coming across as a deficient leader. Worse still, you don’t know whether to trust him.

Someday, in Emanyulia village, a man was crying that another one had stolen his chicken. “Why fight over a chicken?” the elders asked the two men. “Kill it and share the pieces equally. Eat it together,” they advised.

They both agreed. The one who was alleged to have stolen the bird plucked off the feathers, pulled off the beak, removed the crop and the entrails and laid them side by side with the rest of the pieces. He counted and saw that they were all 40 pieces, including the feathers (which were counted as one piece). He now divided the pieces into two sets. He offered his friend the set with the beak, the feathers, the intestines, the crop, the diaphragm, the gall, the gullet, the spleen and stuff.

Need for bloated a cabinet

“So that is why you wanted us to have 40 pieces and not 26?” asked the other. “You just wanted them to be many so you could take the real chicken and give me nothing!”

Whatever Raila’s other sins may be, the naked truth is that President Kibaki is not being fair or trustworthy. He wants a bloated Cabinet so that he can keep the real ‘thing’ and give Raila and ODM nothing. Men and women of conscience must call this naked truth by its name. They must call the sin of political deceit by its name. Our dishonest churchmen are, as usual, pretending about this. Instead of asking Raila and Kibaki to “sit together and give Kenyans a Cabinet” they should be asking President Kibaki to be an honest and honourable statesman. They should ask the President to draw up two lists of Cabinet portfolio which, in his perception, are equal. They should be so equal that he would willingly close his eyes and pick up either and be completely happy with it.

When he has prepared his two lists, he should invite Raila to wherever and say to him, “My brother, here are two Cabinet portfolio lists. Pick one and I will take the other. It does not matter which you take.”

That will be a stately, dignified and responsible president. For now, President Kibaki can only increasingly take on the aura of a supercilious old man with regal and monarchical inclinations. He would care least that there are those who actually believe that he stole the election, regardless of the facts. Worse still, there is the perception that the national throne has been sprinkled with the blood of over 1,000 Kenyans.

But beyond this, Kenya needs men and women who can neither be bought nor sold, people whose hearts are true and honest, people who call sin by its name, people whose conscience is true to duty, as the needle is to the pole, people who stand for the truth, though the heavens fall.

The country should distance itself from untrustworthy leaders, such as the ODM-Kenya brigade in PNU. They are beginning to sound like the sycophants they used to be, under the oppressive Kanu regime. Such men belong to the law courts, where they embrace not the naked truth, but the robbed up and veiled truth that is the hallmark of most lawyers and all liars.

About The Author: Barrack Muluka (okwa...@yahoo.com) is a publishing editor and media consultant with Mvule Africa Publishers.

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