obama

Kenyans hope Obama's unity theme inspires their politicians
Monday, November 03, 2008
By Karamagi Rujumba, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
KISUMU, Kenya -- During colonial times, the British governors of this port city, home to some 2 million people on the eastern edge of Lake Victoria, called it Port Florence.

Named Kisumu after the British granted Kenya its independence on Dec. 12, 1963, it is the largest city in Western Kenya and the provincial capital of Nyanza -- one of the eight provinces that make up this East African country.

In Kenya, a province is a geographic demarcation with a governmental structure similar to how states operate in America.

Seated on the equator about 220 miles northwest of Nairobi, the Luo people in this city and throughout Nyanza Province -- who compose the second-largest tribal group of Kenya's 42 tribes -- proudly consider themselves the staunchest supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, the junior senator from Illinois.

That is because Mr. Obama is the son of a Harvard-educated economist who was born about 60 miles west of Kisumu.

And in the closing hours of the U.S. presidential campaign, one of the hottest-selling pieces of Obama paraphernalia in Kisumu is a blue Obama baseball cap emblazoned with the statement, "Ni Wetu," or "he is ours" in Swahili.

But for all their excitement at the prospect of "a Luo American president," some people in Kisumu and in much of Nyanza, who were at the epicenter of the months-long violence that shook this country in the wake of its own presidential election last year, say they need more than a symbolic victory for Mr. Obama tomorrow.

"Things are now better in Kenya, but we are all struggling to make it," said Juma Morris, a 32-year-old fisherman who spends many of his days and nights on a wooden boat traversing Lake Victoria between Kenya and Uganda.

A lifelong fisherman who needs to make 1,500 Kenyan shillings -- or about $19 a day -- to sustain a wife and three children, Mr. Morris is one of many who say they see their quality of life regressing amid a turbulent economic and political climate at home.

Standing at the docks on Dunga Beach, one of Kisumu's busiest fishing communities, yesterday, Mr. Morris is one of many Kenyans who hope that Mr. Obama's election in America may serve as a source of inspiration for Kenya's political elite, who seem to be stuck in an ongoing political quagmire.

"I love [Mr. Obama] because I know that he knows how to talk to people in a way that can bring them together," said Mr. Morris, who entered the fishing trade -- Kisumu's main industry -- as a boy learning from his father and grandfather.

Kenya needs a political healing of sorts, Mr. Morris and others say. An Obama presidency, they believe, could be just the kind of political example the rulers of Kenya need to put the country back on track.

The country, which for years served as the economic beacon for East Africa, is only awakening now in some parts from the economic devastation that happened when violence broke out on Dec. 29 following a hotly contested presidential election.

Kisumu was the epicenter of much of the violence, which lasted until Feb. 18, when a power-sharing agreement was reached between presidential contenders Mwai Kibaki, the president of Kenya, and Raila Odinga, the prime minister.

The reported number deaths during what everyone in this region calls the "post-election violence" period was put at about 1,000. The power struggle essentially pitted the tribes and political coalitions of Western Kenya against those in the eastern part of the country.

Since independence, the struggle for power in Kenya has mostly been between two tribal groups -- the Kikuyu, who for the most part have ruled Kenya since 1963, and the Luo, who have never had one of their tribesmen elected to the highest office in the land.

Kisumu, which is the home of Mr. Odinga, a Luo, whom many believe won the presidential election, took an economic beating as mobs of Luo tribesmen clashed with state police and burned down business buildings mostly owned by the Indians who settled in the area many years ago.

It is in this context that many believe an Obama presidency could serve as a morale booster for the political leadership of Kenya, which for years economically eclipsed its East African neighbors but teetered on the edge of a political and economic disaster early this year.

"We believe that the people of Kenya will see that if a Luo man can be elected president of the United States, the free world, then a Luo man like [Mr. Odinga] can be trusted to be president of Kenya," said Nicholas Onyango.

Seated on a wooden bench in Jua Kali -- or "hot sun" in Swahili -- in the industrial section on the east side of Kisumu, Mr. Onyango, 31, a businessman who sells spare car parts, said he sees "the economic struggles people are experiencing every day" in a post-election Kisumu.

As president, Mr. Obama could begin to change some of that, "by simply landing with Air Force One at Kisumu Airport in his first year in office," said Mr. Onyango, who is married with three children.

"All these American presidents have been skipping Kenya for years. When [former President Bill Clinton] came to Africa, he went to Uganda. When [President Bush] came, he went to Uganda and Tanzania and sidestepped Kenya," Mr. Onyango recalled.

"This time, we want President Obama to be the American president who will honor Kenya," he said, adding that Mr. Obama has already proved he has the ability to make Kenyans act.

On his 2006 visit to Kenya, when he traveled to his late father's village in Kogelo, Mr. Obama and his wife, Michelle, stopped in Kisumu to take an HIV/AIDS test as an appeal to Kenyans to get themselves constantly tested. Kisumu and Nyanza Province have the highest HIV infection rate in all of Kenya.

"You see, so many people went and got tested when [Mr. Obama] did that," said Mr. Onyango, whose family village is in Kendu Bay near Kogelo, the Obama family compound.

"He should do that again for us as Kenyans to come together politically," he added.

Philomena Mwaka, a 39-year-old businesswoman who owns a barbershop near center-city Kisumu, doesn't agree.

"[Mr. Obama] will win because the Americans see that he has a passion for humanity," she said in Swahili while plaiting a little girl's hair yesterday afternoon.

But if he wins, Ms. Mwaka, who hails from Mombasa, added, "it should not be for us. It should be for the Americans, but we will continue to support him and wish him well because he is one of us."

Rose Olilo, a university lecturer, agreed as she passed through Ms. Mwaka's barbershop, but added that there are some positions Mr. Obama holds that many people in Kisumu don't necessarily support.

"He is a Democrat and we support him. We as Africans tend to support Democrats, but he has positions like his support for abortion and gay rights that I don't like," said Ms. Olilo, who teaches early childhood education and special needs education at a number of colleges here.

For Ashwin Dayalji, an Indian businessman whose family settled in Kenya long before it gained independence, Mr. Obama's political positions in America, "may be just what America, and the world, needs at this moment."

Standing outside the Hare Krishna Temple before morning prayers yesterday, Mr. Dayalji, 43, who owns a gas station and a number of tailor shops, said, "Obama has reached where he is today because Americans are saying to themselves, 'Let's go for a change.' "

Karamagi Rujumba can be reached at krujumba@post-gazette.com.
First published on November 3, 2008 at 12:00 am