Russ&Suzie

Trip Log
2008-02-25 03:10:20 (UTC)

Kenyan Politics from Sunday paper

Acquired the Sunday Nation with a special feature on "state
of the nation" yesterday. A number of well-written and
articulate columns that depict the situation well. No calm
but powder kegs of volatile young men exist in the slums
awaiting purpose and power that a number of parties
awaiting the failure of the peace process hope for. They're
arming with poison-tipped arrows and perhaps new influx of
guns from Uganda. So Kofi Annan, regretful of having left
too soon in the Rwanda situation, feels determined to stick
around until a negotiated peace happens.

Tribalism is blamed. Barack Obama's first book that
featured Dreams from his Father described his visit to
KEnya and his relatives in Nairobi and in their home sites.
THey assumed matter of factly hostile attitudes towards
other tribes and dismissed his different attitude as simply
naive. I'd recalled this, found it in a rereview and it
occupies the papers now.

Plus the founding fathers liked power and did what needed
to be done to retain it: Kenyatta, Moi and now Kibaki. A
difference between now and before hinges on the
transparency of the elections. What could have been called
in his direction by slight of hand no longer can be from
the use of internet, hand held communication devices and
the increasing one-world qualities of election processes.




Ad: