Mon, 4 Feb 2008 22:47:32


ELECTIONS: Omar Kalinge Nyago

The brutal message coming out of the diplomatic flurry surrounding the aftermath of the disastrous Kenyan elections that has left hundreds dead and hundreds of thousands displaced is that the world has conspired to keep Raila Amolo Odinga from power.

What Jendayi Frazer, Desmond Tutu, Yoweri Museveni, AU’s Kufuor and all those others you are watching on cable news want is a peaceful end to the power hijack that has been staged by Emilio Mwai Kibaki’s backers, remnants of Moi’s political and financial mafia, working in tandem with some multinational conglomerates. It is actually the money, stupid! Odinga and his new breed just don’t seem good for global capital. Period. “He won, yes, but what about the shareholders?”

America ’s response, even beyond capital, is shaped by George Bush’s war on terror, which puts Kenya in the middle of the African security strategy - a clearing house for suspected Al-Qaeda suspects collected from all over the horn of Africa . Kibaki has been unquestioningly useful in this regard, especially after Somalia . So why do we change him now?

The types of comments coming from the so-called democratic west are at best sedative. No one is calling for Kibaki to vacate the seat. No one is calling for a re-election, but to the end of violence.

Well, violence should automatically stop when the Chief Election Commissioner is finally sure who won, and declare him as such, when the election robber is brought to book and flushed out of the loot store. There cannot be another way.

It might be flattering for Raila to see all the attention he is getting because of the victory he lost. He might soon receive a four minute phone call from Bush. (Obama spoke for five).

And perhaps a more courteous one from Gordon Brown. But all will be asking him to accept to be short changed, in exchange for a pretty good position in cabinet and about a dozen of his men and women. The voters who stood the December sun to vote Kibaki and corruption out of Kenya were not asking for some power sharing deal.

Should Raila and the ODM accept a power sharing deal ‘for the good of Kenya’, they will have betrayed the Kenyans who saw 20 Kibaki cabinet ministers out of their parliamentary seats late December, those who want Kenya back in their hands, the 500 dead bodies we have buried in a fortnight etc.

Raila and ODM ought to keep the pressure on. There should not be “business as usual” for an aging leader ready to cause the deaths of many thousands more Kenyans. Or to protect a discredited former president and his cronies from criminal prosecution.

Museveni seems to be liking this quite a bit. After all, with all the accusations of vote-rigging in the past three elections since 1996, two of which ended in the Supreme Court, he has never done it as clumsily as Kibaki has. And yes, Uganda ’s rankings have dropped as the more politically volatile East African nation.

He has remembered that he is the current chairman of the East African Community. But has conveniently forgotten that he is also the current chairman of the Commonwealth, and has not invoked that role even once, since the Kenya crisis. Is he waiting for orders from Britain ? Britain , I suspect would rather have Kibaki than Raila for president of Kenya .

And the Commonwealth must toe the line. Museveni will have to wait for some more days before he speaks as the Commonwealth chair. This is because, Kenya is not Zimbabwe . This calculated silence of the Commonwealth on the Kenya crisis should send every citizen of the 53-nation ‘Club of Shame’ thinking about the true intentions of the fraternity. How selective does the Commonwealth act?

Raila and ODM’s responsibility at this point should be not to appear civilised. Or be overwhelmed by the so- called world attention. None of those he may want to impress want him to attain the power he believably won.

They want one thing from him. To tell his followers to keep quiet, clear the roads, so that the tourists can enjoy their holiday. So that the trucks can ferry the tea, and the roses to the port for Europe .

So that more illegal money can flow into Kenya ’s economy, so that Kenya remains the economic power house it has been made to be, while the common folk live in abject poverty in the slums of Kibera, Mathare and the countryside, in ignorance and continue to die of preventable diseases.

Raila, ODM and right thinking Kenyans have this one chance to get their country back. Any stepping aside from the promise of the change they brought at the ballot box last December would be politically suicidal, not only for Kenya, but for the whole of East African region. ODM ought to keep the heat on, for a very long time if necessary, until the election thieves and their backers succumb. afcenss.afrika@yahoo.co.uk