The Kenya Connection

As a follow-up to our essay about Sub-Saharan Africa, in which we described the horrific situation in several African countries and outlined some of the reasons, I’d like to discuss here one country which appeared to be a haven of calm and promise for the future in the vicinity of some of the most dangerous countries but which now has fallen into the same trap as others: We are talking about Kenya. The irony is the direct involvement of then Senator Barack Obama (irrefutable links in the article are a must-read) in helping the communist contender, Raila Odinga, in the elections a little over a year ago.

Kenya used to be a wonderful, peaceful country. I visited it many years ago, and was very impressed by the combination of African culture, a beautiful landscape, and what I considered an only modest intrusion of Western lifestyle. I saw the sprawling capital Nairobi, the beautiful seaside at Mombasa, and the immense and beautiful expanses of the National Park South of Nairobi with its wild animals, the typical trees which always appear to be standing at the horizon, a fascinating Massai village, and, yes, a first hand view of Africa’s highest mountain, Mount Kilimanjaro. A friend of mine had bought a vacation house near Lake Victoria, because, contrary to other countries in the general area, Kenya was considered safe.

Kenya used to belong to the British Empire, just like other countries in the Sub-Saharan region, and it left the Empire in 1963, but it somehow appeared to have managed the transition to its existence as a free country better than other countries. Was it perfect? No. But, they somehow managed, despite tribal differences and a stark difference between the rich and poor, to succeed quite well, something that was obvious for everybody to see when visiting not only the capital, but also the countryside. It appeared to me that the Massai lived like they had for thousands of years, were able to support themselves, and lived their more or less undisturbed but, from our view, primitive life.

The country was considered one of the success stories of Africa, with an economic growth of about 6%, and an enticing, peaceful environment. Then came the elections at the end of 2007 and all hell broke loose. Both the camp of the current President Kibaki and that of his communist opponent Odinga (educated in communist East Germany) claimed victory, but the supporters of Odinga started to vandalize the country, and so did the supporters of Kibaki. By spring 2008, the country was completely in flames. In the meantime, the opposing parties have agreed to share the power, and generated a government with a President, Kibaki, a new post of Prime Minister for Odinga, and a total of 94 ministers. The result is a high flying government which lives a very rich, opulent lifestyle and completely disregards the poor population, enjoying for themselves a level of corruption so high that it caused even European Governments to stop foreign aid. Even members of the Parliament get something like $17,000 per month and live in palaces, while the population suffers enormously.

It appears that there are many issues for the current desolate situation of the country. Without attempting to get too much into the details, the following factors stick out:

1. Problems between the different tribes, mainly Kibaki’s Kiyuyu tribe (20% of Kenya’s population

and Odinga’s Luo tribe (representing 13%). The resulting violent actions were characterized as ethnic cleansing (or the attempt thereof) with the slogan “No Raila [Odinga] no peace” (sounds familiar?).

2. Problems between political sides, the more Western oriented party of Kibaki and the communist party of Odinga.

3. Odinga also is backed by Saudis and has signed a promise to introduce Sharia law in Kenya (after the elections, many Christians died under the hands of Odinga supporters).

4. A situation left over from the British could have been solved a long time ago: the distribution of land. But the Government was too much involved in corruption activities and serving themselves.

Many reports exist about the current desolate situation in Kenya – the ones I have read are in German and came from people who had lived a peaceful life in Kenya until the unrest hit, one of which came from the correspondent for Der Spiegel. The tendency, unfortunately, appears to be the continuation of the trend which we have indicated in our previous geeeez article. Very much like in Zimbabwe and South Africa, and to a degree in Nigeria, formerly flourishing countries, once rid of colonialism, sink into tribal animosities, while communists are taking advantage of this situation to further the communist cause, with an effect we all know all too well.

An extremely delicate matter in the midst of this has been the involvement by Barack Hussein Obama in the furthering of the communist cause. He has, in a trip in 2007, paid for by US taxpayers, actively supported the communist contender Odinga in the Kenyan elections, to an extent that the Kenyan Government filed an official protest to the US Government about undue involvement by a US Senator in another country by supporting a candidate who was considered by the Kenyan Government as destructive for the country..

The pattern is clear: Earlier or later, basically all Sub-Saharan countries will end up in anarchy, caused by the inability to reach a National agreement because of tribal differences, and supported by people who further communist causes (like Obama, Mandela and Mugabe). The result is devastating: Formerly flourishing countries sink into complete dependence on outside help, corruption climbs to new heights, and the leaders live a high lifestyle while the population suffers enormously because they don’t know anymore how to nourish themselves (thank you, Bono, I know you mean well, but you are achieving exactly the opposite of what you intended).

This geographical region is enormously rich in resources and it would be a shame to not put that to work for the people living there. They will not be able to solve this by themselves after what has happened there. I maintain my position that “Imperialism Light” is the only hope these people have at this time. However, given the current structure of the UN, and the new administration in Washington, this is not going to happen. So, we will witness one country after the other go down. What a terrible shame.

Mr. Z