November 04, 2008

U.S. Elections in Kenya

A friend who knows Kenya pretty well (coming from there, and having parents that still live there), gave me some interesting insight into the U.S. Election, as seen from Kenya*:
 
Some info you might find funny:
Obama is from the western Luo region; and that's where Kenya's current PM (Odinga) comes from.  He (Odinga) won the Presidency in the last election, but the incumbents decided to plunge the country into violence instead of letting him win. That's why Kenya has a power-sharing agreement and a new PM position.
 
Previous regimes in Kenya have persecuted the Luo and assasinated every politician that even had the slimmest of chances of becoming a national leader over the years. They even tried to assassinate Odinga before the last election, unsurprisingly.
 
Anyways, this little enclave of persecuted people now have claim to the PM position in Kenya for the first time; and now, they see themselves as being on the verge of 'claiming' the U.S. Presidency. Which is making them go cuckoo... Apparently most people in Kenya only watch CNN now because it has better Obama coverage than Al Jazeera; which used to be number one...

This election is closely followed in Kenya and abroad.  Super exciting!
 
*Note: This is obviously a personal account of the situation and not terribly objective.


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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I think this headline sums it up:
"Obama's Kenyan relatives elated, holiday declared"
The Associated Press - 25 minutes ago
-Ammo