Barack Obama's favorite in the 2007 Kenyan Presidential race, Raila Odinga, lost again this weekend, this time to Uhuru Kenyatta (son of the nation's first post-colonial president, Jomo Kenyatta). In 2006, Obama visited Kenya for a week and spent an inordinate amount of time with candidate Odinga, from the time he got off the plane, through Odinga campaign rallies, to numerous other public appearances. Obama simultaneously criticized the corruption of the current, non-perfect, non-unicorn administration, and touted the need for Kenyans to "change!" (Kenyan President at the time, Mwai Kibaki, called Obama a "tool of Odinga.") In late 2007, numerous sources report Obama dispatched Clinton campaign strategist, Dick Morris, to Kenya to assist with Odinga's election campaign. Ultimately, Odinga lost in December 2007, at which point his supporters, mainly Luo, let loose an orgy of tribal violence which left at least 1000 dead and 500,000 homeless. The cataclysm subsided as an agreement was reached which would allow Odinga to become Prime Minister for the next term. Odinga's 2007 campaign, curiously, also ran on the hyped, nebulous buzzword of "change", with his website using slogans such as, "Vote for Change," "Register for Change," "Your Agent of Change."
Happily, thusfar, the 2013 election has gone relatively smoothly. With the scandal of International Criminal Court charges still hanging over Kenyatta, however, I think the situation is still tenuous. Hopefully, no foreign arrogant, affronted, temper-tantrum-proned, nimwitted "progressive" for world salvation will stoke the embers. It would be best if all could work things forward by peace and law, which is what both Odinga and Kenyatta are currently pledging to do. BARRY STAY OUT OF IT!
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