Adventures in Kenya: The Clumsy Arrogance of Barack Hussein Obama

2 Comments

1. 

   John Osoro

   Aug 5, 2008

   I am moved to comment on the unrelenting attempts to disparage Obama’s candidacy on the basis of his kinship. In your article, you suggest that he has kinship ties with the wrong people in Kenya and this should have significance for his suitability for office.
   You rightly point out that one needs a grasp of the local Kenyan ethnic politics to be able to make sense of nuances of relationships, their significance (cultural, political or transnational).
   In your own case, you betray a lack of this understanding by suggesting that Kenya’s Prime Minister, Raila Odinga, Barack Obama’s cousin. Nothing could be further from the truth. The character of kinship in Kenya (Luo Kenya, for that matter), and I believe in the whole of Africa, is so complex and nuanced for a person from outside the cultural community to understand. Some kinship ties are culturally contrived and are symbolic for this reason. Others are based on what western thinking describes as the African extended family system. None of these factors can be stretched to create a kinship relationship between Raila Odinga and Barack Obama, the US presidential hopeful.
   Luo genealogists described the history of kinship along clan lines. These socio-cultural boundary demarcations determined customs and rules of marriage, characterized occupations, strengths, weaknesses between community and shaped relations between different clans. Raila’s mother came from Alego, a large super clan with several different sub-clans. She married the late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, popularly regarded as the father of opposition politics in Kenya and a prime mover for political liberation movement in Kenya. He was from the Sakwa clan, geographically contiguous with the Alego clan. Obama’s father, Barack Obama, was born to Hussein Onyango Obama, from Alego Kogelo clan. This gives Raila’s mother and Obama senior’s father a common clan heritage. Clans are larger entities that do not necessarily imply blood relationships between members. Alego, the clan in question, has over 30 different subclans that, incidentally, inter-marry. This means that not everyone from Alego have blood relations.
   It may, in politics, be mutually advantageous to flaunt imaginary relationships for gain. US politicians, I imagine, do this too. Kenyan politicians are not averse to this kind of indulgence either.
   In all considerations, it is wrong to use an inaccuracy, a fabrication, to disparage or demonize Obama’s or anyone else’s political or social standing. As president, an individual’s performance will not be judged or determined on the basis of his/her ethnic DNA, pedigree or kinship. Instead, it will be determined and judged on the basis of fidelity to the constitutional purpose of his office, versatility and good judgement. Americans should decide on their president based on eligibility, electability, leadership qualities, vision and ability to deliver. The US, after all, has the constitutional and political resources to ensure that foreign DNA does not compromise the intergrity of the union.
2. 

   zee

   Aug 5, 2008

   I am moved to comment on the unrelenting attempts to disparage Obama’s candidacy on the basis of his kinship.

   His candidacy can easily and accurately be disparaged on any number of grounds outside of his African relatives. However, kinship does indeed become a factor in Obama’s case because his Kenyan relations – none of whom he has denied as being kin – are a mixture of muslims, marxists and socialists.(And that not based on any chain emails or blogger speculations but on verifiable accounts rendered either by Obama, news accounts, and by those who purport to speak for him.)

   That may not give you pause, but it certainly is alarming to the majority of Americans when one understands that his mentors and associations in ensuing years are composed of the same matrix of leftists and anarchists – starting with his mother all the way down the line to his pastor – all of it congruent with his ambition to turn America into some third world nanny state. Were he simply burdened with a few off key relatives that bore no relation to his belief system, as were Carter and Clinton, it would be irrelevant. In his case, it is a part and parcel of how he has defined himself..

   In your own case, you betray a lack of this understanding by suggesting that Kenya’s Prime Minister, Raila Odinga, Barack Obama’s cousin

   Cousin or not, what is relevant is that Obama made a point of lending his support to Odinga’s campaign (as verified in interviews, videos and various news transcripts), much to the disgruntlement of the Kenyan government, as evidenced in the linked material in the post. His association with Odinga is no more acceptable, in my mind, than Bush’s ongoing relationship with the Sauds.

   In all considerations, it is wrong to use an inaccuracy, a fabrication, to disparage or demonize Obama’s or anyone else’s political or social standing.

   Nothing in the post is inaccurate or a fabrication.

   The point of the post, which you apparently missed, is Obama’s alarming arrogance and crude maneuvering
   in Kenya, mirroring his behavior and demeanor during his recent world tour where the same overblown ego was on display, foreshadowing what an obama presidency will bring.

   As president, an individual’s performance will not be judged or determined on the basis of his/her ethnic DNA, pedigree or kinship.

   Yeah, that might be news to Obama who is getting a lot of mileage out of his DNA and ethnicity regardless of his protests to the contrary.

   Instead, it will be determined and judged on the basis of fidelity to the constitutional purpose of his office, versatility and good judgement. Americans should decide on their president based on eligibility, electability, leadership qualities, vision and ability to deliver.

   If indeed Americans would vote soberly, based on that criteria, Obama would never step a foot in the Oval office. I damn well intend to do my small part to see that he never does.

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