Never forget Obama's coded message to Kenyans

 “We have not inherited this land from our forebearers, we have borrowed it from our children.”

In my opinion, President’s Obama’s message to Kenya and Kenyans was misunderstood.
He spoke with the youth seated behind him. They sat and stood in front of him. To his left and right were more youth. He was speaking to Kenya’s future. When he arrived in Kasarani he didn’t inspect a Guard of Honour. He wasn’t televised as having been received by a long line or any line of government officials.

At Kasarani, the venue from which President Obama chose to address Kenyans, only one speaker introduced him. He was not introduced by the President. He was not introduced by the Deputy President. He was not introduced by any of the two Speakers or Majority Leaders of Parliament. He was not introduced by any leader of the Opposition. No one spoke after his message to Kenya and Kenyans.

Kenya has over 1,200 Members of County Assemblies, over 300 Members of the National Assembly and over 60 Senators. None of them was at hand (selected) to welcome him to Kasarani. None of them was at hand (selected) to introduce him.

At Kasarani, President Obama did not endorse either the Government or the opposition. His (later) tongue in cheek chastisement of the Opposition was widely misunderstood.

At his election he was a very popular president. At the end of his second term, he will leave as an unpopular President. He was elected as a President who could unify with his touted “Yes We Can” campaign slogan. He will leave a divisive President. The differences between “White” America and “Black” America have never been so stark.

Those opposed to him and his Presidency are scathing. Before he was elected President, he was a dreamer. He was a vocal, eloquent and powerful critic of the Republican party-led government. He electrified the nation and the world with his powerful addresses. His message to the nation before his election was one of change.

It therefore sounded ironic that after his re-election, and in his last years of Presidency, he would ask the opposition to go slow on their criticism and become more patriotic. In my opinion, his message to the opposition should not be seen against the background of the son of a Kenyan immigrant who convinced the people of the most powerful country in the world to elect the first Black American President.

In my opinion, his message to the opposition should be judged against the background of a President who once dreamt in techno-color of changing his country, but once elected came to learn of just how hard it is to change any system. A President who came to learn just how hard the system will fight anyone who wants to improve, change or overhaul it.

At Kasarani President Obama chose to be introduced by his sister. In my opinion he chose not be introduced by the President or the establishment so that his message could reach those who only see and judge the President and his government through CORDed eyes.

The CORD brigade missed that. If not, if they really understood why he chose to be introduced by “an Auma” before speaking among and to the youth of Kenya, they forgot to acknowledge it and thank him.

President Obama advised Kenya and Kenyans that “a politics that is based solely on tribe and ethnicity is a politics that is doomed to tear a country apart. It is a failure — a failure of imagination”. That was only a month ago, on July 26, 2015. ‘Obama-mania’ was yesterday’s fever. Today we continue to be gripped in feverish tribal and ethnic rhetoric.