Obama validated the things Kenyans say to a deaf Opposition, Government

Stanley Kurt calls him “the Radical-in-Chief.” Kurtz is a metaphor for American ultra right public intellectuals.

Their lowest common denominator is their hate for US President Barack Obama. In 2010 he published a hostile book against his President. The aim was to deny him a second term.

The book, titled Radical in Chief: Barack Obama, the Untold Story of American Socialism, claimed to be “an in-depth exploration of the President’s connections to radical groups.” Its essence was captured in the blurb, “If Americans understood in 2008 the facts Kurtz reveals in this shocking political biography, Obama would not be president today. The fears of his harshest critics are justified.” Kurtz is a prolific contributor to The Weekly Standard and The Wall Street Journal, among other publications. He is not alone in his hate for his President. However, Obama disappointed them in 2012. He went on to win a second term with ease.

Kurtz and his ideological friends have not stopped bashing their President, however. In their sight, Obama could never do anything right. And so day in day out, they churn out appalling propaganda against him. It is this kind of propaganda that Obama made a light moment of at a State banquet in Nairobi this week, when he said there were those thinking he was in Kenya to look for his birth certificate. As the reality continues to sink in that they have lost their fight against Obama, their arrows are steadily shifting towards Hillary Clinton, the foremost contender for the Democratic Party ticket for next year’s presidential poll in the United States.

Mercifully, President Obama understands that in a democracy, it is the duty of the Opposition to criticise the Government. This right extends to journalists who may be decidedly Opposition ideologues, like Stanley Kurtz. Obama has recently urged African leaders to embrace the same attitude. The Opposition, in all its guises, must be allowed the time and space. It must have its say and sometimes its way, if it successfully sells its agenda to the decisive forums.

But Obama is not a blind sympathiser with the Opposition. They must also get their agenda together in a convincing manner. They must sell this agenda to the public with the required spice and credence. It is useless for them to whine and fish for sympathy without giving any useful visionary and missionary agenda. This is the message the Kenyan Opposition understood on Sunday last week, when it carried its memorandum to President Obama. He told them off. “You have been in Government,” he told the Opposition kingpins, “What did you do about the things you now ask me to pressurise your Government on?” he quipped.

Yet is it quite easy to misunderstand and misrepresent President Obama. The American President is possessed of a most complex, perceptive and deep mind. If the Obama hating Kurtz has anything right to say about President Obama, it is that he is a thoughtful politician and a post-ideological pragmatist. He acknowledges the flaws on both sides of the political divide and tells the truth as it is. It is easy to misrepresent him in narrow co-stellar prisms. This means, for example, that if you are a Jubilee admirer in Kenya, you are likely to miss the full import of Obama’s broadside against Kenya’s Opposition. And there has been no shortage of this mind-limiting anti-Opposition interpretation.

It is true that President Obama, in the first place, addressed his concern on unprincipled politics to the Opposition quartet of Raila Odinga, Kalonzo Musyoka, Moses Wetang’ula and Martha Karua. Each has previously occupied a powerful and strategic position in Government. Each has also rained heavy weather on their critics and especially foreigners, asking them to keep their nose out of Kenya’s “internal affairs.” Yet, today, they ask America to “pressurise” the Government. This is outright ridiculous. Get your act together, that is his message to a whining Opposition. Find something your people can believe in and position yourselves appropriately. And when your Government is right, admit that it is.

The flipside of Obama’s message, however, is of course to the Jubilee Government. Sometimes the Opposition is also right. And even when they disagree with what you consider right, they are still right. For their role is to disagree with you. Don’t demonise them. Listen to them, too. Listen to civil society as well, and allow for a free Press. This is a message President Kenyatta and his Deputy William Ruto need to listen to keenly. The public gets tired of an incessantly petulant and whining Government. The Deputy President, in particular, has become overly predictable. He does not seem to know how to talk about policy at all. Each time he opens his mouth, it is to unleash low-level vitriol against individuals in the Opposition. He shifts from low-level anti-Opposition vibes to wrapping up fresh newspapers in rotten meat. The scorn is always heavy with undisguised negative passions that are irrelevant to the focus of the occasion.

President Obama is telling President Kenyatta and Mr Ruto to make hay while the sun shines. Someday they are going to be in the Opposition. Then they will begin telling America “to pressurise” the Government. Why can’t they carry out the reforms people dream of when they are in the Opposition? Why can they not strengthen institutional reforms and entrench democratic habits? That Kenyatta and Ruto preside over an ethnic duopoly is not in doubt. When they do this, they prepare future leaders from other tribes to do the same against their tribes. They also encourage future Governments to be intolerant to contrary views. They pay lip service to including women and the youth in Government.

From where I sit, Obama’s visit to Kenya last week was an invaluable reality check. President Obama validated the things that we local public intellectuals keep saying to a deaf Opposition and an obstinate Government. Hopefully the two can now open their eyes and ears.

Maybe Africa’s perennial dinosaurs – from Angola to Zimbabwe – have heard? Maybe they can now begin preparing to vacate the political scene? The missing link in Obama’s message was a clear position on people living with disabilities. He may wish to bring this in focus, at home and away. Otherwise President Barack Obama is a most welcome Radical-in-Chief, anytime.