Kenya Stockholm Blog

An Autopsy of Raila Odinga’s Stockholm Visit

Now that Prime Minister Raila Odinga has come to Stockholm and gone, it would probably be felicitous to conduct an autopsy of his visit. Although he arrived under the auspices of the European Commission which was hosting the EU Development Days Conference in conjunction with the Swedish government, Raila’s Stockholm visit assumed its own unique dimension from the point of view of Kenya-Stockholm populace.

For one, Raila was visiting Stockholm on official Kenya government assignment as opposed to the last time he was in

A section of the crowd that turned up to listen to Raila Odinga

town in April 1998. The difference is that in 1998, Raila was facing massive opposition from critics and opponents who were all too ready to chastise him for his “cooperation” with the then dictatorial government of former President Daniel arap Moi.

According to critics, Raila had betrayed the struggle by working with Moi who had detained him for more than eight years as the dictator trampled on the rights and freedoms of Kenyans under a one Party tyranny. Politically, Raila’s act of going to bed with Moi was seen as an abomination and his critics exploited the development to the hilt to try and embarrass him and bring him down politically.

The April 1998 Stockholm meeting was very stormy and some loud-mouthed critics seized on the opportunity to use obscene language to attack Raila and to try and reduce him to nothing. I captured the whole meeting on video and when word went round that Raila was coming to Stockholm this time around, memories of experiences during the last meeting somehow defined the scope of expectations. Was Raila bound to face another hostile crowd similar to the one that was in place in 1998 or was he set for a walkover, now that his Presidency had been stolen before rising to position of Prime Minister?

Another issue is that Kenya-Stockholm is divided into pro and anti Raila units. There are two distinct camps – those aligned to the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) which Raila leads and those who draw instruction from the Party of National Unity (PNU) and who mainly sing the Gospel according to the Republic of PNU.

Although the two rival Parties are sitting in the fragile Coalition government, suspicion reigns supreme when it comes to Kenyan politics. The ODM wing in Stockholm still maintains that Kenya’s Presidency was stolen from them while PNU hardliners have constantly taken the position that Raila is a crook who refused to accept defeat by Kibaki thereby plunging Kenya into crisis.

Card system collapsed
It has to be emphasized that in Stockholm, both ODM and PNU big wigs and supporters alike get along quite well because of the political maturity that the Swedish system of government has inculcated into the consciousness of both ODM and PNU supporters. At social functions, you might not even notice the political rivalry and this tendency ought to be appreciated because it is a sign of political maturity even though political alignments still remain at the ethnic level.

As Kenya-Stockholmers awaited for Raila Odinga to land, a mix-up of issues almost put his meeting with Kenyans in limbo. The PNU aligned Ambassador Purity Muhindi allegedly ensured that majority of those who received invitation cards to attend the meeting were PNU followers. This led to bitter complaints that catapulted the Embassy into damage control by announcing that those who wanted to attend the meeting could send their emails so that their problems could be looked into.

When Mr. Martin Ngatia (ODM Vice Chairperson) did not receive a card as some Kenyans began to broadcast the fact that they had the cards, ODM members raised the alarm. They accused the Ambassador of both tribalism and favoritism and attacked her for scheming to pack the Raila meeting hall with PNU supporters as a strategy of undermining the PM.

In fact, many ODM supporters vowed to attend the meeting “with or without invitation cards” thereby introducing a cloud of anxiety over the Raila meeting. The implication was that there could be war at the Hotel if things were not sorted out and the heavy police presence around the venue spoke volumes about the ensuing tension over the invitation card issue.

When push came to shove, the card system collapsed when Embassy officials led by Mr. Andambi, noticed that it was practically impossible to stop Kenyans from attending the meeting. Another problem is that some ODM members had successfully campaigned for people to walk out from the meeting hall as soon as Raila walked in if other citizens were kept out of the hall because of cheap Embassy theatrics.

As the meeting began, Ambassador Purity was immediately cast on the spot. Purity has never introduced her family to members of the Kenyan community because she has never met them outside the official two hour drinking sprees during national celebrations where she never gives speeches. For the first time, Purity seized on the opportunity to introduce her hubby, the real Mr. Muhindi and her kids. While introducing members of her family was a good idea, it was pathetic that Raila had to come to Stockholm for her to do so officially.

Prime Minister Eating in public
Nobody needed spectacles to detect that the occasion turned out to be a very big challenge for Purity because she appeared very unstable. She seemed to have schemed for some Kenyans to come from Norway but when she noticed that they were not in the hall after she tried to introduce them, she quickly moved on and covered up by suggesting that may be “they are on the way”. At least, this bit was captured on video. Her crude attempt to profile herself as an Ambassador who has Kenyan contacts in Norway failed before the Prime Minister and members of the Kenya Stockholm community.

When Raila took the mike to speak, Kenyans gave him a very easy time. The questions revolved around dual citizenship, the delivery of a new constitution, progress on reforms, the crisis of IDPs, the Mau forest evictions and what have you. Noticing that the situation was “easy going”, Raila simply took his time to lecture Kenyans on recent Kenyan history, taking them through all the issues they had raised until time ran out. It was time to leave.

In fact, one could notice the ease with which Raila spoke because he is always confronted with much more tougher questions in Kenya. He fed Kenyans with everything including bits about the Kriegler Commission, voting from abroad, post election violence and the question of The Hague among others. When he was through, something very funny happened.

Somehow, Ambassador Purity had planned that the PM would be served with food soon after he finished addressing Kenyans. When this was done, chaos broke loose.

A cute Swedish waiter served Raila food as Kenyans wondered how the PM would eat in public as his audience observed. What happened next is that Kenyans moved on to Raila’s high table as he was preparing to begin eating and began to great him. True to character, Raila abandoned the food, dropped the fork and knife that he was already holding and began to shake hands with Kenyans.

When it was clear that the dinner strategy had failed, a waiter was instructed to take away the food as Raila moved from the table to mingle with Kenyans and give anybody who wanted a snap with him a photo opportunity. That was Raila Odinga. In our next installment, find out how Raila landed at the disco at Lilla Wien shortly before midnight to boogie with Kenyans under tight security and the new dilemma of Ambassador Purity following Raila’s visit to Stockholm.

Okoth Osewe

October 29, 2009 Posted by makozewe | News & Analysis | 5 Comments

Lucky Dube Memorial Bash at Sollentuna

Network for Africans Unity organizing

The 2009 Momorial Dinner dance night

Welcome to Lucky Dube Memorial

In memory of Lucky Dube (R.I.P) who was murdered 2 years ago. Dube’s music is a mission. Dube is dead but the mission should never die. He sang for;  the Emancipation of Women, a free and integrated world and liberation of Africans from, among other things, mental enslavement.

Place: Sollentuna centrum: Bibliotekshuset-Ned våningen.
Adress: Aniaraplatsen 2
Date. Saturday 31 oct 2009
Time : 09 pm-late
Entrance fee: 50kr

Music: Hip Hop, R&B , Dance hall and all Afrcan music to remember
DJs: Mike, Mukasa and Jonas

Lets keep the yes we can spirit alive.

October 29, 2009 Posted by makozewe | News & Analysis | Leave a Comment