It has just been announced that President Barack Obama has won this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. This
brings to two the number of Kenyans who have won the prize in the last five years, a feat that has never been achieved by any country in the world. According to the Nobel Peace Committee, Obama was awarded the prize because he is the only one “providing hope for a better world”. We are in a situation where the whole world is banking on a Kenyan to provide hope for a world in crisis. Why can’t we throw a Champaign tonight at “Little Nairobi” we have created in the middle of Stockholm?
In 2004, Professor Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan, stunned the world when she won the prize. With the Obama award, Kenya is once again on the map and all Kenyans across the globe, together with their African brothers and sisters have another reason to celebrate. By winning the Peace prize, Obama has shown that Kenyans are great people who are capable of achieving big stuff. Our sons and daughters are making huge contributions in making Africa even greater. For a country to produce the President of the United States of America and then proceed to win yet another Nobel Peace Prize in less than a year is really great – Hallelujah!
At the Continental level, Africans should feel very proud while at the International level, there is cause to argue that Africa needs a Permanent seat in UN Security Council especially after producing the United States President and two Nobel Peace Prize winners in five years.
As Kenyans, we are also excelling in other areas. Our country was the first to set an example of how a Presidential candidate could steal an election then negotiate with the real winner who accepted to become Prime Minister. In fact, we are the only country in the world with “two governments” living peacefully side by side – ODM and PNU. To underline the level of democracy in this one-country two-governments situation, both ODM and PNU have 20 Cabinet Ministers each and the head of each government is the one who appointed the Ministers. Has someone ever checked whether our country is holding the record on the number of Cabinet Ministers globally?
Our example was followed by Zimbabwe where everybody knows what happened and now, there is peace in Zimbabwe. We are showing the way to election rigging followed by peace-making to be followed by a bloated Cabinet and it is working because the people are peaceful even if some of them are starving to death! If elections were to be rigged in Sweden they might have to turn to Kenya for help.
Taking our leaders to The Hague
Recently, we made history by having our country represented at the UN General Assembly by the Prime Minister, Raila Odinga, although the PM is not Head of government. All other representatives at the UN were Heads of States. This was a precedent-setting and historic moment. We are great! Our PM then proceeded to surprise the whole world when he managed to meet President Barack Obama while Gordon Brown, British PM, was turned away because Obama had no time. Kudos!
The picture of Obama and Raila were splashed in Kenya national media to underline the national importance of the meeting while Raila sent greetings to Americans from Obama during his Havard speech to ensure that they knew that he met their President while Gordon Brown was blocked. Technically, we can argue that Raila became much more important and powerful than Gordon Brown for how did he beat PM Brown on this?
We are now planning to take our own politicians to the Hague to face justice for post election violence in order to end impunity. Ocampo may have arrived in the country by now to discuss how they can be picked up one by one, chained and bundled into air crafts destined for The Hage to face justice. Our country is really great! Which other country could achieve such a feat? This will make us the first country to do so because in other cases, perpetrators of genocide and crimes against humanity have had to be arrested while in hiding. Some of our perpetrators are sitting Cabinet Ministers and they are expected to be picked up from Parliament direct to the The Hague. Who says Kenya cannot be reckoned with globally?
There is a twist to “The Hague front” that also makes us very unique. As we prepare for the Kenya-Hague trials, our government is reportedly hiding Kabuga, a Rwandan Genocide suspect who has been on the run for more than fifteen years and who is suspected of being responsible for the massacre of about a million Rwandese. While we have accepted to take our criminals to the Hague, we hide others who have committed even more serious crimes against humanity.
We are a lucky country because even though Kabuga may be in Kenya, America cannot bomb us Iraq-style because our son is the President of the United States. We could even house Osama Bin Laden but nothing will happen to us because Obama cannot bomb his own grandmother, blood brothers, cousins and millions of relatives because every Kenyan is Obama’s relative. Let us honestly give ourselves big claps wherever we are and reading this post!
Okoth Osewe
About the Author
WHAT THEN CAN ONE SAY,OTHER THAN HONGERA OBAMA NA HONGERA KENYA!!!!!!!
Wangari Mathaai is a Kenyan, Obama is American. I know he has some roots in Kenya but he is a US citizen. Other headlines reported that He is the fourth US president to get the prestigious award. I beg to differ with your headline as it is misleading.
KSB: Wangui, you didn’t just get the joke. Show me where I wrote that Obama is “the first US President” to get the Prize and I give you an ounce of gold. You can continue believing that Obama is not Kenyan but his Dad is buried in Kogelo in Kenya. You write like you are from Pluto. Try asking a Kenyan who has a Swedish Passport whether he/she is Swedish and you will, most likely be told, that citizenship is a piece of paper. Let us meet at our small Nairobi and celebrate. Tuwache siasa for a moment!
Wangui as a matter of fact naweza kukuunga mkono kiasi. After a few generations of rebelling and getting casted out from the village (Onyango Hussein) and Obama sr, another ‘infinitely huge’ intellectual resource that went wasted especially by the Kenyatta regime… One day gwan be payday!
However I am not in favour of quickly granting Kenyans the bragging rights because in his speech after being chosen worthy of the award this year, he mentioned being “deeply humbled” and he sounded perhaps a bit reluctant on accompanying other big names & organisations that have been granted the award in the past. The likes of Martin Luther King(1964), Amnesty International(1977), Mother Teresa (1979), Nelson Mandela & de Klerk(1993), Medicins sans Frontieres(1999).. (its a long list!).
His Excellency the President of the United States went on to admit that “I (he) do (does) not view it as a recognition of my (his) own accomplishments.” With those remarks I would like to remind Kenyans that in life, nothing good comes easy. We shouldn’t just take President Obama as a Micheal Jordan in some Chicago Bulls somewhere but rather we should meet him halfway and show that we really are worthy of those bragging rights. And my word we are still many miles away in this time!
Yeah right keep dreamin he cant be kenyan he is more american his father might be from kogelo but he feels nothing about kenyans but guys you keep draggin him to your side GUYS get over it… go to your small Nairobi and gossip about who has done what in stockholm that is the only good thing you are in.. Thank God i was born in PLUTO!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
KSB: Sorry if you idn’t catch the humour!
Wangui, Obama is a Kenyan-American president. This coz his father is a Kenyan,if vice versa,he could be American-Kenyan president.But he is not a Kenyan all in all, he is American. He serve them. They own him.
Impressively, he gives us-Kenyan and Kenya much needed publicity especially after we tarnished our country. In that slice, we own him. He is our free bill board. Thats why we indeed took a break from work when he won the election. And another reason why his president mzee Kibaki,sent a happy congrats message. It was not just from a president,but from his baba president.
Can we afford to celebrate not? No we cant!The announcent is the reason,Iam still limping. It was `let dance the news’ and we did.
Some Kenyans are so frigid and lack a sense of humor. Can’t they see that Osewe’s message is full of sarcasm? Who doesn’t know that Obama is American? Can’t such humorless people see Kenya’s “No. 1 position” in matters that are so negative like the political happenings he wrote about?
Come on, we can do better in the humor department to loosen up these unnecessary tensions!
I must admit though… Osewe actually has some very interesting methods of provoking discussion. I seldom seize to get puzzled.
Brayo, what do you mean by “I seldom seize to get puzzled”. You puzzle me by your meaningless phrase. Explain.
KSB: Lili, I did edit the text to try and give it meaning but Brayo wrote back and requested that it be left in its original form and that is what I did.
KSB. I did not get your humour. In light of the all the negative things going on in Kenya due to the greed of politicians and the so called “Baba” Kibaki, by trying so hard to associate with Obama is like trying to sweep all the dirt under the carpet and give Kenya a clean sparkling image. And for the record, Obama’s father abandoned him and left never to return. Obama was the mature person to go back and trace his roots.
KSB: Sorry if you didn’t catch the drift. Someone chipped in and identified the literally device that was employed but if this escaped your understanding too, then let’s move on because I don’t have time to analyze the text.