U.S. President Barack Obama is scheduled to visit the West African nation of Ghana this week on his first trip to sub-Saharan Africa as president. This has disappointed many Kenyans who had expected Mr. Obama's first presidential trip to include the East African nation where he has family ties. VOA's Cathy Majtenyi reports from Nairobi that questions are being raised about why he is not coming to Kenya.
Mwalimu Mati is CEO of the political watchdog Mars Group. He says, "I think in view of recent comments emanating from the State Department or even from the American Embassy in Nairobi, governance is a concern. That is the way that Kenyans are likely to interpret it: that there is something that our government is not doing and that is why they do not qualify for what would be probably one of the most obvious first trips that Barack Obama would make," says the political analyst.
The Kenyan government is under fire for the way it handled violence following the country's disputed elections in 2007. The mayhem pitted different political and ethnic groups against each another. Some 1,000 people died, and thousands fled their homes.
To restore stability, the top two candidates formed a coalition government that divided power and responsibilities between President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga, but political in-fighting and a series of scandals and protests have rocked the fragile coalition government.
"It is basically not respecting civil and political liberties," explains Mati, "It is embroiled in high-level corruption; this Grand Coalition government has not been performing well. I see it as being quite reasonable that he [Obama] would not want to be in the embarrassing position of having to castigate hosts, and castigation is deserved in this country," he says.
These include charges of police brutality, impunity by major political figures against charges of corruption and organized violence, and government misspending. But those in government circles say recent political events in Kenya have nothing to do with President Obama's decision to visit Ghana.
Kenyan government spokesman Alfred Mutua says, "The American president has a choice of the countries to go to. He has not said that he is not going to come to Kenya. There is no understanding or written code that he has to come to Kenya on his first maiden trip."
Mutua says his government is making major progress in its reform efforts."We are already undertaking various programs in aspects of the tribunal - there are high level discussions going on, people know that. There is a lot of work that is being done about the reforms, the task force on the police; a lot of constitutional bodies are going on."
Others say that President Obama has strategic reasons for choosing Ghana over Kenya.
Attorney Kamotho Waiganjo is a political commentator and university lecturer.He says Ghana has a reputation of being a stable, successful democracy that respects institutions.
"Of course, there is also the traditional connection of America to Ghana, because, remember, Ghana was the "Slave Coast," as it were. That is the place through which a lot of Americans were shipped out from West Africa. So there is also that connection that is much bigger than President Obama's connection to Kenya," says Waiganjo.
Kenyans just have to wait for Mr. Obama to make his first visit as president to his father's homeland.
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Brazzaville
Giving a voice to the voiceless -- a reporter remembers
Regrets Only: An Africa Journal
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Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
Brazzaville
Why?
It is October, 1997. I am standing in a rubble-strewn Brazzaville street as the city returns cautiously to life after a bloody civil war. Armed men are all around me, most of them looting, occasionally firing off bursts of bullets in celebration. But I am not concentrating on this anymore. Instead, with the hand holding my microphone limp by my side, my tape running senselessly. I am looking at another corpse -- this one of a man, perhaps in his 20's, his legs charred. I know there will be no voice to record. But his lips are apart, his arms outstretched, fingers together, as if in prayer. It seems another one of Africa's dead is trying to speak to me. And I feel I owe him this one last consideration. I think maybe he wants to share his anguish, his despair, his pain. Or maybe a last word to a parent or a wife or a child. I feel badly -- because I do not know for sure. I do know though that I have seen corpses like this before -- victims of war, or of genocide, or of famine, or of sickness. A symbolic path of the dead now runs through my mind -- a personal collection reflecting the real path their corpses have left across much of Africa: from arid Somalia in the northeast, across Sudan and into northern Uganda, down through steamy Rwanda, Burundi and Congo in the center of the continent. Some have been young men in uniform, their bodies shattered by a bullet or a shell. Some have been old men, thin beyond belief, weakened by hunger or disease. Some have been women, their dresses in tatters, their faces etched with silent agony. Some have been children, too young to die, their skulls cleaved in half. Some I have met in battle-scarred streets, some in burned-out buildings. Some I have seen sprawled amidst flowers in an open field, some floating, limbs bound, in muddy water. Some I have found in groups thrown into a dirt pit, some alone in the aisles of a gutted church. I have, at times, had imaginary conversations with these dead of mine -- their unrecorded voices playing on endlessly inside my head, sometimes loud, sometimes just a whisper. I tell them I am sorry and if it were in my power, I would restore them to life. But I can't. It's not in my power. Perhaps the only help I can give is to try to tell their story.
The Reporter
Alex Belida has been in international broadcasting since 1971. He spent nearly eight years in sub-Saharan Africa as a correspondent for the Voice of America, based first in Nairobi (1993-1996) and then in Johannesburg (1996-2000). He covered conflicts and humanitarian crises in Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan, Burundi, Congo-Kinshasa and Congo-Brazzaville, northern Uganda, Angola and Lesotho as well as political unrest in Zimbabwe and catastrophic flooding in Mozambique. He suffered gunshot wounds while reporting in Somalia.
While in Africa, he was elected Chairman of the East Africa Foreign Correspondents Association in Nairobi and served as Treasurer of the Foreign Correspondents Association of Southern Africa during his Johannesburg assignment.
Before going to Africa, he served as VOA's Senior White House reporter for four years following stints as coordinator of the 1988 Presidential Election coverage and as National News Editor. Before those Washington assignments, he was based in Germany, where he served as Soviet affairs, East-West security and German affairs correspondent (1982-1985).
Following Africa, he served as Pentagon correspondent. In 2004 he was named Managing Editor and in 2007 became Senior Advisor for News at VOA. He retired in 2011.
Before joining VOA, he worked for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in both New York and Munich, rising from reporter to Assistant News Director. He has a BA from Trinity College, Hartford, Conn., and a MS in Journalism from Columbia University in New York. In 2006, he received the prestigious Alumni Achievement Award from Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism. He also has an honorary doctorate in communications from the Somali National University.
The views expressed here are his own.
While in Africa, he was elected Chairman of the East Africa Foreign Correspondents Association in Nairobi and served as Treasurer of the Foreign Correspondents Association of Southern Africa during his Johannesburg assignment.
Before going to Africa, he served as VOA's Senior White House reporter for four years following stints as coordinator of the 1988 Presidential Election coverage and as National News Editor. Before those Washington assignments, he was based in Germany, where he served as Soviet affairs, East-West security and German affairs correspondent (1982-1985).
Following Africa, he served as Pentagon correspondent. In 2004 he was named Managing Editor and in 2007 became Senior Advisor for News at VOA. He retired in 2011.
Before joining VOA, he worked for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in both New York and Munich, rising from reporter to Assistant News Director. He has a BA from Trinity College, Hartford, Conn., and a MS in Journalism from Columbia University in New York. In 2006, he received the prestigious Alumni Achievement Award from Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism. He also has an honorary doctorate in communications from the Somali National University.
The views expressed here are his own.
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