Yes I’m again guiding safaris in Kenya. There is peace and safety throughout the country, again, the best in five years. This does not mean I like the government.
EWT will broker safaris in Kenya, again, for the same reason EWT sent tourists to China and Ethiopia in the 1980s and to South Africa throughout the apartheid era: individuals need to see for themselves, and because those places at those times were safe for tourists.
As Kenya is, again. As Rwanda is, today. But just because it might be safe doesn’t mean I condone the evil and undemocratic policies of the government.
This is not just my assessment, of course. As each day passes, there is more condemnation of Kenyatta and Ruto, most of it from within Kenya.
Over the weekend it became clear that that the Uhruto Mafia might actually weasel out of their trials as still another important witness dropped out of the case. This has infuriated the educated Kenyan public.
It’s important always to make a distinction between government and the people. Especially when “the people” are so closely divided between those who ardently support their government and those who are so ardently opposed to it.
Such was the era of George Bush. And such today is the era of Uhuru Kenyatta. George Bush didn’t last and hopefully neither will Uhuru Kenyatta. But Kenyatta is just beginning his term, and it doesn’t look good.
Twisting the good things of the new constitution onto themselves, Kenyatta has managed to stymie opposition in Parliament. He’s done this by stepping outside civil society and the majesty of his own constitution, and essentially bribing easily coerced members of the opposition.
This is not Lincoln trading a post office to free slaves. It’s Uhuru Kenyatta dolling out money and fancy cars from the national treasury to support appointing his cronies to the most important watchdog committees of Parliament.
And following the lead of Ages Past, a recent High Court judge just stopped the prosecution of Kenya’s biggest financial scandal in its history, with the blessing of Kenyatta.
But such overt actions, skirting the boundaries of legality, are not as disconcerting as the extra-legal ones.
“Recent public pronouncements … suggest that the Uhuru administration might at some point resort to a Russia-style crackdown to silence critical voices,” claimed one of Kenya’s most acclaimed columnists this weekend.
Mr. Otieno explained that the organizations currently being harassed by public institutions on a much more grievous scale than our Right Wingers were called out by the IRS are universally ones that challenged Kenyatta’s election victory in the courts.
Kenyatta is feeling deep embarrassment on the global arena, as world leaders shun him and he becomes increasingly isolated. His problem, of course, is that he’s been indicted for crimes against humanity by the world community, and is due to be tried on July 9 in The Hague.
Cornered beasts tend to lash out, and that remains my worry. I worry that the current Kenyan regime – although I admire them for having established a palpable peace in society for the first time in nearly six years – will become so isolated that violence will return.
If it does, we’ll go away, again. If it doesn’t, I invite you to enjoy the beauty and promise of Kenya, which does not include its current government leadership.
I commend you for moral/philosophical stand point – you hated the Uhuru-Ruto alignment pre and now post-election…one can only admire high principals like yours – lol. But then let’s put you to a little task here – “But just because it might be safe doesn’t mean I condone the evil and undemocratic policies of the government” – I’ve been paying attention as much as the next persons, but I can hardly see any “evil and undemocratic policies”, so please inform me/us…I am aware of the clamour of opposition especially on social media again, but nothing irregular or articulate beyond what we already know – ScoK, IEBC and ‘the original Sin’ (electing the indicted). Anything beyond that realisation is electorate –opposition literal thrumming’s, hardly anything unusual there in an apparent free society – wouldn’t you say?
Until ICC performs it’s functions and concludes this particular process, you are amongst many bound to keep watching and intimating and every now and then – irrationally hating persons or personas for whatever reasons manifest as per individual needs/wants. But above that is what the collective that is Kenya needs/wants, the baseline is – peace, and you got that spot-on the rest is a matter of grace and time….
“This is not Lincoln trading a post office to free slaves. It’s Uhuru Kenyatta dolling out money and fancy cars from the national treasury to support appointing his cronies to the most important watchdog committees of Parliament.”
That is a pretty bold opinion/statement there – my suggestion is that your next article should be on that, I am interested to know what evidences or authentication sources you have. But yes, we’ve all noted with significant concerns the post-election coalition deals and the house committee shenanigans….but all those put together do not show a significant pointer towards your “evil and undemocratic policies” assertions…..