It was interesting to hear the views of an expert on Kenyan politics on Radio Five on the way home from work this evening talking about the role of the US in Kenya. he made the point that the US favoured strongly President Kibaki and had been quick to congratulate him on his success despite wide spread fears about the validity of the results. Now, with the crisis growing, the USA, aware that they may not be dealing with President Kibaki if he is toppled, are desperately trying to back track.
The question is did the tacit support of the USA embolden Kibaki to commit wlectoral fraud knowing that the USA was going to throw its weight behind him ?
Kenya has a small but significant Muslim population who have been radicalised to some extent by fundamentalist groups allied to Bin Ladin. The USA, therefore takes a keen interest in Kenya in a way it would never have done 10 years ago.
But like the cold war years, America, it seems, is not afraid to see democracy usurped if it means its friends are the winners, even if the people do not want them.
George Bush is keen to lecture the world on democracy, but he has got to learn that a true democracy does not always provide the result you want. America, in this case, may have involuntarily provoked the deaths of hundreds of innocent people, maybe more, in post election violence in Kenya. Will George Bush care ? If they are not American (and white, if you look at his reaction to New Orleans), then it seems he won't care in the slightest.
1 comment:
Although I blame Bush for a lot - (e.g. Iraq War, dragging his feet on Climate Change etc) I personally don't buy that he is some way responsible for encouraging President Kibaki to commit electoral fraud and provoking the Kenyan crisis. This seems to be a homemade disaster and a tale of corruption. Such African countries have to take responsibity in such events rather than using the West as a convenient bogeyman.
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