Victory for Obama is victory for Kenya

President Kibaki did what every other Kenyan could have done if they were in his position as president. That is to declare a public holiday in honor of the son of the son of the soil Barrack Obama. Barrack Obama is American with Kenyan roots and no one can change that. So please E-news channel, leave Kibaki alone and let Kenyans enjoy Obama's victory, after all, they were celebrating the whole night after Obama won and surely, many could have missed work the following day and therefore the holiday was well deserved.

I am responding to a programme that I saw earlier today on E-news channel claiming that president Kibaki of Kenya is the failure of the week in their list of failures, just because he granted Kenya a holiday in honor of Obama. This guy, in a suit, continued that in January Kenyans were fighting because of the disputed elections and it was foolish for the president to declare a holiday when Kenya needed to go back to work to rebuild itself.

Honestly, this guy is shortsighted. Firstly, he sees the forest and not the trees. His judgment is based on what is actually on the surface without taking a minute to think about the underlying issues. Obama’s victory for one, is a chance for Kenyans to reunite holiday or not, and defeat tribal alliances that plagued the recent elections, it is a chance to celebrate unity in a man who is not only a Kenyan son of the soil but American at the same time.

It is a chance for them to see that anyone can be the  President of Kenya and break the perception that presidency only belong to a group of people. This is a lesson that comes when memories of tribal hatred are still fresh in the minds of Kenyans, it is good for peace and tolerance in the country. Perhaps the holiday will help Kenyans reflect on such things. This is what Obama's victory means given the Kenyan context.

As for E-news channel, and the guy in the suit, this is the question; why are you only concerned with petty things such as holidays in Kenya and yet there are serious issues that need further analysis and interpretation and media leadership in Africa such as the crisis in the DRC and the war in Southern Sudan and Ethiopia?

Clearly the news presenter or the journalist who wrote the story was lazy. Faced with time pressure and deadlines versus audiences thirst for news, he simply linked Obama (given that the name Obama is news) to a case in Kenya that is not even worth analysing. He had to come up with something you know... “If you don’t ... you get fired”. After all, the seed of humility, greatness, unity and tolerance was conceived in the USA courtesy of  the son of the soil.

Thanks to Barrack senior who hailed from Kogelo- Rural Kenya for the seed he planted. Kibaki is just watering the tree. After all, I can bet that Obama himself accepts Kibaki's gesture as a great honor and you know why? He is so in love with Kogelo (his Kenyan Village) in such a way that he can bypass Nairobi and fly directly into Kisumu (with the new airport) closer to Kogelo whenever he visists his relatives-little wonder the tiny Kisumu airport is being upgraded to international standards, do you see such benefits?

After all, he will be the only US president to have set foot in Kenya given that Clinton visited Uganda while Bush went to Tanzania. If Kenya could have such useless public holidays like Moi day which mean nothing to Kenyans, then, surely, Obama day should not be contested. E-news channel, please leave Kibaki alone, he is a Kenyan Honoring an American with Kenyan roots. Clean up the political mess in South Africa first before you begin pointing fingers. As for the guy in the suit, I hope you got paid.