Like my wise mother continues to remind me every chance she gets:
Wuoda (my son), show me you friends and I will show you your character – an endearing take on “birds of a feather…” or as only the good book can put it: He that walketh with wise [men] shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed. Proverbs 13:20.
According to Kenya’s deputy president, the United Nation Security Council’s (UNSC) rejection of the country’s ridiculously expensive and increasingly desperate and embarrassing efforts to defer the crimes against humanity cases facing Mr. Kenyatta and his deputy at The Hague “…was a clear testimony of who the true friends of Kenya were…” Mr. Ruto went on to assert that the Friday November 16 eight-to-seven vote by the UNSC against the “digital” duo’s request for a deferral of their cases was “…a clear testimony of genuine friends who can stand with us when it is shining or raining…” The DP then thanked the soon-to-be-50year-old polity’s new “best friends forever” (BFFs) for standing with them claiming that the “digital” duo has “a plan” to work and “endure any difficulties.”
The junior partner in the “digital” duo and his Jubilee counterparts in the parliament went on to excoriate the main targets of the party’s ire and wrath United States, United Kingdom, France and Ghanaian Kofi Annan complaining that the former Secretary General of the United Nations was “…behind ‘a well-orchestrated international plot’ to have President Kenyatta and Mr. Ruto jailed by the ICC”. I want to believe that the deputy president has evidence to support this rather outlandish claim.
Also included on the list of countries that torpedoed the duo’s attempts to have their charges deferred were Australia, Argentina, Guatemala, Luxembourg and South Korea.
Breathing fire and casting aspersions one minute and lathering effusive praise the very next, Mr. Ruto went on to shower praise on Kenya’s newest and “bestest” of friends Azerbaijan, Morocco, Pakistan, and Togo – all who voted in favor of the deferral. The other three countries that voted in favor of deferring the charges – China, Russia and Rwanda – were already inside Mr. Kenyatta and Mr. Ruto’s “circle of BFFs”: The former two, China and Russia, playing their usual and expected role of opposing anything their fellow UNSC veto-welding counterparts US, UK and France supported!
So in summary, Jubilee’s revised Kenya@50 “Taking Our Country Back” guest list reads as follows:
DO NOT INVITE:
Kenya’s “cowardly enemies”: Australia, Argentina, France*, Guatemala, Luxembourg, South Korea, UK*, USA*
VIPs:
Kenya’s “true and genuine friends”: Azerbaijan, China*, Morocco, Pakistan, Rwanda, Russia*, Togo.
* – Permanent members of the UN Security Council.
At the risk of posing a rhetorical question, has Kenya, a country once described as an “oasis of peace in a troubled region…” http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/66470/john-githongo/fear-and-loathing-in-nairobi become bosom buddies with countries that are the very antithesis of what it aspires to be; countries that are all synonymous with repressive regimes, corrupt government official and less-than-democratic forms of government?
I would NOT describe myself as a dyed-in-the-wool “westophile” i.e. an anglophile, Francophile or Amerophile given some of my pieces – http://www.thetwoninetyonetracker.com. On the other hand, I do not consider the governments of China, Russia, Pakistan or Azerbaijan representative of the types of government I want the country of my birth to emulate. Similarly, I do not have anything against Presidents Xi Jinping (China), V. Putin (Russia), Mamnoon Hussain (Pakistan), or Ilham Aliyev (Azerbaijan) but they lead governments that do not have a track-record on democracy and good governance that the “digital” government of Kenya should be aspiring to mimic.
A simple key word search on the internet using any combination of Kenya’s newest BFFs along with the words “corruption”, “human rights violation”, “media suppression” or any other less-than-appealing non-democratic quality will tell one all they need to know about Kenya’s latest motley crew of “genuine friends who can stand with us when it is shining or raining.” It is ironic that the duo’s self-proclaimed Christian faith takes a back seat as they seek “friends” of all strips, some who persecute the very faith the two practice, in their selfish attempts to avoid being held to account:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2013/february-web-only/persecution-in-china-is-very-real.html
Under the headings Desperate times calls for desperate measures, The enemy of my enemy is my friend or The friend of my enemy is my enemy, the Jubilee administration is lurching the country from one extreme and bizarre partnership to the next all in pathetic and selfish attempts to save the two suspects, Kenyatta in particular, from answering charges of crimes against humanity at The Hague. The Kenyatta government is doing this even though his deputy’s case is well underway!
In a prior piece titled “The Enemy of My Enemies” written early this year for the blog http://www.thetwoninetyonetracker.com, I argue that Uhuru and his deputy “…will get legitimacy, not by cavorting with the Chinese, Russians, Syrians, Cubans or other countries that are eager to thumb their nose at the west or that are pariah states, but by being exonerated of the charges they…face for the sickening crimes against the very people who provided the two with their margin of victory in the just concluded presidential elections.” My position has not changed and their antics since they took power have only reinforced said position.
https://thetwoninetyonetracker.com/2013/03/13/the-enemy-of-my-enemies/
I further write that the desperate and expensive efforts by Mr. Kenyatta and Mr. Ruto to have their cases deferred may give them short-term gains as their try to avoid the embarrassment of being the first sitting president and deputy president ever to face charges at The Hague for crimes against humanity! The one thing their global gallivance and odd alliances will not do is erase the permanence of the pain and suffering Mr. Kenyatta and Mr. Ruto are accused of fomenting on the very people who elected them into office.
It is very sad that Kenyans gave Mr. Kenyatta and Mr. Ruto the “gravitas” and “bully pulpit” – as a sitting president and deputy president – the two, Mr. Kenyatta in particular, are shamelessly using as a shield against being held accountable for crimes – committed against the same Kenyans!
TheTwoNinetyOneTracker 