‘Cousin Obama’: America’s caretaker President

By Jossi Tinga

When the American with a Kenyan-sounding name was elected President of the United States, Kenya went wild. It was giddy days. For a few days Kenya was celebrating more than the Democratic Party. There was a rush to associate with ‘Cousin Obama’. Not one but many boys born in his ancestral home of Nyanza earned the name Barack Obama. Not to be left behind, President Kibaki declared a public holiday. That’s the last time Kenya celebrated the ‘slender guy with a funny name’.

There was heady talk of how our ancestral ties to Obama would fuse into a special relationship with the Big US of A. Someone figured quickly there would be need to land Airforce One in Kisumu. No doubt Barack would find time in his busy schedule to stop over at his ancestral home in K’Ogelo near Kisumu. The government, in rather uncharacteristic fashion, quickly found the money to upgrade the Kisumu Airport.

The East African Breweries, not to be left behind, quickly brewed a special beer to go with the good times. PRESIDENT LAGER quickly flowed from the barrels. It was un-malted beer, destined for the low end of the market. Just why the Guinness PLC-owned brewer would think a limited edition brand was best suited for the low end is a mystery to me. Maybe Barack Obama is a thrill to just the low end of the social strata. Perhaps the brewers were first to know the bottom 47 percent were most thrilled by his triumph. Mitt Romney, his Republican opponent in 2012, bitingly declared Obama as the candidate of the ‘47 percent of Americans who pay no tax’.

President Obama at the 2013 State of Union Address

Photo Courtesy of The White House

I am still scratching my head over the phenomenon that was Barack Obama. The rousing promise that came with his ‘Yes We Can’ slogan has not quite transformed the world. Neither has his Change We Can Believe In reordered the world. Obama the phenomenon and Obama the president are two different things. One is bold and inspiring, the latter glum and dithering.  Imagine; the Guantanamo Bay Detention Centre which Mr Obama promised to shut down is still in business. In place of new detainees are bodies of would-be detainees killed in drone attacks.

It would be too much to expect Mr Obama to change the world on the strength of his rhetoric only. Walking in the shadow of the mercurial Martin Luther King Jr, Obama is probably a creature of the moving sermons of the Reverend. Dr King changed the world without the power of executive privilege. It was expected that Mr Obama would use the privilege of high office to blow a wind of change across the world. The Kenyans expected American favour to sway their way.

From my corner of the world Mr Obama has thrilled only to disappoint. The promise of a more inclusive world in which we share in prosperity has come to nought. The bipartisanship promised Americans by Obama not only failed. It failed to transform American foreign policy. America is still in the grip of the 911 Attacks. Its dealings with the world are informed by the logic of conquest and retaliation driven home by the brutal attackers.   

Mr Obama is a minimalist president who weighs his actions against the established order. Granted, he has a mountain of domestic troubles to contend with. Chief among this is the economic squeeze brought on in part by a decade of wars. It is almost shameful that his presidency has not translated into greater engagement with Africa.

 It is ‘Almost shameful’ because Obama’s link to Africa is in genes and surname only. He is more at home in Ireland where his mother’s ancestors hailed than in K’Ogelo. To be fair, our claim on him extinguished when Obama Snr surrendered full parenting rights on the mother at an early age.

At a time when Africa’s economic fortunes are rising, America under Obama has remained absent on the action. The regular lectures on democracy from Washington have faded into a hollow slogan. Recently the lectures took an absurd turn when the President added Gay Rights to the menu. 

Gay Rights are top of the agenda in Europe and America. However, it is probably too much to expect a continent that grapples with basic human rights issues to grapple with Gay Rights. The spark that Africa looks for from America is one of economic growth. As China has shown, it is trade and not aid that Africa craves. 

For example, in just a decade trade with China has helped bridge the so-called ‘digital divide’. America’s business moguls so used to doing business the old way largely missed out on the action. They are missing out on the infrastructure boom too. The only visible American investments these sides are Coca Cola and in the War against Terror.

Some may argue Kenya’s internal foibles prevent productive engagement with America. Kenya is surrounded by American darlings in the region. Uganda, Tanzania, South Sudan and Ethiopia are most loved by the Stars n’ Stripes. If American goodies rained across the borders Kenya being the regional hub would receive more than a trickle of benefits. Nothing worth the shilling’s notice has happened in the neighbourhood. 

 President Obama is easily becoming the beautiful son who made it to the mansion but who’s Mama has nothing to show for it. He is one American president who does not seem to carry the country’s weight behind him. He behaves pretty much like a trusted aide running business in the boss’s absence. Barack Obama is a caretaker president holding fort until America  finds its bearing.