Is here.
All-exclusive Behind The Newsprint details:
Kenya is in a fit of optimism rightnnow. President Daniel Arap Moi--oft referred to as the evil nasty corrupt Moi--is no more, replaced by the kindly honest old Mwai Kibaki. Young Kenyans have some faith in their system again: faith that corruption will be attacked, that the government can rise above cheap tribal patronage, that the guilty will be punished. Enter populist politician Raila Odinga, a guy with hegemonic popularity amongst his tribe. It was Odinga's delivery of his tribe to Kibaki that pushed the honest, respectable, blind-to-tribal-politics Kibaki to power. Kibaki took power thanks to the tribalism he wants to stamp out.
Irony? Possible charges of hypocrisy? All hovering. Now Odinga is the second most powerful man in Kenya, head of the reconstruction movement that's gonna get going in the new optimistic Kenya. He could buy off anyone he wanted, if he wanted. Thus far he certainly has said all the right things to suggest he has every desire to be a stand-up guy. But everyone knows he wants to be president himself. He might even be good at it. But can he check his ambition enough to let Kibaki rule? If not, the new optimistic Kenya could quickly morph into the old intratribal violence Kenya.
Odinga's been waiting his whole life for power. But his road to the #2 spot led through state-sanctioned torture chambers, where he was starved, psychologically ravaged, left in solitary. Pretty much only because he challenged the status quo. The state did the same to Odinga's dad when he tried to defend himself and his tribe. The Odinga that emerged from those nightmare experiences seems to be a patient, calculating politician, a la Mandela--not an ethnocentric wingnut with a grudge, a la... hell, a la how I'd be if I was jailed for 8 years because I tried to get a fair shake for my people. Mandela was swept to power, though. Is Odinga patient enough to wait his turn?
