Barack Obama and his support for Raila Odinga

Believe it or not, the presidential election is only two weeks away, and Barack Obama mania has affected many of my friends, family, and fellow bloggers. I continue to resist it though. The reason I cannot cast a vote for Barack Obama next month comes down to one reason...and that is his poor judgement. His list of relationships with questionable characters seems to keep growing, and in my mind, his relationship with Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga stands out the most.



Forget about Obama's friendship with all-around racist Jeremiah Wright and domestic terrorist/genuine slimebag Bill Ayers. I want to know why Barack traveled to Kenya to campaign for Odinga at taxpayer expense. Obama claims that he will be tough on Al-Qaeda and aggressive in the war on terrorism if he gets elected, but the Kenyan leader he has pushed for wants to end Kenya's alliance with the US in confronting Al-Qaeda-backed Al-Shabab militia fighters in neighboring Somalia. Given AQ's slaughter of hundreds of Kenyan's back in 1998 and a dozen others in 2002, I don't understand how that's possible. Odinga does claim to be Obama's cousin, however.

For those of you who don't know, Odinga was widely suspected of having a hand in the acts of genocide that rocked Kenya earlier this year. The country descended into a state of ethnic and tribal warfare after Odinga lost a presidential election bid to incumbent Mwai Kibaki by a very narrow margin. A subsequent power-sharing deal followed, which allowed Kibaki to remain president and appointed Odinga as Prime Minister.

Is Obama's relationship with Odinga a preview of what his policies will be like should he get elected on November 4th? It certainly seems that way.

Kenya fighting rages on

Violence in Kenya has taken a turn for the worse with Tuesday's assassination of an opposition lawmaker who had been working to end the crises. Ethnic militias armed with machetes continue to terrorize the slums of the capital Nairobi and towns across the country's west while the death toll in the fighting has topped more than 850.

Lord Mark Malloch Brown, who visited Kenya from the UK, issued a serious warning about the crises:

"We are greatly concerned at what we see as a step change in the violence from something bloody and ugly but perhaps spontaneous to something much more organised and sinister,"

He continued on to say:

"What is so alarming about the last few days is that there are evidently hidden hands organising this now. Militias are appearing, street gangs are being organised."

I hope I'm wrong when I say this, but this kind of violence seems all to familiar. In 1994, sporadic violence between Rwanda's Hutu and Tutsis ethnicities quickly spiraled out of control and became the infamous Rwandan Genocide, where over one million people were slaughtered across the country. Since then (and even before) this type of violence has reciprocated again and again in Africa, whether it be Rwanda, Darfur, Eastern Congo, South Sudan, or Somalia. Kenya's current situation may very well find its place up there if the conflict is not peacefully resolved and the machete-wielding militias are not disarmed.

Tensions grow next door:

While not really related, violence is also being reported in neighboring Somalia with the continuing street battles between Ethiopian/Somali coalition forces and Islamic insurgents armed with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades. Yesterday, two foreign aid workers and a Somali journalist were killed when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb outside of Mogadishu. Kenya, which was once one of East Africa's most prosperous democracies, had the potential to serve as a role model to the struggling UN-backed government in Somalia. Kenyan forces have also wielded positive influence in the capture of Islamic militants along the border.

What can we do?

One of two things needs to happen in order to stop this from becoming the latest "Never Again" pledge. Either the people of Kenya must agree to put aside their differences and solve their problems through dialogue as opposed to the blade of a machete, or the UN and the international community must step in and do something before the militias become too powerful and the bodies of innocent men, women, and children begin piling up in the countryside. Leaders here in the U.S. need to play a constructive role as well. Senator Barack Obama, who is of Kenyan descent, has been actively involved in pushing for dialogue and an end to the killing. If everyone in Congress did so, it would certainly send a strong message. Today's violence in Kenya is a perfect example of how we can all put aside our political differences to work together and impact the world in a positive way.

...or we can continue doing what we're doing and have another "never again" pledge that we failed to live up to and add it to the pages of history.

(Photo courtesy of AP)