NAIROBI, Kenya -- Sen. Barack Obama delivered a lecture on Mondayagainst graft and patronage hiring, ethnic-bloc voting that does notyield the best and brightest government leaders, and politicalfamilies who hoard the spoils of power.
But his focus was not the scandals surrounding Chicago's City Hallor public corruption probes in Springfield. Or the political tribesof Madigan, Stroger, Hynes and Daley.
Rather, at the University of Nairobi in a speech televised live,Obama used the platform he has as the wildly popular son of a Kenyanto tell this nation their freedom is jeopardized by publiccorruption.
"My own city of Chicago, Ill., has been the home of some of themost corrupt local politics in American history over the years,"Obama said, "from patronage machines to questionable elections."
While government corruption is a "problem" in the United States,it is not at the epidemic levels it is in Kenya, Obama said. "Here inKenya, there is a crisis -- a crisis that's robbing an honest peopleof the opportunities they fought for."
Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki ran on an anti-graft platform in 2002but the government still has an international reputation as corrupt.
ETHNIC POLITICS 'HAS TO STOP'
Obama did not mention Kibaki by name in his speech, but raisedconcerns about Kenya's slow walk to a transparent and open governmentwhen they met last Friday.
In a nation where ethnic identity is defining for many, Obama -- aLuo -- said "ethnic-based politics has to stop."
It was reminiscent of his 2004 Democratic Convention speech wherehe urged the United States not to be divided between red (Republican)and blue (Democratic) states.
Kenyans vote along tribal lines; the winners, from the morepopulous groups, hand out patronage to their own.
"I have to tell you, that as someone who lives outside of Kenya,the notion that at this stage in the nation's development there wouldstill be politics primarily based on arguments between Luo, Kikuyu,Kamba and Maasi doesn't make any sense," said Obama, ticking off thenames of the larger groups.
"Maybe if everybody was rich, we could afford to have thesearguments."
On Friday, Obama complained to Kibaki that Chicago TV crews wereshaken down at customs. In Monday's edition of the Daily Nation,Kenya's government ran an ad with Obama's name in the headline,calling corruption allegations "unfounded." The ad states customsreceipts were issued. However, the CBS2 team in Kenya, MichaelFlannery and Marcus Richardson, said they were never issued areceipt. Government spokesman Alfred Mutua gave them their paperworkwhen they went to interview him Monday, Flannery said.
APPEARS WITH CANDIDATE
Obama appeared with opposition leader Raila Odinga -- a Luorunning for president -- at stops on Saturday in his father's nativedistrict.
Mutua, in the CBS2 interview, said Obama may have been caught upin ethnic politics with Odinga "using Sen. Obama as his stooge, ashis puppet."
e-mail: lsweet@suntimes.com
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