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Obama's Relationship With Raila Odinga
An article in the Washington Post said that Barack Obama's father's brother is very close with Raila Odinga, the leader of the opposition party in Kenya. They are both of the Luo tribe, as was Barack Obama, Sr. In this article, Obama's uncle claims that the presidential candidate calls Odinga at least once every three days. I seriously doubt that this claim is true, but I can't see him making such a statement unless Obama has spoken with Odinga at least once.
I have no problems with communications between a U.S. Senator and the opposition leader of Kenya, if the ugly rumors about Odinga are not true. Odinga came very close to winning the presidency of Kenya in a disputed election, so the rumors may be political mudslinging, but they still trouble me. They come from reputable sources.
Rumor 1: The Voice of America claims that Odinga signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Orange Democratic Movement to introduce Sharia (Islamic fundamentalist law) to Kenya if he should be given power in Kenya. The ODM is an Islamic fundamentalist Muslim organization. The VOA said that Odinga's reason for signing the MOU was in exchange for financial support.
Rumor 2: Human Rights Watch says that Odinga was charged with treason and was detained without trial for six years, after being suspected of collaborating with plotters of a failed coup against Daniel arap Moi in 1982. The Standard, in 2006, says that Odinga’s involvement in the coup attempt was much greater than previously thought. People died as a result of this coup. Raila Odinga claims that while he was jailed, he was never tried and the Standard's article has little truth in it. He claims that arap Moi deserved to be overthrown in 1982 and his actions, though minor and legal, were heroic at the time.
My guess is that Obama's communications with Odinga, if they exist, are completely innocent, but I would like to hear Obama say so and talk about it.
Comments (13)
Links to the articles you site would be great.
I won't just take your word that what the Washington Post article is unlikely to be true, and I can't check if I agree with you, because you don't link to it. Also, since you label those from the VOA and Human Rights Watch as "rumors," but it sounds more like they might be factual articles, I as a reader would like to check that out for myself.
If you paste the urls (web address highlighted and then copied from your browser address bar) into a comment on this thread, they will post as live links.
February 19, 2008 6:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
And, the point is?
Before the violence started (and Odinga did NOT do nearly enough to calm things...but neither did Kibaki who had, at least the tools of goverment at his disposal but basically disappeared from public view as the killings commenced) Odinga was a widely popular politician ACROSS tribal and ethnic lines. MANY tribes were supporting him. Except the Kikuyus, who have been the beneficiaries of the lion's share of Kenyas political and economic spoils since independence.
That is the very issue that gave Odinga wide, grassroots support.
As for the Memorandum of Understanding:
1st: Since when is VOA a reliable source of news about Africa? Asia? Latin America? It's the "Public Diplomacy" arm of the (currently very politicized) State Department. Its mandate is to broadcast the "American Story" abroad. One look at its site and you will soon see that ALL of its Kenya reporting is coming out of Washington, DC, written by the State Department--not out of Kenya or Africa.
2nd: Odinga is Anglican, not Muslim.
3rd: Muslims are only about 10% of the population in Kenya. While there are probably fundamentalists among that 10%, MOSTLY the brand of Sunni Islam followed in Kenya is moderate.
4th: If you look at any of the pan-AFRICAN news sites which collect news from various African sources you will see a lot of hysterical reporting on this Memorandum of Understanding--ALL of it from the CATHOLIC Information News Service out of Nairobi. Consider this source in light of the current Pope's Islamophobia and the fundamentalist tendencies of Africa's Christian churches--both protestant and Catholic. None of these frantic "articles" are actually "signed" news pieces. And, after the first few datelines, the hysteria quotient drops significantly.
5th: The actual MOU was that Muslim Leaders would get out the Muslim vote in exchange for a pledge from Odinga that Muslim rights would be protected--NOT that he would assist or condone the institution of Sharia. While later CAtholic News Service stories more or less admit that this is the content of the MOU, they still "report" outrage by Catholic and Evangelical clergy who clearly feel that "protection" of Muslim rights is discriminatory against Christians.
6th: Secular news services out of Africa report the circulation on the internet of a "fake" memorandum of understanding that BOTH Odinga's party AND the Muslim Group that endorsed his candidacy disowned.
RE: Obama and Odinga specifically, The BBC reported a few months ago that Odinga claims Obama is a cousin....
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7176683.stm
For African news reported FROM AFRICA rather than from a State Department Cubical:
http://allafrica.com/search/search.html?client=pub-2420009840005975&forid=1&channel=4429531626&ie=ISO-8859-1&oe=ISO-8859-1&cof=GALT%3A%23008000%3BGL%3A1%3BDIV%3A%23336699%3BVLC%3A663399%3BAH%3Acenter%3BBGC%3AFFFFFF%3BLBGC%3A336699%3BALC%3A0000FF%3BLC%3A0000FF%3BT%3A000000%3BGFNT%3A0000FF%3BGIMP%3A0000FF%3BFORID%3A11&hl=en&lr=lang_en&sitesearch=allafrica.com&domains=allafrica.com&q=odinga+muslims
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7115387.stm
February 19, 2008 10:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Pointless drivel aimed at creating suspicion where there is none. Rumor without substantiation is what gives blogs a bad rep. Why would Obama have to legitimize rumors?
February 20, 2008 12:16 AM | Reply | Permalink
Haipothetical,
Even better...I responded to this post and provided links to refute these rather bizarrely pointless insinuations....and my post did not make it past the blogger's "review."
February 20, 2008 2:22 AM | Reply | Permalink
Odinga is Anglican, not muslim.
He says he is related to Obama's father's family.
Odinga, according to international election observers probably DID win an election...there was a lot of documented fraud. He had broad-based, cross-tribal, inter-ethnic and interfaith support.
The "memo of understanding" granted protection of Muslim rights, not the imposition of Sharia.
The Catholic News Service in Nairobi posted a series of hysterical "news" releases about this--their point seemed to be that protecting the rights of Kenya's 10% Muslim minority (mostly moderate Sunni) somehow was discrimination against Kenya's Catholics and Evangelical Christians. (African Catholic and Evangelical Clergy are even more rabidly Islamo-phobic than Pope Benedict and US evangelicals) There was a FAKE MOU circulating on the web re: Sharia--but Odinga and the Muslim Group disowned it categorically.
February 20, 2008 2:32 AM | Reply | Permalink
RE: the allegations or insinuations or whatever they are in this blogpost.
Check out the BBC or the All Africa News websites. Use "Odinga" and "Muslims" as search terms. Just for starters....I didn't even bother to look up details about a coup 26 years ago. The key players in that coup were the last people executed for political reasons in Kenya...somehow, 6 months in stir for Odinga and a political career that began n 1988 as a member of Moi's party doesn't add up to his being a key player.
Unlike VOA, which is churned out by some State Department "communications" person in a Washington, DC Cubicle in the name of "public diplomacy," the BBC and All Africa have actual REPORTING...and from AFRICA...by AFRICAN reporters, of all things.
February 20, 2008 2:54 AM | Reply | Permalink
"The "memo of understanding" granted protection of Muslim rights, not the imposition of Sharia."
Please do your homework.
RED FLAG
http://eakenya.org/pa/
The Evangelical Alliance of Kenya (EAK) is the national Umbrella organization for evangelical churches in Kenya. It was established in 1975 as Evangelical Fellowship of Kenya under the auspices of the Association of Evangelicals in Africa and Madagascar (AEAM) which has since its name to association of Evangelicals in Africa.
From the Evangelical Alliance of Kenya (EAK):
http://www.eakenya.org/AAEAKUpdate/RAILA_MUSLIM_MOU.pdf
MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING BETWEEN HON. RAILA AMOLO ODINGA REPRESENTING HE ORANGE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT (ODM) AND NATIONAL MUSLIM LEADERS FORUM (NAMLEF)
Sister Rosetta here:
Please pay close attention to (v) b)
“Within six months rewrite the Constitution of Kenya to recognize sharia as the only true law sanctioned by the Holy Quran for Muslim declared regions.”
February 20, 2008 7:40 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thank you all for responding. Terry in Chicago seems most knowledgeable, and effectively is saying that all my fears about Obama and his relationship with Raila Odinga are well explained. I appreciate that. If you read what I wrote, I was not posting "insinuations or allegations." I was very clear that I was presenting "rumors" about Odinga. I was hoping someone would post answers concerning them. You did. Thank you.
I'm not sure I understand Sister Rosetta's post, however. The eakenya.org PDF presented is scary. Is this the "Fake MOU" that Terry in Chicago refers to? I would hope so.
February 20, 2008 1:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't think Odinga from Kenya is the biggest problem facing this country right now.
In fact, I've a wierd feeling somehow that as a country we will survie the "Odinga factor"
Please stop these politcs of fear. It's exhausting.
February 20, 2008 3:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ah, here we go. There's a rumor that Obama may or may not be contacting the Kenyan opposition leader, who may or may not be a Muslim and may or may not have won an election that was either fair or unfair, and may or may not have been involved in a coup attempt against Daniel Arap Moi, who either was or was not a terrible leader.
The content of these phone calls, if they happened, is a total mystery. Whether Obama (if he talks to the opposition leader at all) agrees with all of the opposition leader's past and current actions and affiliations (if any of the rumors are true) is, alas, a total mystery.
This is the lowest form of political commentary, smear by rumored association, surrounded in question marks that allow the smearer to point to and say, hey, I didn't say he was a wife beater, I just think he should clarify!
This is really a despicable post. Josh Marshall, if he cares about his good reputation, should purge his site of slime like this.
February 20, 2008 4:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20071218/30541_Concerns_Raised_Over_Alleged_Vow_to_Enforce_Islamic_Law_in_Kenya.htm
Concerns Raised Over Alleged Vow to Enforce Islamic Law in Kenya
By Daniel Blake
Christian Post Correspondent
Tue, Dec. 18 2007 08:41 AM ET
“A memorandum of understanding (MOU) – signed on Aug. 29 by Sheikh Abdullahi Abdi, chairman of the National Leaders Forum (Namlef), and Odinga, presidential candidate from the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) – was made public on Nov. 27.
According to International Christian Concern (ICC), however, there are in fact two versions of the MOU. The persecution watchdog group claims that Abdi and Odinga signed a private MOU which is very different from the one presented to the public.
In the secret version of the MOU, Odinga allegedly states his intention to, ”within six months, rewrite the Constitution of Kenya to recognize Sharia as the only true law sanctioned by the Holy Quran for Muslim declared regions” if elected, according to ICC.”
“In response to the revelations, the Evangelical Alliance of Kenya released a statement in which church leaders said Raila, in both MOUs, “comes across as a presumptive Muslim president bent on forcing Islamic law, religion and culture down the throats of the Kenyan people in total disregard of the Constitutionally guaranteed rights of freedom of worship and equal protection of the law for all Kenyans.”
The chairman of the Evangelical Alliance of Kenya, the Rev. Dr. Wellington Mutiso told ICC: ”Kenya should continue to be a secular state. Christians want a level playing ground where [Christians and Muslims] are treated equally.”
”We (Kenyan Christians) are opposed to any move at favoring a particular religious group by political parties,” he added.
Similarly, the ICC regional manager for Africa, Darara Gubo, said the agreement made with Muslim leaders “undermines the secular nature of Kenya and opens a Pandora’s box of chaos and conflict similar to what happened in Nigeria and Sudan.”
”This is not a stand-alone incident; rather, it is part of strategy to Islamize Eastern Africa and the Horn of Africa, through the introduction of Sharia law,” Gubo stated.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwbtbfAnI80
I Walk Alone - Tarja Turunen
February 20, 2008 11:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
The one thing I am amazed about is that we have had people responding who have a "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" attitude, saying this thread is a smear campaign against Barack Obama. I think these folks are doing Obama a disservice.
President Bush just came out in favor of Raila Odinga. Odinga is big news, no matter where the thread starts. Learning about him is important with no regard to where any of us stands concerning American political issues. He is likely to take over one of Africa's more successful countries. If he is about to turn it into a repressive fundamentalist state, I want to know about it. If he intends to keep it a free democratic state, I want to know about that too. To say you don't want to discuss it because he came to my attention via Barack Obama's uncle is like saying you don't want to know about rocket science because it came to your attention from the work of Hitler's scientists. (And please don't start now accusing me of comparing Obama to Hitler. I said nothing of the sort. That is not my intent. But I'll bet the blind "see no evil" responders will do that anyway; that's the way some people are. Amazing.)
February 24, 2008 2:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
Clinton has now taken Kentucky … Nevertheless, Montana, South Dakota and Puerto Rico are still to come.
The Democratic race for nomination is still very much alive and most likely to be decided by superdelegates If you haven't done so yet, please write a message to each of your state's superdelegates at http://www.lobbydelegates.com
If you’re tired of waiting around for those super delegates to make a decision already, go to LobbyDelegates.com and push them to support either Clinton or Obama
May 27, 2008 4:15 AM | Reply | Permalink
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