Everyone thought Francis Oduor was dead. In fact the Kenyan international footballer had fled into the bush, walked four miles and gone into hiding after his house was torched. When he resurfaced, people were shocked and ashamed. “I was like the walking dead,” he said. “Everyone recoiled at the sight of me.”
It will be Obama’s first visit to the land of his father as US president and a far cry from a 1988 trip when his luggage got lost. He will be greeted by the stars and stripes flying all over the capital, Nairobi, and giant billboards and paintings bearing his face with slogans such as “Welcome home”. Last-minute beautification projects include the painting of street kerbs and planting offlowers and grass, while 10,000 police officers will protect the honoured guest.
Yet beneath the shiny surface lies a political minefield. Obama, ostensibly here to address the Global Entrepreneurship summit, will also meet some of Africa’s most divisive politicians in both Kenya and neighbouring Ethiopia. Human rights organisations are lining up to demand that, along with championing security alliances and economic development, he should raise hard questions about democracy and civil liberties.
Kenya’s president, Uhuru Kenyatta, was, at the time of his election in March 2013, facing trial at the international criminal court for his alleged role in the 2007-8 killings. The case has since been withdrawn owing to lack of evidence after prosecutors accused the Kenyan government of harassing and intimidating potential witnesses. Kenyatta’s deputy, William Ruto, is still awaiting trial at The Hague.
“The whole thing is a massive disappointment,” said Oduor, 42, who saw dozens of his fellow ethnic Luos mutilated and killed by mobs in Naivasha, north-west of Nairobi. “People suffered, people were killed, people were displaced, but nothing happened and the cause of justice has still not been served.
“Obama shouldn’t meet them because there are all these questions. It will be seen as an endorsement and he’ll be giving them a boost. He shouldn’t shake Ruto’s hand. Maybe he shouldn’t come at all.
