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Another angle on Kenya

Thursday, 3rd January 2008

There's an interesting angle on what's happening in Kenya here - an angle I haven't seen reported properly so far:

Odinga has managed to present himself as standing against Kikuyu domination not only for the Luo but in some cases for other tribes as well, and he has also made appeals to the single-minded Muslim minority. Whether that Muslim minority has been especially ferocious in its attacks is unknown to me. What is known to me is that this aspect of Odinga's intent, and possibly of the mob violence against the Kikuyu that Odinga has done nothing to curb and everything to encourage, has not been mentioned in any of the Western accounts that I have seen.

The site also points to an article from a pre-election issue of the African newspaper Christian Post, which is fascinating:

Raila Odinga, the current frontrunner in the upcoming presidential election in Kenya, has promised to implement strict Islamic Sharia law if he receives the Muslim vote in the predominantly Christian country and is elected president.
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.
Odinga is currently seen as the favorite for the election which takes place on Dec. 27.
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.”
...[T]he 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.

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Spencer de Vere

January 5th, 2008 4:45am

Here in Australia the Mainstream Media are ignoring what is happening in Kenya & Zimbabwe. The recent burning alive of dozens of people in a church at Eldoret in Kenya was not reported in primetime TV News broadcasts. However, these same media outlets will assail viewers with repeated reports of shooting incidents in the USA where a few people are killed. The latter fits with the mainstream media's view of the US as "the most violent society in the world".

robin vw Hasslbladt

January 5th, 2008 7:51pm

Odinga is not liked or trusted by vw muslims german east africa, kenya even if he promised the sharia law issue. Odinga is a supporter of Gay rights as a democrat. vw Muslims like vw kikuyus, because both dislike democrats for zer zexual liberal politics. Odd-inga has orchastrated a split in Rainbow coalision, and was responsible for racial attacks on vw Kikuyus without evidence of vwote rigging. It should be reported that way as obvious? But the western media is pro-david democrat so would rather report the angle of zee dangle zat offers gay-democrats doubt. This is the logic of vw cmapa, beetle drivers, Catholics, who while on safari are inspecting the accusation of cheeta's in the massai marra district.