Will Kenyans Prove Me Right?

Kenya is not like Uganda where one can perpetuate himself in power by deleting a constitution and by manipulating “institutions” like one does to children with tantalizing sweets.

(UGANDA) - Right now, I am following the voting process in Kenya live from NTV.

Photos: operationworld.org

I can’t help but be nostalgic of the unprecedented huge voter turnout in Ethiopia during the 2005 election whose result was blatantly turned upside down by the incumbent, Meles Zenawi who passed away recently without atoning for that and other unspeakable crimes.

Back to Kenya. Kenya might have its own problems and black spots like the one witnessed during the 2007-08 election. Yet, my hunch tells me that Kenyans have moved on and learned from that terrible mistake.

Like I said before, Kenya is not like Uganda where one can perpetuate himself in power by deleting a constitution and by manipulating “institutions” like one does to children with tantalizing sweets.

Also Kenya is not like Ethiopia where the public is subjected, worse than the North Koreans, to pay homage to a dead dictator forever.

By collating these bleak situations from their immediate northern and southern neighbors with the ample space they enjoy in their country, I hope Kenyans will prove to us that they’re the beacon of hope in this otherwise doomed region.

Will they prove me right or disappoint me as dead wrong?

An Ethiopian social & political commentator exiled in Uganda

Kiflu Hussain is an attorney based in Uganda. He says his passion for writing came from reading, and that it’s inevitable that the more one reads, the more one develops the urge to write. Kiflu has published articles in Ethiopia on the English Reporter, then a weekly newspaper along with a few Amharic articles on the defunct Addis Zena. It was after he and his family found refuge in Uganda, that he began contributing writings to the local papers and various websites such as Daily Monitor, Uganda Record, The New Vision, Ethioquestnews, Garowe Online, WardheerNews etc.

The reason for this is clear. Ethiopia, despite being a seat of the African Union had never produced a regime that allows even the minimum space for dialogue that other people in Africa enjoy so naturally. So Kiflu's ending up as a refugee in Uganda is a blessing in disguise for it accorded him with the opportunity to write. He says at the same time he learned, unfortunately, that his refugee status would be what showed how deep the hypocrisy of the “international community” goes. We at Salem-News.com are honored to carry this gentleman's work and we hope that in the process, western people may come to appreciate the struggle of refugees throughout the world.

You can write to Kiflu at this address: E-mail;kiflukam@yahoo.com