Barack Obama

Obama Urges Kenyans to Get Tough on Corruption

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

New York Times

NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug. 28 - Barack Obama strode into a packed auditorium in Nairobi on Monday and attacked an issue that notoriously bedevils Kenyan society: corruption.

He urged people to reject "the insulting idea that corruption is somehow part of Kenyan culture" and "to stand up and speak out against injustices."

This was Day 5 of his Kenya tour, and at each stop, each speech that he gives, the crowds only grow.

It is an unusual reception for an unusual trip for a Democratic freshman senator from Illinois to be making, but it seems that Mr. Obama, whose father was Kenyan, is using all the rapturous attention to spotlight serious issues that are too often ignored in Africa.

The Kenyans are loving it.

On Friday, thousands of students at the University of Nairobi in halter tops, Che Guevara T-shirts, blue jeans and three-piece suits, pressed up against barricades to watch Mr. Obama and his entourage walk through the door.

During a nationally televised speech at the campus, students and faculty clapped in all the right places and laughed at most of Mr. Obama's jokes. For a second, it seemed as if Mr. Obama were back at the Democratic National Convention in Boston in 2004, when he gave such a rousing pep talk that people started mentioning the p-word with his name.

Everywhere he has gone so far in Kenya - fancy hotels, rusted-roof slums, his father's home village, an AIDS clinic where he and his wife were tested Saturday - questions have trailed him about whether he is running for president. Mr. Obama always politely defers, saying he is happy to be a senator.

During his speech on Monday, he laid out a tough prescription for Africa's ills, calling for government cutbacks, more openness and less ethnic politics.

Kenya is one of the more developed countries in sub-Saharan Africa and one of the closest to the West, but it is consistently ranked by international organizations as one of the most corrupt. Mr. Obama said this corroded its ability to attract investment, fight terrorism and provide security for its own people.

Most of all, he told Kenyans to stop complaining about the injustices of the colonial past and to accept responsibility. "It's more than just history and outside influence that explain why Kenya is lagging behind," he said.

He ended by telling the crowd, "I want you all to know that as your ally, your friend and your brother, I will be there in every way I can."

Many in the audience left in high spirits.

"He's inspiring," said Miriam Musonye, a literature professor. "He really seems to believe what he says."