Kenyan inspired by Obama to join politics in Canada

By successfully running for the White House, President Barack Obama not only made history, but also inspired many who have since followed in his footsteps.
One such person is James Atebe who in 2008 was re-elected mayor of Mission in the province of British Columbia in western Canada for a second time.

He is much like President Obama who started from a humble background at the Illinois State Senate before having a shot at the White House.

“If a do a good job my citizens will tell me to move up the (political) ladder,” he said at the offices of the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) on Tuesday.

If this comes to pass, he would be eyeing a seat in the Provincial legislature.

Mr Atebe is in the country for holidays and will be visiting Ekerenyo Village in North Mugirango, the place where he was born and brought up. No matter how many miles he stays away from his ancestral home, Mr Atebe has fond memories of Kenya and the weather.

“When I arrive home, I would want to take off my shoes and walk bare feet in my mum’s farm,” he joked on Tuesday.

Mr Atebe went to Canada after his A-levels at Homa Bay School, to study for a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Calgary in 1984.

Here, Mr Atebe studied with Stephen Harper the man who is now the Prime Minister of Canada.

Masters degree

He later obtained a masters in urban planning from the University of Washington in the United States in 1990.

Two years later he returned to Canada where he launched his political career in 1999. His life, like those of his mother, Mrs Jerusa Nyakerario, and other siblings, always had a political angle.

Mr Atebe was first elected mayor of Mission in 2005 after serving two terms as councillor. He ran on a ticket of the New Democratic Party (NDP) that has a progressive social democratic philosophy.

In his first attempt at the councillor’s post in 1999, he recalls, he employed the campaign strategies he learnt from his father and former assistant minister Livingstone Atebe Marita.

In his recollections, he said: “I did borrow from Kenya campaign style. I did a lot of posters and placed adverts in newspapers.”

He also had a caravan that went from one neighbourhood to another. He had only been in Canada for six years at the time and was hardly known. But on the strength of his campaign, people came to know him more and more.

In due course, he was attracting large crowds. When the results came, he won by a large margin. He was re-elected in the subsequent election and in 2005, he ascended to the mayoral seat.

He retained the seat in the November 15, 2008 elections against his opponent, a 24-year-old who received less than 20 per cent.

Yet Mr Atebe owes everything to his motherland. “Kenya is known for expert leadership,” he said. “I have been privileged to be a leader in Canada, but I owe it to the education and upbringing in Kenya,” said Mr Atebe.

But unlike President Obama who endured open racial abuse during his campaign, Mr Atebe recalls that was not the case for him.

His election in a predominantly white society that had just 20 Africans was a manifestation that Canada as a society is mature culturally and politically. which he wants Kenya to emulate.

After experiencing first hand the post-election violence in 2008 — he had to be airlifted from his home in Kisii to Wilson Airport at the height of the chaos — he is emphatic that the NCIC has to unite Kenyans.

“That incident should never have happened It was disappointing,” he said.

NCIC chairman Mzalendo Kibunjia and commissioners Jane Kiano and Alice Nderitu could not hide their joy after receiving the man who has followed in the footsteps of President Obama.

Said Mr Kibunjia: “Mr Atebe is a good example of where we want to take this country.”