Uhuru shakes a leg and jokes with Kenyans living in the US

Hearty laughter and giggles punctuated President Uhuru Kenyatta’s banter-laced speech to Kenyans living and working in the US on Wednesday night.

The President used a mixture of imagery, description and analogies to pass across his messages laden with excitement and disappointment in equal measure — depending on the questions asked by the audience.

While most of his symbolism required thought to decipher meanings, some were straight and direct that even the children — who set him dancing for several minutes — got the meaning without cracking their brains.

“Tukialikwatenatutarudi, tusipoalikwatukokwa Facebook (If we’re invited, we’ll return, if we’re not, we’re on Facebook),” he said at his first diaspora meeting in Washington, DC, since he took office last year.

Thunderous laughter that reverberated through the walls of the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel greeted the joke. The venue hosted 1,200 people who clapped and thirsted for more light-hearted moments.

There were fears that Mr Kenyatta would not be invited to attend the US-Africa Leaders Summit due to the case he is facing at the International Criminal Court. His trial for crimes against humanity allegedly committed during the 2007/08 post-election violence is expected to resume in October.

The Head of State said he enjoyed First Lady, Michelle Obama’s, soup and the music Mr Obama played for the over 40 African government leaders at the White House on Tuesday night.

“We have enjoyed our stay. I danced to Lionel Ritchie’s music as well as with your young ones,” he said.

He “wondered if Washington, DC, had boys” after two Kenyan-American girl dance groups from Elimu Tutoring and Training Centre in Baltimore, Maryland, entertained him.

While echoing Sudanese business magnet Mo Ibrahim’s criticism of Americans’ apparent ignorance about Africa, Mr Kenyatta said the Obama summit gave him a platform to let them know that “Kenya is a country and not a town in Africa”.

The majority of Americans scored slightly below 50 per cent in an informal survey by The Washington Post, which involved identifying African countries on a blank map of the continent.

Less than 50 per cent of the 40,000 respondents did not know where Kenya is located, according to the results published on Tuesday.

Like Ibrahim, who asked Americans to “use Google to learn about Africa” and seek trade like China, Mr Kenyatta said China understands the opportunities that are in Africa despite the much-hyped poverty, civil war and disease.

“China is not in Africa because there is nothing to do in their country.

“China is in Africa because it woke up to the reality of the opportunities in the continent long time ago,” he said, adding that he was glad America was following suit.

The President urged Kenyans living abroad to act as the link between the two continents, whose oft-frosty relationship has been thawed by Mr Obama’s bold step to host and talk business with the more than 40 African heads of State.

LINKS WITH CHINA

“We don’t have a big diaspora in China, so it is very difficult for us to say that Kenyans in China are going to take advantage of the great links that we have with the People’s Republic of China,” he said, the remarks partly explaining why Africa’s trade with the Red Dragon is lopsided in Beijing’s favour.

Kenya, for instance, exports goods worth Sh1 billion for every Sh40 billion merchandise it imports from the Asian tiger.

And while urging Kenyans not to fear coming back home due to rising cases of crime in Coast and North Eastern provinces, he said: “Everything is okay. Even here you can still be hit, weren’t you almost hit recently? …you can still be hit anywhere.” It was not immediately clear what incident Mr Kenyatta was referring to in DC.

Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph ole Lenku, who has been under fire for allegedly failing to arrest rising crime, was among the most sought-after people during an informal bonding session of the forum.

He gave talk show host Jeff Koinange a run for his money when it came to the number of people wishing to take selfies with them. Asked jokingly why crime is getting out of hand, Mr Lenku told an inquisitive cameraman: “Tukosawa, weewachatujienjoybwana.”

Mr Kenyatta was openly upset by hate speech on social media, which is threatening to get out of hand. He addressed the forum on the sticky issue after it emerged that some questions asked by the Kenyan diaspora were fraught with political and tribal vitriol.

“Sometimes when I look at my page, be it Facebook or Twitter account, and you see some of the comments that people make… degenerate into something that makes you wonder why went digital,” he said apparently pondering about his political pitch as a ‘digital leader’ in last year’s polls. “If we cannot use modern tools to fight primitive thinking, why insult each other? Why hate each other?”

Emphasizing that differences of opinion do not mean enmity, Mr Kenyatta left the crowd in stiches when he tapped into domestic violence, a common social problem in Kenya: “Do you know that little fight and scuffle that you have with your wife or husband sometimes makes life exciting? Can you imagine if you woke up every day and you agreed with everything your wife said, and your wife agreed with everything you said. Wouldn’t that be a boring life?”

His occasional loud murmurs as he skipped some questions due to time constraints also saw Kenyans splitting their sides with laughter.

“Uchumi… itaendelea kukua… Tourism? Nyinyi ndio tourists mkija kwa hoteli, kukaa kwa mahoteli,” he said, referring to the domestic tourism model that the government has adopted in the face of tourist drought after the US and Britain issued travel advisories.