Avoiding K’Ogelo ‘homeland’ good for Barack Obama

Besides President Uhuru Kenyatta, there are many people who have been waiting to host President Barack Obama during his visit Kenya.

Notable among these are the Siaya County government and the people of K’Ogelo — the birthplace of President Obama’s father — led by Mama Sara Obama.

For President Obama, the relationship with Kenya has always been a matter of multiple representations.

He has had to balance between the appropriate distance between filiations (the Kenya parentage from where he is born) and affiliation (the diplomatic relationship between Kenya and the United States).

In this particular visit, if he gets too “filiated”, the pressure of proximity may crush him, as he becomes mired in attachments.  If he veers too far away, the excess of distance can make him look aloof and perhaps condescending.

President Obama’s national and global campaign as an advocate of new possibilities has insisted that Kenyans can change the system of political patronage, cronyism and kleptocracy. This is a call that he makes as an insider himself.

ASSIGN A HOMELAND

President Obama and his staff can use his Kenyan parentage and presence of relatives in Kenya as a claim of a more authentic right to speak about more than just diplomatic matters— making a stronger case for reforms and advocated for the pursuit of democracy and human rights.

Yet during his visit, President Obama may have to deal with not just the threat of capture by the political interest, but more important, the quest by the various players to assign him a “homeland”.

In a country with a tradition of “homecoming” the US President shall have to demonstrate that the notion of ancestral land and which in Kenya seems too linked to the colonial idea of “homeland” is inconsistent with the human rights regime and inclusive citizenship.

This is because the “homeland” practices in Kenya presume some sort of naturalised claim to land. In that way, homelands are also presumed to be areas of ethnic homogeneity. 

This notion and practice has been a breeding place for creating categories of “insiders’ vs ‘outsiders” as evident in the politically instigated ethnic violence that reached highest levels in 2007/2008.

SITUATIONAL HOME

To avoid this mould of “homeland”, President Obama could learn from how the Chief Justice Willy Mutunga managed his “homecoming”.

Well aware of the expectations of residents of his local Kitui “homeland” that he would arrive there in his new trappings, he turned to one of the oldest informal settlements in Kenya for his “home coming”.

This was Korogocho slum located in Nairobi. In choosing Korogocho as his “situational home”, Dr Mutunga distanced himself from the ethnicised identities and its expectations.

He further sent a message that his appointment was about larger societal issues rather than a reward to his Akamba people.

In delinking his office from the ordinary ethnicised self, Dr Mutunga has been able to define both a cosmopolitan as well as issue-based physique. His reading is from the lenses of social justice.

This explains why whenever Dr Mutunga has been under attack from ruthless critics, his “home” has been the social justice movement.  It is a deliberate move of de-ethnicisation of public offices, which is pursued with rigour has potential of reversing the trend of ethicised patronage that characterise governance in Kenya and the postcolonial states at large.

IMPORTANT MESSAGE

In a county struggling to move beyond the colonial construct of the state, which is based on classify and rule, President Obama makes a major contribution by skipping K’Ogelo in trip.

Rather, he should visit a place like Garissa or meet the Moi University students who were victims of the senseless attack by the Al-Shabaab in April.

More still, he could embrace the entire Kenya as one diverse but indivisible nation and move ahead to declare all its parts as equal.

By snubbing K’Ogelo, he sends an important message that all parts of Kenya deserve freedom associated with socio-economic rights.

It does not matter whether they have an Obama, a Lupita or better still a president.

Such a move is a useful reversal from the current dominant notions and practices that prioritise and valorise homelands.

The writer is anthropologist and Executive Director Pamoja Trust. He can be reached at [email protected]