Our country in the eyes of South Africa

By: James N. Kariuki
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[ Posted On: 2008-07-15 ]

Since the demise of apartheid, there has been a remarkable upsurge of interaction between Kenya and South Africa. Despite this rise in people-to-people contact, one depicts a lingering sense of "unease" at the governmental and the SA news media levels. Several instances come to mind.

For Kenya's post-violence negotiations between ODM and PNU, Dr Kofi Annan invited Mr Cyril Ramaphosa to be one of the facilitators.

Ramaphosa is a prominent businessman whose negotiation skills reached global fame for brokering the 1995 power transfer from apartheid to black rule. He is a smooth politician-turned-businessman rumoured to have been Mandela's favourite to succeed him as president.

PNU objected to Ramaphosa's inclusion in the negotiation team allegedly because he was involved in business deals with ODM members. Presumably, that disqualified him as a neutral facilitator in Kenya's tense negotiations.

Ramaphosa did not make much of an issue of his removal either in Kenya or upon his return to South Africa. But the South African Deputy Foreign minister, Aziz Pahad, did. !B>He told the press that the reason given for Ramaphosa's exclusion from the negotiations "should be treated with the contempt that it deserves."

Pahad's choice of words was unfortunate. Firstly, he did not inform the news media the reason for Ramaphosa's exclusion. Secondly, Ramaphosa had gone to Kenya in his private capacity, not as a government representative. Suddenly, a government official was speaking on his behalf. Finally, Pahad's remarks related to a sitting government, flawed as it may have been. Under those circumstances, it was uncalled for to use inflammatory language.

Ordinarily, Kenya does not feature much in SA news media. Yet, when SA's own xenophobic violence broke out last month, Kenya was frequently mentioned. Antagonists intimated that the Afrophobic violence was a lesson learned from Kenya's post-election nightmare. Politics of violence is hardly a flattering legacy to African history.

Subsequently, there were whispers that Kenya was being overdramatic for sending an aircraft to Johannesburg to repatriate its citizens. After all, Kenyans were not the primary targets of the SA's violence; Zimbabweans and Mozambicans were. Further, the media asked, was Kenya being precipitous for demanding compensation for its nationals victimised by the violence?

In the mid of these media sentiments, Raila Odinga recently visited SA for the World Economic Forum in Cape Town; he got astonishingly mixed media reviews. Some respected critics categorised him as particularly adept at saying the right things at the right time.

They agreed with his assertion that Africans needed to stop blaming colonialism to cover up mediocrity in their leadership. Not one known for pulling punches, Raila stated his views that the crisis in Zimbabwe is a clear-cut illustration of mediocrity in leadership; he intended to ask Mbeki to inform Robert Mugabe that his game was over.

On this point, the Kenya Prime Minister walked into a minefield. His reading of the Zimbabwe fiasco was discredited as superficial and naive, moulded as it was by the vested interests of international media. Raila did not fully understand the "hidden forces" behind the Zimbabwe nightmare. These forces are alarming to SA itself, where Mugabe is seen as fighting a war that is ultimately destined for SA itself. For black-ruled SA to attack Mugabe publicly would be tantamount to fratricide. Hence Thabo Mbeki's quiet diplomacy.

Some "seasoned observers" in Cape Town were disappointed by Raila's political tactics. They accused him of playing to the crowd of business people for empty applause. Additionally, they questioned his sincerity convinced, as they are, that he was responsible for Kenya's post-elections inter-tribal violence "when Kibaki stole the elections." In their view, even one life lost in the service of the ambitions of any politician is one life too many.

Overall, the message from the SA media was different from the positive energy emanating from Kenya. For example, Binyavanga Wainaina wrote a penetrating piece on Vision 2030 in one SA weekly. It articulated hope for the reconditioned country and urged Kenyans in the Diaspora, "this massive force of …people with world-class skills," to join the author in committing to build a kinder and gentler Kenya. Wainaina's pledge was directed at no other than Kenya's own Raila Odinga.

Article Source: http://www.afroarticles.com/article-dashboard

About The Author: James N. Kariuki - is head of the African Diaspora Unit at the Africa Institute of South Africa in Pretoria.

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