Obama's Inauguration

In the days leading up to the Inauguration, the different Kenyan news channels would feature at least 10 minutes of Barack Obama stories each night. In some ways, I think Kenyans are more informed about American politics than most Americans.

Yesterday walking around Kisumu you could feel the energy in the air. The city of Kisumu had made elaborate plans for an Inauguration party at the Jomo Kenyatta Sports Grounds, a large open area with a stage, near the center of town.

When I arrived at work, the secretary was wearing a skirt made out of the Obama leso I bought for her while I was in Mombasa. A leso/kanga is a large piece of material that is often colorfully decorated and features a Swahili quotation in a text box. "A leso/kanga can be a declaration of love, a flirtation, an insult, a riddle, a political slogan, a famous proverb and many other things" (Leso/Kanga) The Obama leso I bought for the secretary featured three faces of Obama in the center and instead of the usual Swahili quotation, it featured the campaign slogan of "Yes We Can." One of my other co-workers was wearing an Obama t-shirt so the three of us took a picture together.

After work I met up with a few of the other students from my program. We decided to go to the Sports Grounds to check out the festivities. When we starting getting cloer to the Sports Grounds, we saw dozens of people selling everything Obama and America. Small American flags, Obama shirts, and much more were being sold but my personal favorites were the American flag-patterned shoes. By the time we got there, there were already hundreds of people gathered. One of the newspapers sponsored several projection screens that were erected to show the Inauguration speech. Right when we arrived at the Sports Grounds, the Kisumu version of Barack Obama arrived. There had been talks in the days before the Inauguration that this Kisumu version of Obama would be escorted through town by a caravan of motorcycles and bicycles (both common forms of transport in Kisumu). The Kisumu Obama gave a speech to the crowd frequently mentioning the terms "change" and "yes we can." One of the events that was held earlier in the day was a contest of who could best imitate Obama. The winner received 50,000 KSH (approx $641).

We didn't stay very long among the huge crowd of people because as a group of 6 white people, we attracted a lot of attention. A lot of the street kids (many of them carrying their bottles of glue that they sniff in order to get a high) kept coming up to us asking for money and they were much more aggressive than they usually are. We took a few pictures but had to be very vigilant of our cameras and other valuables. We decided to watch the festivities for awhile from the safe vantage point of the upstairs bar/restaurant at the Sports Grounds. At one point some people lit some things on fire and were swinging the fire around on chains. People thankfully didn't seem to be supporting that and the crowd dispersed quickly from those people. From where we were sitting on the rooftop bar/restaurant, we couldn't see the projection screens so we decided to go across the street to the Imperial Hotel where there would be a much calmer and organized group of people watching the events.

We ended up watching everything in the 5th floor bar/restaurant with a lot of other white people. It was funny to see when we walked in because there was such a segregation of white and black. Down on the street level, thousands of people had gathered in the Sports Grounds and there on the 5th floor of the nicest hotel in Kisumu, two dozen white people (we students included) gathered together in a nice bar/restaurant to watch the events on a flat screen TV. The 5th floor bar/restaurant was supposed to be for hotel residents only but I'm pretty sure that just because the six of us were white we were not questioned when we walked in the hotel. I am sure that if six Kenyans tried to watch the events at the same place, their motives would be questioned.

Watching the Inauguration while in Kenya was certainly a unique experience. The one (white) girl we were with had come to Kenya a few years ago, met a Kenyan man and has since married him and moved to Kisumu. As we watched, she explained a lot of the symbolism of the ceremony to her husband.

Listening to Obama's Inauguration speech was also interesting from the Kenyan perspective. People all over the city of Kisumu erupted when Obama said "to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and we are ready to lead once more."

People also erupted into jubilant cheers when he said: "To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds" Kenya as a country is currently facing a horrible food shortage. Because of the post-election violence, crops were destroyed and even worse some crops were unable to be planted for months. So even a year after the horrible events of the post-election violence, Kenyans are still suffering from the repercussions. There is also widespread corruption on the parts of the millers and different government ministries. Today over 10 million Kenyans face starvation with that number increasing daily because the country is in the middle of the dry season. The rains will not come until mid-March and until then the fields are dry, barren and dusty. Even in Kisumu, food prices have doubled and there are very limited vegetables one can buy - if they can afford them.

Immediately after the conclusion of the Inauguration speech the band in the Sports Grounds resumed playing and the entire crowd started dancing. We decided to join the crowd for a little while. Almost immediately after walking into the Sports Grounds we attracted a lot of attention with a lot of the men asking the girls if they wanted to "make the next Obama." One girl caught two people trying to go through her bag and I felt people going through my pockets. A security guard in a suit found us and stood by us making sure no one came too close to us. We all felt pretty uncomfortable so we left.

All in all, it was a very interesting evening. The Kenyan news channels replayed the Inauguration speech all night. Commentators during the Inauguration coverage remarked a few times that the whole world was watching. In many ways that statement is incredibly true. People all over the world found a television or radio to listen to the events of the Inauguration knowing that the change in leadership of the United States could directly impact their lives. From the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to the Israelis and Palestinians holding on to a fragile cease fire, to the soldiers fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan - the world is truly affected by the actions of the United States.

In a city in the middle of Western Kenya on the coast of Lake Victoria, among thousands of very happy Kenyans, I watched Barack Obama become the 44th President of the United States of America.