Obama blasts Kenya opposition leader Barack Obama
President Obama

President Obama

NAIROBI. — United States President Barack Obama yesterday took a swipe on one of the opposition leaders over double speak on various issues affecting Kenya. Obama, who ended his visit to Kenya, openly criticised the leader whom he did not name, saying the leader has been pressurising him to challenge the government, yet he had previously told the US to keep off Kenya.

“I met with some of the opposition leaders very briefly after the speech and I told them, you have a legally elected government and we gonna work with that government but we are also always going to be listening to all elements of the Kenyan society.

“It was funny though that one of those leaders I won’t mention who was saying you really need to press the Kenyan government on some issues. And I had to say to them I remember when you were in government, you kept on saying why are you trying to interfere with Kenyan business you should mind your own business . . . ” he said while meeting the civil society at Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) regional centre at Kenyatta Univer- sity.

He said there are people who want the US to be involved when they’re not in power but take a different position when they are in opposition.

“Everybody wants the United States to be very involved when they are not in power and when they are in power they want the United States to mind their own business,” he said.

The US president met key opposition leaders at the Safaricom Indoor Arena early yesterday afternoon after addressing Kenyans at the same venue.

He met ODM leader Raila Odinga and his co-principals Senator Moses Wetangula (Ford-Kenya), Kalonzo Musyoka (Wiper Democratic Movement) and Martha Karua of Narc Kenya.

The talks centred on the areas of governance, security and democracy.

Musyoka told Nation it was a very important meeting.

The opposition leaders are scheduled to address a Press conference today over the issue.

Meanwhile, Obama yesterday urged Kenyans to help end endemic corruption in a speech to the nation that also focused on the need for gender equality and national unity.

Corruption was tolerated across Kenyan society and seen as “a normal state of affairs”, Obama told 5 000 invited guests, who included representatives from civil society and schools, human rights activists and prominent media personal- ities.

“Corruption costs Kenyans 250 000 jobs every year because every shilling paid as a bribe could be put into a job,” Obama said to massive applause in Nairobi’s Safaricom Arena.

Kenya, which with 45 million citizens, is one of Africa’s most populous nations and ranks 145 out of 175 countries on the advocacy group Transparency International’s corruption index, in which the higher the number, the greater the graft.

“Here in Kenya, it’s time to change habits . . . because corruption is an anchor that holds you down,” Obama said.

“. . . It’s going to limit development of the country as a whole.”

Obama, however, stressed yesterday that Kenya was making major progress in other areas.

Growth of 6,5 percent in East Africa’s largest economy is expected this year. On the downside, economic growth isn’t shared broadly enough, Obama said.

Obama left Nairobi for Ethiopia yesterday after attending the sixth Global Entrepreneurship Summit.

In Ethiopia, Obama is scheduled to address an African Union summit in Addis Ababa, the first ever address by a sitting US president.

He is set to meet South Sudan peace negotiators and envoys of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development, an eight-country bloc tasked with development and environmental control in Eastern Africa. — Daily Nation/dpa.

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