The U.S. ambassador in Nairobi, Mike Ranneberger, hosted a party yesterday to commemorate American Independence Day. It was not your typical July 4th barbecue.
On the lush lawns of the Spanish-style ambassadorial residence in Muthaiga -- the toniest neighborhood in town -- several hundred business-attired U.S. Embassy staff, foreign diplomats, Kenyan politicians and other dignitaries were assembled. Waiters distributed canapés and drinks, including bottles of Budweiser and Miller Genuine Draft. A well known local boys' choir performed. Members of the U.S. armed services presented the colors as perhaps Kenya's most prominent pop singer, the Berklee College-trained Eric Wainana, sang the Star-Spangled Banner and the Kenyan national anthem with equal grace.
Raila Odinga, the new prime minister, was a big hit, turning up in a stars-and-stripes tie (which I presume he got on his recent trip to Washington). But an even bigger star arrived a few moments later: Sarah Obama (right), the paternal step-grandmother of a certain U.S. Senator, who traveled a long way from her far western village but looked none the worse for wear. Raila once famously said that he and Barack Obama were cousins, but I couldn't get close enough to the two of them to hear whether Mama Sarah confirmed this.
Long before Barack Obama contended for the White House, the Kenya-U.S. relationship was tight -- and lucrative for the Kenyan government, which gets about $1 billion in U.S. government aid. In his remarks, Ranneberger stressed the strength of this relationship and praised Kenyans for forming a coalition government to end, or at least paper over, the election violence. He quoted several Swahili proverbs ("Every door has its own key," was the only one I understood), while Raila took to the stage and quoted Thomas Jefferson ("endowed by our Creator with inalienable rights"). It was quite the lovefest.
Still, I was reminded why journalists don't often get invited to these things. Greeters distributed lapel pins with crisscrossed U.S. and Kenyan flags, and my Embassy friends encouraged me to wear mine to "be part of the team." In the buffet line a woman who works for a certain international institution in Kenya thought I was with the Embassy. She got several minutes into an obscenity-laced tirade about the corruption in the Kenyan government and the unfolding saga over a Cabinet minister's secret sale of a major downtown hotel to Libyan developers. Finally I had to tell the woman that I was actually a reporter. That conversation was over.
Hay, at least one place where Emperor Bush hasn't completely ruined American's reputation.
No comments:
Post a Comment