The View from Kenya: Election Day USA

First, an important disclaimer: what follows is not a political statement. Mark and Nancy already have a Savior we love more than any American or world leader. The notes that follow will try hard to avoid anything that looks partisan. We understand that not all votes are counted and that the electoral college in the US has not even started its work.  We just thought you might be interested in how election day looks from Kenya. Some observations:

• First, the US Embassy has used the American election season as an opportunity to teach students and staff in Kenyan universities how American politics works. ANU had a representative from the American Embassy on campus last week to explain about the electoral college, about the relationship between state votes and the national vote, etc.
• Several ANU students and staff (but not the two of us, who were too lazy to get up at 4AM as the invitation would have required) accepted the Embassy invitation to watch the returns from the US Ambassador's residence.
• The fact that Barak Obama is half Kenyan has not played in Kenya quite the way most Americans would anticipate it would. Kenyans are VERY tribal. Barak Obama's father was a Luo, a minority tribe. Because of this, members of the Kikuyu tribe, especially, were not initially enthusiastic about Barak Obama's candidacy.
• Even so, as Senator Obama appeared to get closer and closer to winning the election, national pride began to overcome tribal loyalties. It may astonish or amuse you to know that tomorrow has been declared a national holiday by Moi Kibaki, our Kikuyu president, in honor of the victory of Barak Obama, a half-Luo American! Banks, government offices, classes and businesses will all be closed because of an event half a world away.
• Short excerpt from The Standard, a major newspaper in Kenya:  "Kenya’s Kogelo village (Senator Obama's family village) erupted in celebration after CNN projections showed Barack Obama to have won the hotly contested United States presidential elections, beating rival John McCain. After heeding Obama’s grandmother, Mama Sarah, not to celebrate until the elections were over, villagers in Kogelo, who had kept vigil as projected results indicated Obama was ahead of McCain in Florida by 52 to 48 electoral votes, burst into celebration. In Nairobi, residents sang, danced and did high-fives as traditional dancers enlivened the dawn with Dholuo songs and chants of Obama! in several parts of Kenya. 'We won! Victory is ours!' Nairobi residents shouted in the streets as the sun broke through the grey sky."
• The Luo's, most of whom live in the western part of Kenya, have ranged from enthusiastic to wildly enthusiastic. Thoughtful Luo's are quietly appreciative that it's possible for someone connected with their tribe to reach this level. Poor, uneducated Luos (understandably but very unrealistically) have declared on television that they see this as having PERSONL impact: more money, new jobs, gifts from America. (The Kenyan man in the cartoon at the left is asking Uncle Sam for new favors because of the projected president-elect.) This comes from the historic fact that, rightly or wrongly, the person who wins presidential elections in Kenya tends to make sure his immediate family and his tribe benefit directly from his time in office.
• Kenyan editorialists and television commentators have rebuked Kenya based on what they are observing in the US. "How is it," they ask, "that Barak Obama, a Luo, can be elected President of the United States, but could not be elected a Member of Parliament in Central Province (a stronghold of the Kikuyu who oppose the Luo)?" "How is it that America can have an orderly transition in power from one party to another, that Obama can ask McCain for his help and McCain can call Obama 'my president' when even the hint of a transition in power in Kenya can leave 1400 people dead (as it did in January)?" 

Again, we understand that the Kenyan euphoria is not shared by many, many faithful Nazarenes. Even so, just as a historic event connecting Kenya and the US, we thought you would be interested in what the American election looks like from Kenya.