Wikileaks: Ranneberger Funds Dissent among Kenyan Youths.

Viewing cable 12NAIROBI1885, Raneberger’s dalliance with the youths of Kenya.

The entire world has lately been taken aback and scandalized at that, by the recent revelations made by the controversial website Wikileaks owned by the Australian born Julliane Assange. The leaked diplomatic cables containing memos between the US ambassadors in different countries and their boss in the oval office, contain damning reports on what they really think about the governments and the leaders steering those government. There’s a school of thought out there, which holds that, the recent rape accusations put forward that led to his arrest and the warrants and deportation requests against Julliane Assange by the Swedish government are directly related to his activism in favor of transparent governments in the world. Several hackers have come forward in support of Assange and Wikileaks calling themselves “hacktivists”, where they are launching attacks to websites belonging to companies that followed the American government’s directive to stop any dealings with Wikileaks. Others have mirrored the Wikileaks sites to a myriad other servers in the world after the Wikileaks website was shut down, in order to provide the public with an opportunity to view the leaked cables which has caused a media frenzy and placed the American government in a very embarrassing position.
But having said that, what really interests me and is the focus of discussion in this blog, is the memos that were meant for Barrack Obama on what the American Ambassador, Michael Ranneberger thinks of Kenya and our leaders, especially the two principals leading the coalition government. According to the leaked cables, Ranneberger candidly states that, the slow pace of reforms in Kenya enshrined in the new constitution and the National Accord agreement ratified by the two principals after the infamous post election violence in Kenya, are because the two i.e. president Mwai Kibaki and Right Hon. PM, Raila Odinga, are actually beneficiaries of the past impunity in Kenya. The two have been unable or unwilling, to rally their troupes behind the idea of setting up a local tribunal to try the perpetrators of the 2007 post poll chaos, and instead they have decided to approach the whole issue with a wait-and-see attitude while Ocampo and his team are busy preparing evidence against the six individuals bearing the greatest responsibility for the chaos.

These memos really ticked the two principals to an extent that during Jamuhuri Day, which is supposed to be a celebrated national holiday day and the first one in the new constitution, was reduced to a bashing affair for the American ambassador. It appears the poor ambassador knew he’s no longer in good books (not that he was before anyway) with the two, and decided to skip the celebrations. The two are accusing Ranneberger of funding youth groups in different parts of the country with an aim of destabilizing or overthrowing this government. The Ambassador, who has achieved a fete, probably none of the two has before, has been knighted as an elder in almost all the communities he’s visited in Kenya for his good works.
My take on this might as well be controversial, but I’ll play the devil’s advocate here if sanity has the slightest chance of being restored. What Raneberger has realized and any other Kenyan with an average IQ should, is that, our leaders, or politicians, thrive on our ignorance, which more often than not is caused by poverty. I don’t need to take you through what poverty can do to a nation’s psyche, because that would suffice as a complete post for my blog. But just to delve a little bit deeper, poverty denies one dignity and self-esteem. It sucks the entire moral out of you and denies you alternatives in life by reducing your options to a bare minimum. For instance, if your child is sick and you are a parent , you’ll either go borrow money (hoping that you are not indebted already to all the neighbors around), go steal the money (a more desperate measure) or you just hope and pray that your child will overcome the disease and come out alive (in most cases it doesn’t work).

When people’s stomach are filled with just enough food, they are able to worry about things like the environment and why it should be kept clean, the quality of service they’re entitled to from the government etc. In other words, poverty is like the ozone layer which encapsulates the earth and prevents it from breathing in fresh air. The reason as to why western governments and other economic power house that embrace true democracy are kept on toss by their subjects is simply because, people there don’t play politics of stomach and 2 kg sugar during elections. Americans overwhelmingly voted for Barrack Obama in a Democratic ticket but already he is feeling the pressure as all Americans including those who voted for him, are demanding for more from his government in terms of job creation which were really hit by the recent global economic crunch; They want taxes for the lower income earners reduced tremendously and a myriad of other demands .Gordon Brown, despite his impeccable economic track record as the Chancellor of the exchequer, was also bundled out of the Labor Party reigns and the No.10 Downing Street, simply because his policies were not in sync with that of the ordinary Joe in London. Now, for a country to make such demands, it needs people who are sober, focused and not the kind that worries every single day that dawn, where their next meal is going to come from. I strongly believe Ranneberger’s intentions are in good faith, because we’ve haven’t had cases where he bought firearms for any group nor encouraged them directly to fight the government. What he is simply doing is to empower the youth, by telling them that there’s hope for them and that the future belongs to them and not the octogenarians who have clang to power for decades with power being handed down from generation to generation while other Kenyans are reduced to perennial voters.