Kenya’s P.M. Reminisces, Evokes Future During Atlanta Visit
By Mwakilishi | Fri, 04/27/2012 06:23PM -0400
Kenya’s prime minister, Raila Odinga, began his April 26 World Affairs Council luncheon address at the Ritz-Carlton Buckhead hotel reminiscing about how his father had beenarrested in Atlanta for attending a civil rights meeting.
Mr. Odinga’s father, Oginga Odinga, was a prominent figure in Kenya’s struggle for independence and became its first vice president.
In 1964, the year following Kenya’s independence from Britain, the senior Mr. Odinga visited the U.S. to present Kenya’s flag to the United Nations.
Following the U.N. visit, he came to Atlanta where he had been invited to meet with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and other members of the civil rights movement.
Atlanta police arrested and jailed all the participants during a sit-in including activists the Rev. Ralph Abernathy Jr. and Andrew Young.
When an alert went out that Kenya’s vice president “had gone missing,” Mr. Odinga recounted, his father was released from jail, but refused to leave until all of the other civil rights workers also were released.
The account drew applause from the 200 attendees at the luncheon.
Mr. Raila Odinga has had an important political career of his own and currently, according to political polls in Kenya, is the leading candidate in the East African country’s presidential election to be held next year.
He assumed his position as prime minister in 2008 following the presidential election of 2007 in a national unity coalition government. The hotly contested 2007 election erupted in violence resulting in more than 2,000 deaths and many displaced people.
Upon arriving for his visit this week, Mr. Odinga was shown the new international concourse at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, which, he said, confirmed his impression that Atlanta had changed markedly since earlier visits in 1995 and 2006.
By the time of the luncheon, he also had had time to meet with former U.S. ambassador to the U.N., mayor and U.S. representative, Mr. Young.
“Andy Young as you know is no longer very young,” he quipped concerning Mr. Young, who recently celebrated his 80th birthday, “but he’s still Andy Young.”
Beyond the example of the relationship that grew between Mr. Young and his father, he pointed to other personal ties binding Americans and Kenyans.
Thomas Mboya, a Kenyan independence activist, organized in 1959 with the “Airlift Africa” project with the African-American Students Foundation, which brought more than 80 Kenyans to study in U.S. universities. Mr. Mboya later persuaded then-Sen. John Kennedy to support the program and many more Kenyans eventually studied in the U.S. including President Obama’s father, Barrack Obama Sr.
Aside from the personal ties, Mr. Odinga referred to the extensive U.S. aid and assistance in the development of infrastructure, economic development and military aid for security purposes.
He reviewed Kenya’s Vision 30 development plan setting goals for it to become an industrialized, middle-income country through advances in its economy, social services and political system.
He specifically mentioned opportunities for foreign investment in infrastructure projects involving airports, roads and railways, communications systems, education, green energy and education.
“We want to open up the countryside,” he said, “with more investment going to the countryside.”
He also reviewed several of Kenya’s “mega projects,” including the development of a new port on the island of Lamu, a railroad that will join the Atlantic and Indian oceans and several energy projects ranging from expanding solar, wind and geothermal capacities to extensive oil pipelines and oil exploration.
Kenya’s government was in the process of organizing a major conference on the opportunities for foreign investment, he said, but hadn’t decided whether to host it in Frankfurt, Germany; London or New York as of yet.
Source: GlobalAtlanta.com
Mr. Odinga’s father, Oginga Odinga, was a prominent figure in Kenya’s struggle for independence and became its first vice president.
In 1964, the year following Kenya’s independence from Britain, the senior Mr. Odinga visited the U.S. to present Kenya’s flag to the United Nations.
Following the U.N. visit, he came to Atlanta where he had been invited to meet with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and other members of the civil rights movement.
Atlanta police arrested and jailed all the participants during a sit-in including activists the Rev. Ralph Abernathy Jr. and Andrew Young.
When an alert went out that Kenya’s vice president “had gone missing,” Mr. Odinga recounted, his father was released from jail, but refused to leave until all of the other civil rights workers also were released.
The account drew applause from the 200 attendees at the luncheon.
Mr. Raila Odinga has had an important political career of his own and currently, according to political polls in Kenya, is the leading candidate in the East African country’s presidential election to be held next year.
He assumed his position as prime minister in 2008 following the presidential election of 2007 in a national unity coalition government. The hotly contested 2007 election erupted in violence resulting in more than 2,000 deaths and many displaced people.
Upon arriving for his visit this week, Mr. Odinga was shown the new international concourse at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, which, he said, confirmed his impression that Atlanta had changed markedly since earlier visits in 1995 and 2006.
By the time of the luncheon, he also had had time to meet with former U.S. ambassador to the U.N., mayor and U.S. representative, Mr. Young.
“Andy Young as you know is no longer very young,” he quipped concerning Mr. Young, who recently celebrated his 80th birthday, “but he’s still Andy Young.”
Beyond the example of the relationship that grew between Mr. Young and his father, he pointed to other personal ties binding Americans and Kenyans.
Thomas Mboya, a Kenyan independence activist, organized in 1959 with the “Airlift Africa” project with the African-American Students Foundation, which brought more than 80 Kenyans to study in U.S. universities. Mr. Mboya later persuaded then-Sen. John Kennedy to support the program and many more Kenyans eventually studied in the U.S. including President Obama’s father, Barrack Obama Sr.
Aside from the personal ties, Mr. Odinga referred to the extensive U.S. aid and assistance in the development of infrastructure, economic development and military aid for security purposes.
He reviewed Kenya’s Vision 30 development plan setting goals for it to become an industrialized, middle-income country through advances in its economy, social services and political system.
He specifically mentioned opportunities for foreign investment in infrastructure projects involving airports, roads and railways, communications systems, education, green energy and education.
“We want to open up the countryside,” he said, “with more investment going to the countryside.”
He also reviewed several of Kenya’s “mega projects,” including the development of a new port on the island of Lamu, a railroad that will join the Atlantic and Indian oceans and several energy projects ranging from expanding solar, wind and geothermal capacities to extensive oil pipelines and oil exploration.
Kenya’s government was in the process of organizing a major conference on the opportunities for foreign investment, he said, but hadn’t decided whether to host it in Frankfurt, Germany; London or New York as of yet.
Source: GlobalAtlanta.com
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