Odinga gives great speech; Many Kenyans miss out

Kenyan Prime Minister, His Excellency Raila Odinga ( purple shirt) waves to Kenyans as he emerges from a building at Harvard University sandwiched by security personel on Thursday last week after addressing a forum on how to make democracy work in Africa. Odinga was in the US to attend the UN conference that just concluded. H.Maina/Ajabu

Story by Harrison Maina

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. SEPTEMBER 29_ Kenyan Prime Minister, Mr. Raila Odinga addressed a forum at Harvard University yesterday that many Kenyans missed because the doors to the hall closed 15 minutes before the scheduled 6pm start due to filled capacity.

According to reliable sources on the ground, the forum was already full by 5.15 pm with about 98 percent in attendance being white folks.

The tough looking security personnel manning the doors were not in a mood to let up for the eager Kenyans, most of whom who started streaming into the area by about 6.00 pm.The education and the Permanent Secretary Prof. C. M. Kiamba, from the Ministry of Higher. Education, Science and Technology was among those who attended the high profile event

After loosing hope to access to the forum, the patriotic Kenyans resorted to hanging in the hallways and at the back entrance near their Prime Minister’s heavily guarded car hoping to at least get a glimpse of him as he came out.

Others turned the disappointment into a relaxation by walking to the nearby Harvard Square shops for coffee with friends.

The forum on “Making Democracy work in Africa” was hosted at the John F. Kennedy school of Government and was co-sponsored by the Center for International Development.

Raila Odinga, in the back right seat, and his daughter, smile seconds after being whisked into his limo by heavy security

According to an AjabuAfrica.com writer who followed the speech online, the prime minister gave an amazingly awesome speech.

“The prime minister was extremely eloquent and sounded like a real statesman,” said John Gachuki of Lowell, Massachusetts.  “I even saw a white American woman who said she has a business based in Kenya asking a question on how corruption can be dealt with to make business work better,” added Gachuki, who owns a tax preparation business in Lowell.

According to another Kenyan who managed to get into the forum hours before it started, Prof. Lisasa Opuka, Odinga told guests that Africa can not look at the shaky Kenyan form of coalition government as a good example of how democracy should function in Africa.

“Running the government in the current coalition status is a very tough balancing act”, Prof. Lisasa , a commerce   and math teacher at Roxburry Community College   quoted Odinga as having said.
 
As soon as the speech was over, the prime minister emerged from the rear door of the building sandwiched between burly Diplomatic Security Special agents.

Efforts by dozens of Kenyans who lay in wait to have Raila address them were thwarted by the security agents. All Raila could do was to wave to the Kenyans.

Seconds later, the prime minister and an unidentified dignitary were ushered into a waiting limo and took off, leaving disgruntled Kenyans hanging on the campus grounds for over another one hour, wondering what had just happened.

“This does not seem real. It happened so quickly and we had such high hopes of talking to our prime Minister,” said Ms. Nancy Nganga from Waltham.

AjabuAfrica.com will make an effort to obtain a transcript of the speech and upload it for our readers. Watch this space.

A section of disgruntled Kenyans who were waiting anxiously for their Prime Minister to address them hang around in the grounds at Harvard University, long after Odinga had left.

Other Top Ajabu News
Odinga gives great speech; Kenyans miss out   
 Watch video on the Odinga speech at Harvard here!
Another Kenyan Mother releases CD