Posted on 02/15/2005 6:52:11 PM PST by Pikamax
President goes to bed as Kenya declines By Adrian Blomfield in Nairobi (Filed: 16/02/2005)
President Mwai Kibaki of Kenya is said to have taken to his bed in despair, finding solace, according to a cabinet colleague, "only in the works of P G Wodehouse".
His choice of author is telling. Mr Kibaki's two wives, when not bickering with each other, dictate the president's schedule and often lock out those who might offer him wiser counsel. Their resemblance to many a Wodehouse aunt may strike a chord with the increasingly doddery septuagenarian leader.
Facing the biggest political crisis of his two-year premiership, Mr Kibaki is much in need of wise counsel. But his most sensible and perhaps only honest adviser, the anti-corruption chief John Githongo, resigned last week in protest at the president's failure to tackle rampant corruption inside his cabinet.
Mr Githongo fled to London, fearing for his life.
Western donors are furious. Britain's high commissioner to Kenya, Sir Edward Clay, has led the international condemnation, denouncing the venality of the president's cabinet colleagues.
When Mr Kibaki came to power after elections in December 2002 that ended 39 years of unbroken rule by Daniel arap Moi, much was expected and much promised by a new regime that said it would not tolerate corruption.
Things seemed to go well initially. Even Kenya's notorious police force stopped shaking down motorists for money for a while.
But a new elite from the president's Kikuyu tribe, Kenya's largest, began to emerge in the cabinet. Irate at having been shut out by Mr Moi's Kalenjin tribe during the 24 years he was in power, the "Mount Kenya Mafia" set out to make amends.
"Those Kalenjins were so stupid they did not even know how to steal properly," lamented one Kikuyu MP. "We are far more efficient at being corrupt."
According to western diplomats, Kenya has lost more than £500 million through corruption since Mr Kibaki came to power - nearly half the government's annual budget.
Meanwhile Kenya is rapidly becoming a hub for international crime. The Russian mafia has arrived, bringing with it a coterie of stern-faced eastern European prostitutes.
Drug barons have moved in too, giving Mr Kibaki yet more cause for retiring to his bed.
I think what the poor man needs is more wives. With only two, one is obviously a liberal and the other is probably a conservative. I think he needs a tie breaker...
Just stay in your dirt-nation and don't emigrate to the USA - we've already got enough problems with your ideological compatriots.
He should just marry every girl he comes into contact with
What would Jeeves do?
Another corrupt African cesspool nation. What a surprise. The UN will of course be demanding more contributions from the bank (= USA). Feh.
Stern-faced? Even the prostitutes are dysfunctional. These poor sots can't buy a break.
"...finding solace, according to a cabinet colleague, "only in the works of P G Wodehouse".
This is probably not funny at all; but I must say, this is not the first person I've heard of to reach this extreme state of mind. The other person, I might add, wasn't running a country. Or even a small town.
That Wodehouse, he's got something. I'll have to make another try at finding it one day.
Perhaps, if my life falls apart totally, and I crawl as promised under the bed with the whiskey bottle; God will grant me the ability to remember to BRING BERTIE & JEEVES ALONG for the slog.
I was curious about that myself - what's wrong with the local talent that requires that level of imports?
D
IIRC, from a Bogart movie, Sahara maybe, the black African said four was the magic number.
That was a great movie and I love it...four is the magic number if you are Muslim...which I assume is the case with the poor president in question.
Great film. Absolutely great film.
I say, Tuppy, stuck in the old proverbial wicket that is sticky, eh what?
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