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Kibaki, an Imposition of the
West, Says Rawlings
01.19.2008
Former Ghanaian President, Jerry Rawlings, has said that the
violence that erupted in Kenya over alleged rigging of the
election by the incumbent President, Mwai Kibaki, is a protest
against neo-colonialism and the imposition of leadership by the
West. According to him, Kenyans do not want to go through the same
kind of experience again hence their insistence on change.
Speaking to journalists yesterday at the Murtala Mohammed Airport
Lagos, Rawlings said: “Kenyans are demonstrating that enough is
enough in neo-colonialism. If we have done away with coup d’etat,
then let us preserve the integrity of the electoral process. And
if we cannot count on the integrity of the electoral process,
where do we go? This is happening in many countries in Africa,
including my own country.”
The former Ghanaian president said that the electoral process in
many African countries is so weak, which in turn weakens the
relationship between the African governments elected in such
doubtful electoral process.
“Since the collapse of the bi-polar power, I have always been
saying that the uni-polar power has been displaying some very
unethical and immoral political standard and that is a price they
(African leaders) had to pay. I keep repeating this.
It does not surprise me the way economic affairs are handled, it
is always as if we are living in the days of mercenary tendencies,”
Rawlings said.
It does not surprise me that a country like Venezuela should swing
180 degrees south of the US, when the Soviet Union has collapsed
because the economic philosophy has just swung to one extreme with
government just selling all national assets to themselves and to
their families. So where is this going to lead us to? It is going
to lead to arson. People are being violated and there is going to
be a reaction,” Rawling also said.
He remarked that if the African Command that United States is
proposing is going to complement the efforts of African forces let
it be established so that it would help to stop the situation in
Darfur, Sudan, but “if it is 21st century form of trying to
colonise the continent, then it is absolutely wrong and I think
African Union (AU) should have a position on this.
Also speaking to journalists, the former Ghanaian Minister of
Foreign Affairs, Victor Gbeho, who arrived at the airport with
Rawlings, said unless the electoral processes in Africa are
reviewed, the kind of crisis happening in Kenya would not end.
He said the crises in the African region were due to the failure
of electoral processes which are usurped by malpractices and urged
the AU to take wade into the political turmoil in Kenya by forming
a coalition and organising a re-run of the presidential elections
in that country.
"The Kenyan situation is regrettable, no African country is proud
of what is happening now especially now that we are trying to earn
an international reputaion as a democratic continent, what is
happening there is due to the fact that the electoral process has
failed and what they called rigging was put in place. Those who
are in the office in Kenya know that they did not win.
This is a challenge to the A.U, they should get involved and
organise a re-run election, otherwise the opposition party will
never agree, they are prepared to shed more blood", he said.
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