Kibaki, an Imposition of the West, Says Rawlings
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.
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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