Senator rebukes Kenya's corruption

NAIROBI, Kenya -- Sen. Barack Obama delivered a lecture on Monday against graft and patronage hiring, ethnic-bloc voting that does not yield the best and brightest government leaders, and political families who hoard the spoils of power.

But his focus was not the scandals surrounding Chicago's City Hall or public corruption probes in Springfield. Or the political tribes of Madigan, Stroger, Hynes and Daley.

Rather, at the University of Nairobi in a speech televised live, Obama used the platform he has as the wildly popular son of a Kenyan to tell this nation their freedom is jeopardized by public corruption.

"My own city of Chicago, Ill., has been the home of some of the most corrupt local politics in American history over the years,'' Obama said, "from patronage machines to questionable elections.''

While government corruption is a "problem" in the United States, it is not at the epidemic levels it is in Kenya, Obama said. "Here in Kenya, there is a crisis -- a crisis that's robbing an honest people of the opportunities they fought for.''

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki ran on an anti-graft platform in 2002 but the government still has an international reputation as corrupt.

Obama did not mention Kibaki by name in his speech, but raised concerns about Kenya's slow walk to a transparent and open government when they met last Friday.

In a nation where ethnic identity is defining for many, Obama -- a Luo -- said "ethnic-based politics has to stop.''

It was reminiscent of his 2004 Democratic Convention speech where he urged the United States not to be divided between red (Republican) and blue (Democratic) states.

Kenyans vote along tribal lines; the winners, from the more populous groups, hand out patronage to their own.

"I have to tell you, that as someone who lives outside of Kenya, the notion that at this stage in the nation's development there would still be politics primarily based on arguments between Luo, Kikuyu, Kamba and Maasi doesn't make any sense,'' said Obama, ticking off the names of the larger groups.

"Maybe if everybody was rich, we could afford to have these arguments.''

On Friday, Obama complained to Kibaki that Chicago TV crews were shaken down at customs. In Monday's edition of the Daily Nation, Kenya's government ran an ad with Obama's name in the headline, calling corruption allegations "unfounded.'' The ad states customs receipts were issued. However, the CBS2 team in Kenya, Michael Flannery and Marcus Richardson, said they were never issued a receipt. Government spokesman Alfred Mutua gave them their paperwork when they went to interview him Monday, Flannery said.

Obama appeared with opposition leader Raila Odinga -- a Luo running for president -- at stops on Saturday in his father's native district.

Mutua, in the CBS2 interview, said Obama may have been caught up in ethnic politics with Odinga "using Sen. Obama as his stooge, as his puppet.''