How my visit to Kibera and Karen won me American Senate seat

A close 'friend of Kenya' has won a US Senate seat in hotly contested mid-term elections.

The Monday elections were held in many states. Mr Chris Coons, a Democrat, easily beat Republican Christine O’Donnell for the Delaware Senate seat.

Coons, whose connections with Kenya nearly cost him victory when his opponents questioned his commitment to the US, said his Kenyan experience helped shape his political views.

"In many ways, Kenya made me who I am. What I saw in the slums of Mathare and Kibera on one hand and Karen and Westlands on the other made me appreciate the consequences of an unequal world," he told The Standard.

He spent a semester at the University of Nairobi and remained in touch with high-ranking Kenyan officials.

The Harvard graduate speaks fluent Swahili and refers to Kenya as a close friend. He supports the Kenya Delaware Association (Deka) and was its chief guest during an annual fund raising last month.

Kenyan Ambassador Elkanah Odembo congratulated him and said his victory would make a great difference to have somebody with not only intimate knowledge about Kenya and its people, but also fond memories and attachment in the Senate.

"As we embark on reconstructing Kenya in many aspects following the passage of a new Constitution, we will need friends of Kenya like Senator-elect Chris Coons to help advance our agenda," Mr Odembo said.

He further explained: "I realise Kenya and America are different, but experiences like these warned me that my own favourite beliefs in the miracles of free enterprise and the boundless opportunities to be had in America were largely untrue."

Well, I don't see how someone can go to any African country and come back thinking socialism is better than the free market. Must be something in the water over there.

That’s not making sense - he should have ended up adoring Capitalism rather than Socialism. I have seen Kibera, and have friends who live in Karen. The disparities are shocking - Kibera doesn’t even have a proper sewage system (e.g. Flying Toilets ....it’s worse than you think). On the other hand, the new homes in Karen are beyond fantastic. Veritable mansions that cost an arm and a leg - an empty half acre in Karen can go for around KES 20 mil (curr FX rate 250,000 US), while fully built houses easily go for for over 80m million KES (over a million US). They tend to be all sold out, paid fully, and even before the construction is done. A very close friend of mine has a house there that had a mini theater, greenhouse, solarium, a music room with grand piano, and objects d’art all over. A truly beautiful home. Over at Kibera life is hard ....women get raped all the time for instance. I would have thought experiencing both worlds would have made that politician identify even closer with the benefits of Capitalism and good government mechanisms, rather than socialism and indept government mechanisms????? Otherwise what you have is a country like Kenya, where the well to do live amazing lives (my current standard of living is unlike anything I even had when I was in the US) and the poor lead truly horrific lives. That politician makes no sense whatsoever! He evidently did not learn the lesson.

He evidently did not learn the lesson.

I think he learned it quite well - By having the government control everything, you and your elite friends can live the good life. If there are hoards of peons living in squalor, so what? You can live far enough from them so that you'll never even notice them. It's not as if their lives count for anything.

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