Cord leader Raila Odinga has thrown his weight behind Democrat presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, saying he is not aware of Donald Trump having any policy on Africa.
Odinga, who served in a coalition government between 2008 and 2013, attended the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, where Clinton formally accepted the party’s nomination as presidential candidate for the November polls.
Speaking at an event at London international affairs think tank Chatham House on Friday, Odinga said that he was hopeful that Clinton would become the country’s first female president.
“I don’t know if the Republicans have a policy on Africa. If they have it, I did not hear it,” said Odinga, when asked whether he believed Clinton or Trump would support the progress of democracy in Africa.
Newsweek contacted the Trump campaign for a comment on the businessman’s Africa policy, but had received no reply at the time of publication. Newsweek also contacted the Republican Party for a comment but received no response.
Delivering a talk entitled “The Importance of Democracy in Africa: Kenya’s Experience,” Odinga said that democracy was “in jeopardy” in Africa and that the continent required strong support from Western countries and institutions in order to avoid slipping back into the grip of strongmen leaders like Idi Amin, the Ugandan dictator who expelled the country’s entire Asian population and under whose rule up to 400,000 people are believed to have been killed.
“It is our hope that the next president of the US, together with the EU and Britain, will support democracy in word and in deed. The West must show an incredible support for civil society and the rule of law, accountability, human rights, and free and fair elections if the march of democracy is to be guaranteed,” said Odinga.
The Kenyan opposition leader cited Uganda’s elections in February—which were described as lacking transparency and independence by EU observers—as an example of the problems facing democracy in Africa.
“You remember in the elections in Uganda recently, they completely shut off the country, you could not use the internet, supposedly for security reasons,” said Odinga. Social media sites including Twitter were reportedly blocked during polling day in Uganda, though other sites were still working.
Trump has made little mention of Africa during his campaign so far, but he has reportedly received the backing of the continent’s longest-serving leader, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe.
Democrat lawmakers Adam Schiff and Chris Coons revealed during an interview with US news site Politico that, during a recent visit to Zimbabwe, they met with Mugabe and were asked by the 92-year-old president why he was under US sanctions.
After explaining the reasons, Mugabe told the candidates, according to Coons: “Once [Trump] is your president, you’ll wish you’d been friendlier to me.”
-nairobinews.nation.co.ke
