Odinga Calls For Peacekeeping Troops To Be Sent Into Zimbabwe

Kenya's outspoken Prime Minister, Raila Odinga (seen in this photo with Sarah Hussein Obama, President-elect Barak Obama's grandmother at her home), said today the African Union should send peacekeeping troops into the toubled Southern African basketcase, Zimbabwe, "because there is no legitimate government in Zimbabwe."

Odinga, who was sworn into office after violence that erupted in Kenya in the wake of a largely discredited election that was "won" by Mwai Kibaki, has been a consistent critic of Robert Mugabe. Today, he continued in the same vein, saying that, although Mugabe is a liberation war hero who spent years in Ian Smith's jails, "I don’t believe that when you are a freedom fighter, you acquire a title deed to own the nation”.

Odinga, together with Ian Khama of Botswana, are the most consistent critics of Mugabe and represent a new breed of African leaders who are, in my opinion, the John The Baptists of an Africa to come, just as Tony Blair, Bill Clinton, Lula de Silva, Filipe Gonzales were the Baby Boomer leaders who paved the way for a new, younger generation that is anchored in futuristic, global sets of values on everything from technology to climate change control, such as Barak Obama.

But back to Odinga's statement. The Kenyan Prime Minister said he does not understand why Mugabe is still being allowed to attend summits with other African heads of state. In a thinly veiled attack on other African leaders, he stated: “What is happening in Zimbabwe could not have happened in Europe. Members of the EU could not allow a leader who was not legitimately elected to attend their meeting. It cannot happen. So this is the reason why Africa continues to remain backward.”

It is unlikely that Mr Odinga's advice will be acted on by andy of the African leaders who are busy mollycoddling Mugabe. As Odinga himself als pointed out, most of these Africa leaders have hands that are just as dirty, if not as bloody, as those of Mr Mugabe.

The man is impervious to all reason and agument, has no shame and basically believes that he is a better man amongst cannibals simply because he does not eat babies.

You can find the full article on this on the Capital News website

This past Friday, one of the posts on this blog was picked up by the Zimbabwe Independent. It is the article on Morgan Tsvangirai speaking out against more sanctions. Yesterday, Saturday 22 November, George Charamba, writing as Nathaniel Manheru in the ZANU PF mouthpiece, The Herald, showed yet again that we were accurate in our report. He praises Tsvangirai for the move and insinuates that, though the MDC president may twist and turn, he will join the government in the end. All the MDC concerns are dismissed and the are simply to do as they are told.