KAIKAI’S KICKER: Making some noise for Ali Bongo

On my kicker tonight, I make some noise. As a responsive individual, I make some noise in response to a passionate plea from a man who appears lonely and abandoned, and in his high hour of need.

Now, the man in distress is Ali Bongo Ondimba, the deposed President of Gabon. He appealed for noise about his overthrow and noise there was around the Central African country where citizens and the military have loudly been celebrating his removal from power. Here in Kenya, we never let an opportunity for brutal sense of humor to pass; from memes to cartoons on Bongo’s ‘make noise’ appeal, Kenyans have been having a field day with interludes of the typical dancehall clarion ‘Wapi nduru ya Ali Bongooooooooooo….’

On a serious note, it is not difficult to place why Kenyans are having fun at Ali Bongo’s expense. Kenyans generally show no sympathy for long serving political leaders. And the Bongo family has been holding presidential power in Gabon for 55 years. Ali Bongo took over from his father Omar Bongo in 2009. The senior Bongo had ruled Gabon for 41 years; and just before the Gabon army officers announced the coup, his son Ali Bongo who has been President for 14 years had been controversially declared winner for a third term of seven years! In Kenyan ears, a family dynasty across 55 years sounds truly ridiculous. And so I’d bet my cow; whether he was overthrown by the army or chased out of the presidential palace by wild pigs, the exit of Ali Bongo doesn’t really displease many a Kenyan heart. As an unwritten rule in the Kenyan democratic spirit, overstaying in power is considered a very serious crime.

I remember the ecstasy at Uhuru Park when the second President Daniel arap Moi was handing over power to third President Mwai Kibaki; the celebration was more about the exit of the former than about the incoming President. A jubilant voter had earlier that week screamed into our camera – ‘nimefuta mtu kazi,’ meaning, ‘I have fired someone!’ Our reminder that Moi was not even a candidate in the election fell on deaf ears. Moi had done just 24 years; not Omar Bongo’s 41! So for Kenyans, 55 years of father and son is dizzyingly long. I also recall as a young reporter trailing the fleeing Prime Minister of Zaire Kengo wa Dondo to a hotel in Nairobi. ‘Huyo mzee wao amekaa sana’, meaning ‘that old man of theirs has overstayed’ – not my words but those of a well informed watchman keeping us at bay in the hotel. He was talking about Mobutu Sese Seko, the autocrat who had been President of the Democratic Republic of Congo for over 30 years.

It is the rapid events in the Congo at the time that made me acquire my first ever passport after convincing my editor that he should send me to Kinshasa to report on the imminent fall of Mobutu. Unfortunately, Mobutu fled Zaire and into exile in Morocco the same afternoon we were chasing for an interview with his fleeing Prime Minister Kengo wa Dondo in a Nairobi hotel. But I remember the words of the guard; ‘that old man stayed too long.’ In Kenya, that is bad enough.

Back to Gabon; the African Union and the UN have condemned the military coup against Ali Bongo though the condemnation sounds routine and void of conviction. Here in Kenya, check out for some of the funniest t-shirt designs and make some noise for Ali Bongo.

That is my Kicker!