I’ve been in Kenya for three weeks, traveling from Nairobi to Naivasha, a market town an hour west of Nairobi and then down to the coast to Mombasa and Kilifi, a beach town an hour north of Mombasa. Everywhere I’ve gone Kenyan (men) have asked me, “who do you think will win the election?” or “who do you want to win”—asked in a more apprehensive way. I answer Hillary Clinton to both questions. The universal response is approval and some relief, especially if I assure them that there is no way the people of America will elect Donald Trump president.
They have responded to my Clinton answer in various ways:
“Mrs. Clinton doesn’t seem to care about whether people are black or white.”
“She knows a lot about the world.”
“Trump, he is not right.”
“I saw him on The Apprentice—you’re fired! He is just rich.”
“Clinton would be the first woman president—that’s good.”
“Clinton is smart.”
“She has the right people.”
“First you elect a black man and now a woman. Wonderful.”
“We care a lot about American politics--we have to.”
“America is the most powerful country…I’m afraid if Trump is elected.”
These are not well-educated people (so Trump probably loves them?). They are drivers, cooks, restaurant workers, airport baggage carriers, street-side artists, very poor merchants, and inhabitants of Kibera, a slum in Nairobi that is the largest in Africa. They know about American politics through CNN, Internet, The Nation (Kenya’s largest daily newspaper and a good one), and word of mouth. They know as much or more about about the presidential election than many Americans. As one man said, they have to.
Kenyans know about bad government. They have been subjected to truly amazing amounts of government corruption since independence, and for a century before that they were oppressed, exploited, manipulated, and denigrated by British imperialism. Now they are contending with terrorism. Al-Shabab terrorists/thugs have launched several brutal attacks on Nairobi and coastal cities and the Kenya-Somalia border has been the scene of serious battles between the Kenyan military and Al-Shabab. Kenya, like other developing countries, needs a stable U.S.
I have heard Clinton address this issue several times in this campaign—that she is running not just for Americans but for the people of the world. America is the superpower and leads even if the decision during a foreign crisis is to do nothing.
This is one of the reasons I’ve supported Clinton since I heard her debate Bernie Sanders. She knows more. She has seen more--as secretary of state, as first lady, and through the Clinton Foundation. The world is a very complicated place and as central as class conflict is, nationally and internationally, our political leaders need to understand the complexities of racial identity, religion, culture, gender issues, and the constraints all of them impose. Clinton is remarkably well positioned to work with these complexities. As President Obama has said, she may be the most qualified and experienced person ever to run for president.