Clinton’s African Tour – A Success Story?

After the hostility of Kenya, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will no doubt be relieved to move on to South Africa, a country with whom she will have less significant problems to tackle. Nevertheless, progress must be made on issues such as corruption if the U.S is to take away any positives from this challenging tour.

Clinton was on the defensive before she even arrived in Nairobi after Kenyan Prime Minister Odinga stated that Kenya didn’t want any "lectures" on how to govern themselves. Clinton had intended to discuss governance problems, corruption, human rights and impunity within Kenya and hasn't been deterred by Odinga's words, though she did comment that she is "very disappointed" with the slow pace of discussions.

One can question the extent to which Clinton’s appearance in Kenya was ever going to be successful after she criticized the Kenyan government’s failure to prosecute those responsible for the violence surrounding the elections in early 2008. In doing so, she alienated many of those who are now in power and this has kept relations between the two camps icy, at best. Clinton has not, however, been afraid to make plain some hard truths about the state of the justice system in Kenya, commenting that at one local tribunal, there was little reason to "hire a lawyer when they can buy a judge."

The South African leg of Clinton’s tour would appear to be more promising, with President Zuma stating that both South African and US administrations were hoping to take their relationship to a "higher level". Any ground made in South Africa will have to be balanced against the seeming failures in Kenya, but some positive momentum is needed if the Obama administration is to make this trip successful. With only Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Liberia and Cape Verde left to visit during her 11-day trip, this may well be the highlight for Secretary Clinton.

Clinton's rhetoric has been a far cry from the conciliatory tone used by Obama himself, but the 'good-cop-bad-cop' routine might be just what is needed in a continent which has seen democracy after democracy fall by the wayside under an endemic culture of corruption. As one African newspaper put it, for the time being, "we need pressure from the U.S. to do what is right."

LAB