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An Abomination

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Jerome Corsi at the airport yesterday. AP
Two things you don't do in Kenya right now: Criticise Barack Obama when the country is in the midst of Obama mania; suggest Raila Odinga is an extreme socialist who rose to the position of prime minister on the back of violence conducted by radical muslims. Jerome Corsi, neo-Con author of Obama Nation, managed to do both yesterday. And was promptly kicked out of the country. You could try to suggest that this is an outrageous check on Kenya's democracy, stifling debate and once again shooting the messenger. You could argue that it is a case of Kenya's hierarchy throwing their weight around once again, silencing their critics. Or you could conclude that Corsi is an odious piece of work who was lucky the basement of Nyayo House, the immigration department HQ, is no longer used to torture critics of the regime. (I'll be posting about my role in his nasty little book once I've got my hands on it.)

3 Comments

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bankelele | October 8, 2008 12:55 PM | Reply

why do i feel that this was a publicity stunt? Corsi must have must have alerted the media who splashed the launch story, and triggered the unfortunate governemnt repsonse (Kenyans were set-up to fall, the stories is all over the wiresm and a few more thousand books will be sold as interest/curiosity about Obama maximises a few weeks to the election.

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Anonymous | October 8, 2008 6:57 PM | Reply

Well, Bankelele I was discussing this exact point with a colleague today. And to be honest I'm not sure that Corsi is that smart. The impression I got dealing with his assistant yesterday was that they were both out of their depth and frankly had no idea how "Africa" worked. He was desperate for me to get colleagues from The Times to meet him on arrival in London. Which was never going to happen. The story made a splash here sure enough but my story went on The Times website but then failed to make it into the paper proper.

What do you think?