Kenyans bemoan Bush victory
2004-11-04 11:24
Nairobi - The bulk of Kenyan newspapers expressed on Thursday their disappointment over George W Bush's re-election as US president, saying he had made the world less safe and voicing little hope for improvement in his second term in office.
All titles made clear that Democrat candidate John Kerry was their preferred choice, and spoke of apparent US bungles in Iraq and the war against terrorism.
"The rest of the world sees Mr Bush as a warmonger held in thrall by the fundamentalist Christian right and the military-industrial complex that hold sway in the US," the mass circulation Daily Nation said.
"But as we came painfully to learn, Mr Bush's war on terror did not make the world safer. And then he went off track when he launched another war against Iraq on the most dubious grounds," Nation said.
"Without doubt, President Bush has made the world much more unsafe to live in," the paper added.
Nation's rival, the Standard, said Bush won contrary to popular opinion in the world.
"Around the world, opinion polls depicted Bush as a hated figure who many wanted to see replaced in the White House," Standard said, going on to explain that, unlike the previous election, Bush "appeared to have a clear mandate."
Acknowledging that Tuesday's elections had been "something of an earthquake on the US political landscape," the paper said Republicans will use their clear majority in both houses "to pursue more tax cuts, appoint conservative judges to the supreme court and invest further in homeland security."
'But will he?'
But "it would be nice to think Bush will find time to repair the rupture in the UN brought about by his invasion of Iraq and look kindly on the developing world," said the Standard. "But will he?," it wondered.
People Daily, which also did not welcome Bush's victory, said the election of Barrack Obama, the son of a Kenyan father and a US mother, into the Senate was a "disappointment breaker".
There is not much Obama can do especially for Africa, the People said, but "what is more significant is the realisation that with hard work and vision, it is possible for one to achieve his or her dream whatever the circumstances."
The Kenya Times lamented that the presidential candidates did not speak at all about Africa.
"Neither Bush nor John Kerry spared anytime to talk about us and this continent, even in passing. The Americans should not imagine that the rest of the world expects alms from them," the Times fumed.
- AFP