It’s official: President Obama is not a Kenyan
On Sunday night, while performing at the African Inaugural Ball, I joked that we’ll know if President Obama is Kenyan if, after his second term he doesn’t change the U.S. Constitution to allow him to run for a third term. That fear intensified when I saw Obama in a bling-bling motorcade – bullet proof Cadillacs and all – comparable to those of Kenyan leaders.
Thank goodness, we don’t have to live with that fear anymore. On his first full day at work, President Obama froze the salaries of his top aides at the White House who make more than $100,000 a year.
“Families are tightening their belts, and so should Washington,” said the president.
Let me paraphrase that: Obama is asking his staff to eat peanut butter and jelly for lunch and rice and beans for dinner like millions of poor Americans.
Obama also banned gifts from lobbyist to government officials. His rules of conduct are also the strictest in American History.
“Public service is a privilege,” not a right, Obama said.
That can’t be the way of a Kenyan leader.
Now compare that to when a Kenyan leader takes power:
In 2003, Kenyan lawmakers increased their salaries, making them some of the highest paid legislators in the world. (A Kenyan Member of Parliament today earns over $80,000, tax free, with allowances that nearly double the earnings.) In a country that owes nearly $8 billion to international lenders –where civil servants are underpaid and nearly half of its 37 million people live on less than $1 a day – there is no greater sin.
The lawmakers defended their hefty compensation as a hedge against the temptation of bribery. Five years later, the country was up in flames, thanks to increased corruption.
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