Opinion / Columnist
William Ruto visits Germany: German press rebukes his claims about labour contracts.
17 Sep 2024 at 22:06hrs | Views
It does not matter how one looks at this story; it is not only shameful to Kenya: it must shame all Africans equally. Recently, President Willian Ruto was on a state visit to Germany, and was proud to share with us about his successful visit to a country whose economy is the biggest in the Eurozone. To say it in Zimbabwean terms, "akarova begi". He made several deals with the German government. The remarkable one he proudly made was acquiring 250,000 jobs for Kenyan Gen Zs; and those in Germany are to benefit from this deal too. In no time, the Kenyan youth will be repatriated to Germany to work in branches that demand qualifications requested, and across the Euro zone. Germany is short of qualified manpower, he said: Kenyan Gen Zs will fill in labour shortages that range from AI, engineers, teachers, nurses, to harvesting of fruit and vegetables in EU farms: a win-win situation: Ruto said.
However, before the cock could crow three times, the German press disputed these claims for many reasons: firstly, it is not true that Germany put a number on how many Kenyans would be incorporated into Germany labour market. Again, it was spoken in passing, not in concrete terms. Secondly, the stakes in Germany are high: previously there were elections in two German federal states whose focus bordered mostly on migration, borders must be closed from migrants. The German population favour this: no more migrants, the boat is full is the buzzword. The German coalition government was severely beaten by far right & left-wing political parties. There is a third federal state of Brandenburg going for elections next week too. all signs of AFD (Alternative for Germany) victory against the Social Democratic Party are noticeable.
It is inconceivable that a government and party that is losing elections would offer a foreign country a quarter million jobs. The vast unemployment in Germany and other EU countries is unsustainable: hence elections were bitterly contested. Thirdly, the German economy is taking a nosedive because of energy crisis that emanated from the war between Ukraine and Russia; the distraction and sabotage of the north steam pipeline between Russia and Germany was also a contributing factor to energy crisis. Fourthly, because of chronic energy crisis, major corporate industries are relocating to USA and China where energy is cheap. The mass unemployment in Germany mainly because of poor management of German economy is unprecedented in the history of Germany, post 1945. How is it even possible a quarter of a million Kenyan citizens to join the German labour market? Is the German government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz shooting himself on the foot?
However, President William Ruto continues to maintain the lie that Kenya was offered jobs for qualified Kenyan Gen Zs by German government. It is embarrassing to see a president from Africa making unfounded statements of that magnitude with a straight face. Did Ruto make his due diligence about German political and economics to begin to claim something that is not true to save his face in Kenya and Africa? How are such blatant liars intended, liars refuted by German media news outlets. Do we wonder still that Africans are not taken seriously on the world stage. Ruto, I believe, still thinks he is a better African; he managed the Oxford English language speech practice well enough to gain fame and recognition. The other reason is, he has been in nasty situations before; was once a candidate in ICC on criminal charges before he became president: charges were dropped: He got away with murder which gave him confidence.
This is President Ruto's plans to send as many Gens Zs away from Kenya as possible because they are giving him a hard time in demonstrations that have rocked Kenya and have been given high appoval and acknowledgements across Africa. Again, it is not the first time Ruto has send Kenyans abroad for employment reason: He signed an agreement with Middle East countries so that Kenyan women can work as domestic servants. Did Ruto make his due diligence, how black people endure racism in Middle Eastern countries. It is even worse for domestic workers who are mostly women, becoming sex slaves at night from Arab man-bosses. How many African women have committed suicide because of subhuman treatment in Arab countries? Does Ruto know all these facts on the ground? It appears as if Ruto does not care; it is not his children or near relatives affected. In the Middle East, racism against African people is raw, it is inconceivable how a whole president can treat Kenyan people like slaves. Again, a Kenyan police force is in Haiti: (Why Kenyan police and not USA police?) Haiti is one of the most dangerous places on earth. President Ruto sends them to Haiti to polish his personal image.
A similar situation happened in Zimbabwe. When the economic turndown hardened, the middle-class educated Zimbabweans left the country for greener pastures in South Africa and abroad. The government was urged to address the exodus of young Zimbabweans leaving the country: leaving key skills vulnerable and without replacement. Didymus Mutasa told all who wanted to hear, that they must leave Zimbabwe: only those who remain, are law abiding citizens even if they are only 5 million of them. (from 15 million) Highly qualified Zimbabweans are found everywhere globally; Researchers in NASA, nurses, highly qualified professors in famous institutions of learning, World Bank consultants, teachers, medical doctors in England, USA, Australia, EU, Canada, a larger number of Care workers, just name it.
On one hand, Africa is seriously underdeveloped, and underperforming compared with other continents. On the other hand, Ruto is sending the cream of Kenya to work in Germany, a country with the highest literacy in the world and one of the most developed countries in the EU. Does Africa not need its qualified manpower? How is Africa going to develop if the very highly skilled youth who are supposed to inherit Africa and develop it are given away to develop other countries, ironically to uplift and develop Germany even further. Is that not African development in reverse gear? Just how stupid can African presidents still be, to send young Africans to develop first world countries. How ironic can it still go? President Ruto is obviously failing Kenya; he cannot give Kenyan Gen Zs future perspective, exactly that, that undermines African development. African youth are traded by governments as if they are commodities of clandestine transactions. Comrade Prett Kwesi jr. of Ghana asks poignant questions: who inflicted upon us, the likes of president Ruto in Africa. Are we the children of lesser gods? Ruto is not the only African leader with twisted and opportunistic tendencies about our African youth: they are dozens such leaders in Africa, except Kagame.
News from Malawi are that under-aged girls are sent to China for marriage. There was a one-child policy in China some time ago that criminalized families if they have more than one child. Chinese girl-foetus were aborted in favour of boys. There is gender imbalance in China today. The niche that is now paying the price of China's one-child policy are under-aged Malawian girls. They are trafficked as commodities for Chinese prospective husbands in Chinese mainland. There is money exchanged in these transactions either by parents themselves or gangsters that traffic unsuspecting vulnerable Malawian girls to China. Poverty has indeed ugly faces and this is one of them. Victims in most cases are African girl-children. What is President Mutharika doing about this problem that undermines human dignity? Are Malawian under-aged girls the solution of Chinese problems of the past policy misdemeanors? The abject shallowness and poverty of our African parents is evident in such cases. Such abominations can only happen in Africa and nowhere else. Or am I being emotional? I get a brain spasm the moment I think and write about such issues.
There was a China-Africa conference in China last week. Again, the agenda was not known to African delegates until they arrived in China. President Mnangagwa arrived earlier than others at the summit. Interesting to watch was president Mnangagwa pouring out vertical praises at the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping. Considering that the Chinese leader Xi has zero tolerance on corruption in his nation, how does he manage to rub shoulders with the likes of President Mnangagwa, a corrupt leader: he brought his son Collins and his brother-in-law with them to the famous trip. In China, corruption is a serious offence whose sentences are death by firing squad. President Ramaphosa was seen jovially mingling around with Chinese and African delegates without a sign of shame even in his body language, Ramaphosa did the unimaginable; He opened a bank account with his sitting-room sofa artifact, and his bedroom mattresses at Phala Phala farm. I wonder what the Chinese leader thinks about such corrupt African leaders to even offer them a staggering US$50 billion as development loans to a bi-polar systems of government like our own, Rwanda excluded.
African leaders are a joke. I doubt still if the German Chancellor will suffer any setback in the coming elections in Brandenburg because of liars meted by president Ruto. Germans know how exited Africans feel when suddenly are in Europe: they lose their heads when they see the Kurfürstendamm, the Kauf Haus des Westens. Nobody takes Africans seriously in the world. If Ruto made any due diligence, what every leader must do before they go to foreign state visits, he would have informed himself that the German government finds itself in a precarious situation politically and economically. The political center has collapsed to all time low. Right wing political party is gaining ground. The party AfD, Alternative-for-Germany wants foreigners out of Germany. Migration has become the focus of political campaigns and discourses in all social media outlets: migration is the favourite campaign pitch that gets traction to German voters to vote the mainstream political parties out of power. The SPD and other center right political parties, e.g. FDP failed to gain votes because of their open border policies.
Recently, Christian Democrats CDU had to shift its campaign massage to attract more voters who want to see the borders completely closed from migrants. German politics is currently in the campaign mood: AfD demands remigration subtly: This factually means, if AfD wins elections in 2029, even those who are German citizens by naturalization, will be deported back to their countries of origin. Anyone with migrant background is not safe in Germany anymore. The buzzword is Germany for Germans only. My humble question is, a quarter million Kenyans must be made to fit into a hostile climate full of racial tensions and uncertainties: talks about xenophobia and remigration have started, albeit clandestinely. This reminds me mostly about Botswana – German diplomatic tiff. Botswana president offered Germany, a gift of about 20,000 elephants. To this day, this offer has not been accepted effected.
However, before the cock could crow three times, the German press disputed these claims for many reasons: firstly, it is not true that Germany put a number on how many Kenyans would be incorporated into Germany labour market. Again, it was spoken in passing, not in concrete terms. Secondly, the stakes in Germany are high: previously there were elections in two German federal states whose focus bordered mostly on migration, borders must be closed from migrants. The German population favour this: no more migrants, the boat is full is the buzzword. The German coalition government was severely beaten by far right & left-wing political parties. There is a third federal state of Brandenburg going for elections next week too. all signs of AFD (Alternative for Germany) victory against the Social Democratic Party are noticeable.
It is inconceivable that a government and party that is losing elections would offer a foreign country a quarter million jobs. The vast unemployment in Germany and other EU countries is unsustainable: hence elections were bitterly contested. Thirdly, the German economy is taking a nosedive because of energy crisis that emanated from the war between Ukraine and Russia; the distraction and sabotage of the north steam pipeline between Russia and Germany was also a contributing factor to energy crisis. Fourthly, because of chronic energy crisis, major corporate industries are relocating to USA and China where energy is cheap. The mass unemployment in Germany mainly because of poor management of German economy is unprecedented in the history of Germany, post 1945. How is it even possible a quarter of a million Kenyan citizens to join the German labour market? Is the German government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz shooting himself on the foot?
However, President William Ruto continues to maintain the lie that Kenya was offered jobs for qualified Kenyan Gen Zs by German government. It is embarrassing to see a president from Africa making unfounded statements of that magnitude with a straight face. Did Ruto make his due diligence about German political and economics to begin to claim something that is not true to save his face in Kenya and Africa? How are such blatant liars intended, liars refuted by German media news outlets. Do we wonder still that Africans are not taken seriously on the world stage. Ruto, I believe, still thinks he is a better African; he managed the Oxford English language speech practice well enough to gain fame and recognition. The other reason is, he has been in nasty situations before; was once a candidate in ICC on criminal charges before he became president: charges were dropped: He got away with murder which gave him confidence.
This is President Ruto's plans to send as many Gens Zs away from Kenya as possible because they are giving him a hard time in demonstrations that have rocked Kenya and have been given high appoval and acknowledgements across Africa. Again, it is not the first time Ruto has send Kenyans abroad for employment reason: He signed an agreement with Middle East countries so that Kenyan women can work as domestic servants. Did Ruto make his due diligence, how black people endure racism in Middle Eastern countries. It is even worse for domestic workers who are mostly women, becoming sex slaves at night from Arab man-bosses. How many African women have committed suicide because of subhuman treatment in Arab countries? Does Ruto know all these facts on the ground? It appears as if Ruto does not care; it is not his children or near relatives affected. In the Middle East, racism against African people is raw, it is inconceivable how a whole president can treat Kenyan people like slaves. Again, a Kenyan police force is in Haiti: (Why Kenyan police and not USA police?) Haiti is one of the most dangerous places on earth. President Ruto sends them to Haiti to polish his personal image.
A similar situation happened in Zimbabwe. When the economic turndown hardened, the middle-class educated Zimbabweans left the country for greener pastures in South Africa and abroad. The government was urged to address the exodus of young Zimbabweans leaving the country: leaving key skills vulnerable and without replacement. Didymus Mutasa told all who wanted to hear, that they must leave Zimbabwe: only those who remain, are law abiding citizens even if they are only 5 million of them. (from 15 million) Highly qualified Zimbabweans are found everywhere globally; Researchers in NASA, nurses, highly qualified professors in famous institutions of learning, World Bank consultants, teachers, medical doctors in England, USA, Australia, EU, Canada, a larger number of Care workers, just name it.
On one hand, Africa is seriously underdeveloped, and underperforming compared with other continents. On the other hand, Ruto is sending the cream of Kenya to work in Germany, a country with the highest literacy in the world and one of the most developed countries in the EU. Does Africa not need its qualified manpower? How is Africa going to develop if the very highly skilled youth who are supposed to inherit Africa and develop it are given away to develop other countries, ironically to uplift and develop Germany even further. Is that not African development in reverse gear? Just how stupid can African presidents still be, to send young Africans to develop first world countries. How ironic can it still go? President Ruto is obviously failing Kenya; he cannot give Kenyan Gen Zs future perspective, exactly that, that undermines African development. African youth are traded by governments as if they are commodities of clandestine transactions. Comrade Prett Kwesi jr. of Ghana asks poignant questions: who inflicted upon us, the likes of president Ruto in Africa. Are we the children of lesser gods? Ruto is not the only African leader with twisted and opportunistic tendencies about our African youth: they are dozens such leaders in Africa, except Kagame.
News from Malawi are that under-aged girls are sent to China for marriage. There was a one-child policy in China some time ago that criminalized families if they have more than one child. Chinese girl-foetus were aborted in favour of boys. There is gender imbalance in China today. The niche that is now paying the price of China's one-child policy are under-aged Malawian girls. They are trafficked as commodities for Chinese prospective husbands in Chinese mainland. There is money exchanged in these transactions either by parents themselves or gangsters that traffic unsuspecting vulnerable Malawian girls to China. Poverty has indeed ugly faces and this is one of them. Victims in most cases are African girl-children. What is President Mutharika doing about this problem that undermines human dignity? Are Malawian under-aged girls the solution of Chinese problems of the past policy misdemeanors? The abject shallowness and poverty of our African parents is evident in such cases. Such abominations can only happen in Africa and nowhere else. Or am I being emotional? I get a brain spasm the moment I think and write about such issues.
There was a China-Africa conference in China last week. Again, the agenda was not known to African delegates until they arrived in China. President Mnangagwa arrived earlier than others at the summit. Interesting to watch was president Mnangagwa pouring out vertical praises at the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping. Considering that the Chinese leader Xi has zero tolerance on corruption in his nation, how does he manage to rub shoulders with the likes of President Mnangagwa, a corrupt leader: he brought his son Collins and his brother-in-law with them to the famous trip. In China, corruption is a serious offence whose sentences are death by firing squad. President Ramaphosa was seen jovially mingling around with Chinese and African delegates without a sign of shame even in his body language, Ramaphosa did the unimaginable; He opened a bank account with his sitting-room sofa artifact, and his bedroom mattresses at Phala Phala farm. I wonder what the Chinese leader thinks about such corrupt African leaders to even offer them a staggering US$50 billion as development loans to a bi-polar systems of government like our own, Rwanda excluded.
African leaders are a joke. I doubt still if the German Chancellor will suffer any setback in the coming elections in Brandenburg because of liars meted by president Ruto. Germans know how exited Africans feel when suddenly are in Europe: they lose their heads when they see the Kurfürstendamm, the Kauf Haus des Westens. Nobody takes Africans seriously in the world. If Ruto made any due diligence, what every leader must do before they go to foreign state visits, he would have informed himself that the German government finds itself in a precarious situation politically and economically. The political center has collapsed to all time low. Right wing political party is gaining ground. The party AfD, Alternative-for-Germany wants foreigners out of Germany. Migration has become the focus of political campaigns and discourses in all social media outlets: migration is the favourite campaign pitch that gets traction to German voters to vote the mainstream political parties out of power. The SPD and other center right political parties, e.g. FDP failed to gain votes because of their open border policies.
Recently, Christian Democrats CDU had to shift its campaign massage to attract more voters who want to see the borders completely closed from migrants. German politics is currently in the campaign mood: AfD demands remigration subtly: This factually means, if AfD wins elections in 2029, even those who are German citizens by naturalization, will be deported back to their countries of origin. Anyone with migrant background is not safe in Germany anymore. The buzzword is Germany for Germans only. My humble question is, a quarter million Kenyans must be made to fit into a hostile climate full of racial tensions and uncertainties: talks about xenophobia and remigration have started, albeit clandestinely. This reminds me mostly about Botswana – German diplomatic tiff. Botswana president offered Germany, a gift of about 20,000 elephants. To this day, this offer has not been accepted effected.
Source - Nomazulu Thata
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