Namibian leader Geingob was a true friend of the people of Kenya

Namibia's President Hage Geingob at the 75th anniversary celebrations of UNESCO at its headquarters in Paris on November 12, 2021. [AP photo] As a true friend of Kenya, President Hage Geingob of Namibia, who passed on yesterday, supported the country in good and bad times. This includes when President William Ruto and his predecessor Uhuru Kenyatta were indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged crimes against humanity. Geingob, like his predecessors Sam Nujoma, Namibia's first president and his successor Hifikepunye Pohamba, worked hard to promote unity, peace, security, stability and prosperity in his country and also developed good relations with other African countries. He also followed his predecessors' path of hiring highly skilled technocrats from Kenya to serve in the health, teaching, agriculture and engineering fields, among other sectors. The fallen president visited Kenya in October 2018, where he held bilateral talks with President Kenyatta and attended Mashujaa Day celebrations at Bukhungu Stadium in Kakamega town. Uhuru reciprocated when he made a State visit to Namibia the following year accompanied by the then First Lady Margaret Kenyatta and a high-powered delegation for bilateral talks. As earlier stated, in 2015, President Geingob dismissed the role of the ICC in Kenyan affairs, stating that no institution or country can dictate to Africans who and by whom they should be governed. "The International Criminal Court (ICC) must, therefore, stay out of Kenya's domestic affairs. Some are saying that we are the ones who created the ICC, but when one creates something to be an asset which later becomes an abomination, you have the right to quit it since it has ceased serving its intended purpose," said Geingob. He then went to cement the relationship between the two countries, whose peak had come earlier in 1989 when Kenyan troops joined the United Nations Transition Assistance Group (UNTAG). Kenya's General (Rtd) Daniel Opande served as the UNTAG Deputy Force Commander until March 21, 1990, when Namibia became a sovereign and independent nation. Kenya's second President Daniel arap Moi was also among dignitaries led by late UN Secretary-General Javier Perez De Cuellar, who attended Sam Nujoma's swearing-in ceremony in Windhoek. The relation between Kenya and Namibia dates back to the latter's self-determination struggles when Kenya reportedly gifted the South West African Peoples Organisation (Swapo) liberation movement a land rover to facilitate their transportation needs. It is worth noting that all three presidents Nujoma, Pohamba and Geingob served as senior party leaders in Swapo before they were elected to lead the country. President Geingob was elected by the Politburo of Swapo to spearhead its election campaign in Namibia, and so returned to the country with many of his colleagues in June 1989, after 27 years in exile. As Swapo's Director of Elections, Geingob, along with other members of his directorate, established Swapo election centres throughout the country and spearheaded an election campaign that brought Swapo to power in Namibia. On 21 March 1990, Geingob was sworn in as the first Prime Minister of the Republic of Namibia and on 21 March 1995, he was sworn in for a second term, serving 12 years in total. Upon Namibia's independence on March 21, 1990, and the end of UNTAG's mandate, the Kenyan contingent remained behind for another nine months to assist with the establishment of the Namibian Defence Force. That followed a request from President Nujoma, also known as the nation's founding father. In December 2021, president Geingob conferred the Order of the Rising Sun, 1st class medal, to Lt Gen (Rtd) Opande in recognition of his and Kenyan military services in Namibia's liberation. Many skilled Kenyans have been able to migrate and work in Namibia since 1990, and some are still living in Namibia, having been fully integrated into that country. It is reported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that there have been regular exchanges of visits at ministerial levels, parliamentary as well as judiciary levels in exchange and learning programs. Former Minister for Health Services Peter Anyang' Nyong'o, who is now serving as the Governor of Kisumu County, summarised the experience Kenyan professionals are having in Namibia when he visited the country while serving in President Mwai Kibaki's Cabinet. On a visit to Namibia in 2012, Nyong'o recounted his experience there, saying it showed that Kenya was at that time becoming even more aware that the export of brains would earn it much more foreign exchange than anything else. "The Minister for Health and Social Services, Richard Kamwi, gave us a 12-seater plane to fly 800km to the northern town of Rundu to visit the district hospital as well as meet the Kenyan medical personnel working in the northern regions," wrote Nyong'o. There, they met 30 or so nurses and a couple of doctors who had travelled long distances from rural parts of Namibia to come and meet them. They had also met over 60 of their colleagues in Windhoek the previous day for a discussion about their work and how the Kenyan government could make their lives better through a Memorandum of Understanding with the Namibian government. "The nurses had no inhibitions speaking freely and letting their grievances known since the ambassador had long broken the ice between citizen and bureaucratic power," said Nyong'o. At that time, close to 100 Kenyan nurses were working in Namibia in the public sector, while a few more were to be found in the private sector and the NGO world. The Ministry of Health and Social Services had also requested 100 more nurses and 26 doctors to move there after conducting an open and competitive recruitment. Nyong'o said that the process was at the time important for quality control because Kenyan nurses and doctors had already established high standards of service delivery in Namibia. One of the landmarks of excellent service by the Kenyan medical professionals in Namibia was the new Medical School at the University of Namibia (Unam) that Prof Pater Nyarango had pioneered as the dean. The relationship between Kenya and Namibia in medical science, training, knowledge and service delivery was already getting even deeper in collaboration because of the exchange programme between the two countries. For many years, Namibian students have also trained as nurses at the Kenya Medical Training College, while others have also trained at Kenyatta National Hospital in various specialities. When he served as High Commissioner there, Tuneya Hussein Dado, the current Governor of Tana River County, also facilitated the hiring of a small contingent of highly experienced architects and electrical and mechanical engineers from Kenya. Before becoming Kenya's envoy to Namibia in 2002, Dado and many other Kenyans had served as part of the civilian component of UNTAG in 1989 to assist in the first democratic elections of a free Namibian nation. "During my stay, relationships between Kenya and Namibia improved a great deal. Several ministers from Namibia visited Kenya, and many ministers from Kenya and other high-ranking officials also visited Namibia on various issues, learning from each other," said Dado in an interview. During his time, the most notable high-profile visit to Kenya was that of the first President Nujoma. Because of the sound bilateral ties existing between the two countries, many Namibians with heart disorders were flown to Nairobi for treatment by heart specialists. It was also reported that as part of the Memorandum of Understanding that was signed barely a year after Dado took over at Kenya House in the centre of Windhoek, Kenya also pledged to assist Namibia in setting up its own Cardiac Unit at the State Hospital. The hospital was also expected to serve as a referral area for patients from other neighbouring countries, while intensive Care nurses were to be trained in Nairobi to prepare themselves. Namibians have over the years been given scholarships to study in Kenyan universities to become pharmacists and medical engineers. In 2021, it was reported that Namibia intended to begin teaching Swahili in schools, giving more job opportunities to more Kenyan teachers to apply. Some opposition political parties questioned the financial implications of the government's plan, but some pointed out that South Africa already adopted the teaching of Kiswahili and identified 90 schools across the country to start the pilot phase.

Namibian leader Geingob was a true friend of the people of Kenya

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