Raila Odinga speaks at Harvard: next Thursday, Sept. 24th

One important piece of news we found out last Sunday at the Cambridge Carnival: Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga is coming to town next Thursday evening, September 24th to speak on democracy in Kenya.

The Institute of Politics at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government has invited  ”His Excellency Raila Amolo Odinga, prime minister, Republic of Kenya” to talk on “Making Democracy Work in Africa – Vision of an African Leader”  The address is 79 JFK Street, just outside Harvard Square in Cambridge. The room number in the building is not mentioned (and the Kennedy School can be a bit of a maze). I’ll try to find out more details and post them here. The forum seems to be free and open to the public.

This past June, when the violence started escalating again, Odinga personally spoke out in support of the Samburu and against the police actions and indifference. KARE wants to greet him, thank him and then ask some pointed questions why the Government of Kenya has turned its back on its Samburu citizens.

Monday update: I spoke earlier this afternoon with a staff person from the John F Kennedy Jr. Forum series, which is sponsoring Raila’s talk at the Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics. More specifics on the location: 79 JFK St. is also known as the Littauer Building. For security reasons when the prime minister speaks, only the main entrance to the building will be open. This is at the corner of JFK St. and Elliot St (a side street), behind the JFK Park, they tell me.

Once inside the building, the main hall way will lead quite easily to the large, central room where the forum will be held. Come early: it is first come, first serve and this is likely to be a popular forum.

Oh, and why is Raila speaking now at Harvard? He is stopping by, apparently, before heading on to New York City and the big United Nations General Assembly which is being held later this week.