U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in U.S.-Africa trade meetings Wednesday that improved government democracy is necessary in business and trade in Africa. During Clinton’s seven-nation tour in Kenya, delegates from the country are reviewing the effects of the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), a U.S. trade law that pushes U.S. import of African products. ”True economic progress in Africa will depend on responsible governments that reject corruption, enforce the rule of law and deliver results for their people,” Clinton told the meeting. “This is not just about good governance — it’s also about good business,” she added.
Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga, who earlier stated that Africa does not need lectures about democracy because Africans have always tried to fight against political oppression, became conciliatory on Wednesday. He said that countries on the continent saw Clinton as a model when she conceded defeat to Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential primaries in the U.S. “That is a lesson Africa needs to learn seriously. In Africa, in many countries, elections are never won, they are only rigged. The losers never accept that they lost,” said Odinga.
Odinga himself had contested the re-election of Mwai Kibaki, Kenya’s president, in the December 2007 elections. However, that issue sparked violence that resulted in 1,000 deaths. ”If we do this, we will be able to develop democracy truly in the African continent,” he said. During the early years of AGOA, some African countries had increased exports of textiles to the U.S.
