Nairobi — KEY members of the Kenyan political establishment have started backtracking on their harsh criticism of Barack Obama just two years ago.

Yesterday at a special press conference to congratulate Obama, an embarrassed government spokesman Dr. Alfred Mutua wriggled out of mentioning his altercation with the most powerful man in the world when he visited Kenya in August 2006.

Obama drew a tirade of abuse from government after he delivered a lecture at the University of Nairobi where he said that Kenya would struggle to step out of poverty and find its true economic potential unless it abandoned its entrenched corruption and tribalism.

"If the people cannot trust their government to do the job for which it exists - to protect them and to promote their common welfare - all else is lost," said Obama adding "and this is why the struggle against corruption is one of the great struggles of our time."

Afterwards Mutua dismissed Obama as a young man who could not teach Kenya how to manage its affairs and who had been caught up in the then opposition leader Raila Odinga's "ethnic politics."

Dr. Mutua refused to revisit the government's confrontation with Obama when prodded by journalists at his press conference yesterday morning at KICC.

"One of the things I picked from Obama's victory speech is focus on the positive. Let's shift the focus from the backward negativities and celebrate, so ushindwe bwana!" said Mutua when pressed by journalist at a press conference he had called to announce a public holiday today in honour of Obama.

After being named as Kenyan ambassador to the United States in September 2006, Rateng Ogego blundered by condemning Senator Obama over his remarks at the University of Nairobi even before presenting his credentials to President George Bush.

Ogego was unavailable for comment but an official in the Kenyan embassy in Washington said, "the ambassador is more concerned about ways of deepening relations and not past useless debates".

Ogego accused the Obama of deliberately twisting the truth about the government's fight against corruption in Kenya to gain publicity.

"You deliberately, without real cause or reason, other than what appears to seek cheap publicity and inconsequential populism, chose to publicly attack the democratically elected Government of Kenya, in total disregard for the requisite protocol and acceptable methods to address the issues you raised, what with programmed appointments to meet Cabinet ministers and even the Head of State, since your visit was official," Ogego told Obama in 2006.

Ogego has not apologized to Obama or corresponded with him since then.

All eyes are on him as he ponders his next move now that Obama has been declared America's 44th President.

Raphael Tuju, the former Foreign Affairs minister, also harshly criticized Obama at the time.

Tuju said the fact that Obama could lecture Kenya on corruption showed how much things had changed.

"We give him police protection, and he makes comments criticizing the government. It is a tribute to the level of freedom we are enjoying.

That for me is the greatest achievement" Tuju said after Obama returned to the US.

Yesterday Tuju avoided our calls and the person who answered his mobile told us the former minister was not interested in the subject.

"I'm telling you that when he made those remarks things were different.

Now the man is president, what do you want Tuju to say?" asked the unidentified man on Tuju's phone.

"Senator Obama made extremely disturbing statements on issues which it is clear, was poorly informed, and on which he chose to lecture the government and the people of Kenya on how to manage our country," government spokesman Mutua said in 2006.

But yesterday he was all praises for Obama saying the Kenyan government is very proud to be associated with a man whose heritage rises from our soil, "a man we consider our son, brother, friend and who has proven to the world if you mean well, you will triumph."

He added: "We not only support his policies, his world view and his focus, but we support the significance of his election as a black person, an African American. All of us will walk with our heads lifted higher and with warmer hearts because truly, yes we can."