Friday, December 10, 2010

Envoy claims Kibaki, Raila are beneficiaries of impunity


US Ambassador to Kenya Michael Ranneberger. Photo/FILE
 
By MACHARIA GAITHO mgaitho@ke.nationmedia.comPosted Thursday, December 9 2010 at 22:30

President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga are grouped together as part of the political and economic elite that resists reform while supporting and benefiting from the culture of impunity.
Related Stories
Related Downloads
That is the assessment of US Ambassador Michael Ranneberger in a cable to the State Department in January this year.
“Most of the political and economic elite compose the vested interests that benefit from and support impunity and the lack of accountability with respect to governance, state resources, and the rule of law,” the US ambassador wrote to his superiors in Washington.
“This includes President Kibaki and Prime Minister Odinga, who signed the coalition agreement, as well as most members of the Cabinet and leaders of political parties.”
The cable was sent from the American embassy in Nairobi to the US assistant secretary of state for African Affairs Johnny Carson and a National Security Council Senior director identified only as Gavin.
State House reacted strongly to the cable, particularly the suggestion that the US embassy was the prime mover in the reform process.
“President Kibaki’s record on reforms throughout his career speaks for itself,” said a statement issued by the Presidential Press Service on Thursday.
“...all this culminated in the promulgation of a new constitution that mirrors the hopes and aspirations of the Kenyan people.”
The statement asked Kenyans not to be distracted from the task of implementing the new Constitution, emphasising in direct rebuttal to the US ambassador’s cable that the “task will be undertaken by the Kenyan people with the total support of their government”.
Mr Odinga, away on official business in Mexico, could not be reached for comment. The Prime Minister has always been viewed as closer to the US embassy than President Kibaki.
When news of the leaked cables first surfaced, Mr Odinga chaired a government consultative meeting after which Government spokesman Alfred Mutua reported that Mr Carson had called the Prime Minister to apologise in advance.
But at the press briefing, Dr Mutua added a local political spin when he claimed that the US embassy was trying to topple the government by funding youth groups. In Parliament later, Mr Odinga denied that such activities were a threat.
The Ranneberger cable was sent at the beginning of the year when the campaign for a new Constitution was just beginning to take shape. The lengthy cable outlines the steps the US embassy was employing to push the reform agenda.
It describes the obstacles encountered as an “old-guard associated with the culture of impunity continues to resist fundamental change”.
While the President and the Prime Minister later came to jointly drive the campaign for a new Constitution passed overwhelmingly at the referendum eight months later, Mr Ranneberger clearly was not viewing the two principals so favourably at the beginning of the year.
“Bringing about implementation of the reform agenda poses a large challenge because doing so threatens the culture of impunity and the entrenched political class that has existed in Kenya since independence,” the US ambassador wrote.
It is not clear whether Mr Ranneberger later modified his assessment of the two coalition principles. The Ranneberger describes in detail the initiatives taken by the US embassy in pushing for reform by by-passing the formal government structures and directly supporting youth groups, civil society and other caucuses.
The strategy involves working to influence removal of key unnamed individuals in positions of influence the US embassy thinks stand in the way of change.

No comments:

Post a Comment