Saturday, December 11, 2010

Raila dismisses leaked US cables as 'gossip and rumours'


File | Nation Prime Minister Raila Odinga (right) with US ambassador Michael Ranneberger at a past function.
File | Nation Prime Minister Raila Odinga (right) with US ambassador Michael Ranneberger at a past function. 
By ALPHONCE SHIUNDUPosted Friday, December 10 2010 at 11:43

Kenya’s Prime Minister Raila Odinga on Friday dismissed the contents of the leaked US diplomatic cables as a brand of “gossip and rumours” that deserve to be ignored.
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“This is just gossip between diplomats and their masters at home,” Mr Odinga told journalists at Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta Airport upon arrival from a working tour in Mexico.
“Most of it (the contents in the leaked cables) do not reflect the truth. Every right-thinking Kenyan knows that we (President Kibaki and the PM) are the engines of reform in this country,” the PM added.
Later, in a despatch to newsrooms,  Mr Odinga, had unflattering words to describe the sensational release of classified US diplomatic cables by the Whistleblower website.
The PM termed the publication of the secret files as irresponsible.
“...Wikileaks, in spite of its philosophy and commitment to a world without any government secrets, can weigh and realize the potentially hazardous implications of reckless and unfettered release of information, especially when it has been obtained illegally,” Mr Odinga said in the statement.
He termed the whole saga currently dominating world news as a “deplorable breach of certain aspects of common human decency”.
Mr Odinga’s rebuttal is in step with what his coalition partner President Mwai Kibaki did upon realising that the US ambassador in Nairobi, Mr Michael Ranneberger, had mentioned them as being in a clique that supports and benefits from the culture of impunity.
Like the President, the Prime Minister asked Kenyans to focus on the current roll-out of the new Constitution.
“Kenyans (should) not to be unduly distracted, let alone believe everything being said or disclosed from these leakages. Instead, there is need for greater circumspection and calm.
“ I urge our patriotic citizens to exercise fair judgment, responsibility and proper analysis in their treatment of whatever information has come, and still may come from Wikileaks,” added Mr Odinga to whom the US assistant secretary of state for African Affairs, Mr Johnny Carson, had already apologised in advance.
But even in his fury, the Prime Minister was a tad exuberant that, coming at a time when Kenyans were grappling with the article on 'Access to Information’ in the new Constitution, the cables were a reminder that the truth will always come out.
“Let it be known and appreciated by Kenyans, that, all those things that we do under the cover of darkness in the hope that they shall, so remain... must at some point bubble out and be known,” he said.
He alluded to the on-going work of the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission as among the government’s journey towards a transparent society.
“The national momentum for reform, is indeed the confirmation that we in Kenya desire a more truthful, honest society that does not need to be haunted by any dark secrets or deeds of the past,” he said.
This week, the country has seen other secret files concerning the distant and recent pasts laid bare, implicating key people in the past and current government.
The most notable report is that on the grisly murder of former influential Foreign Affairs Minister Robert Ouko. The report adopted this week in Parliament shows that Dr Ouko was killed at State House, Nakuru after an Executive order.
There’s also the report giving details of the State House connection to the illegal activities of the two gun-toting Armenian conmen, infamously remembered for masterminding the March 2006 raid on the Standard Group and the embarrassing security lapse at Jomo Kenyatta Airport in the same year.

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