By JOHN KAMAU jkamau@ke.nationmedia.comPosted Sunday, March 6 2011 at 20:56
On November 2, 2009, US ambassador Michael Ranneberger drove to State House, Nairobi, to deliver a letter from President Obama.
Shortly after he delivered the message, President Kibaki pointed out – “rather vaguely” – that there were concerns about the US support for youth groups.
But “before a discussion could take place”, the envoy says in a secret cable to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, “the President’s permanent secretary (Francis) Muthaura jumped in to say the President had another meeting, and the President left the room.
“Muthaura then told me that some of the government Ministers wanted to talk with me.”
Waiting for Mr Ranneberger were Internal Security minister George Saitoti, Foreign Affairs minister Moses Wetang’ula, Deputy Prime Minister, Musalia Mudavadi and other officials.
(Prime Minister Raila Odinga is alleged in the cables to have later told Mr Ranneberger that Mudavadi was “pressured” to attend the meeting.)
The group is said to have expressed concern about the funding of youth activities and told Mr Ranneberger that such activities were “unhelpful”. They warned that “troublemakers” could seek to disrupt a youth meeting slated for November.
Mr Ranneberger, the cables indicate, told them that he “did not appreciate the veiled threat through the reference to troublemakers. In fact, I noted, if as it claims the government is committed to reform then it should embrace the meeting.”
He later narrated to Mrs Clinton how he “pushed back hard, acknowledging US support for the meeting, but making clear that the agenda and participation were being organised by the youth organisations”.
Although in the same cable Mr Ranneberger admits that it was him who came up with the idea of a national forum, he wrote to Prof Saitoti, Mr Mudavadi, Mr Muthaura and Mr Wetang’ula, telling them that the agenda (of the national forum) had been set by the youth organisations and that he was only invited as an observer.
But to Mrs Clinton he said: “In September (2009) my team and I met with six prominent youth leaders to float the idea of our supporting youth organisations to hold a National Youth Forum to focus on the reform agenda and national reconciliation.”
With the technical support of the embassy, the youth activists reached out to over 60 other youth organisations and developed a plan of action to hold a National Youth Forum on November 17 at the KICC.
A week before the forum, on November 10, Mr Ranneberger said he received a call from Mr Wetang’ula, who said “the government still did not want the forum to take place”
On the night of November 9, the offices of a USAid “contractor” which was “providing the funding and support to the youth organisations for the holding of the forum” were burglarised.
Mr Ranneberger told Mrs Clinton that “the operation has the hallmarks of the National Security and Intelligence Service, which is often used to intimidate civil society activists.”
According to the ambassador the ruling elite “is so threatened by a meeting of several hundred youth that this edifice may be weaker and less resilient than anyone suspects.”
The main idea of holding the youth forum was to “raise the profile of youth initiatives to push for reform”.
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