Secret letters: Why Kibaki shamed UK

By David Ochami

President Kibaki rejected British government’s invitation because of unwillingness to account for post-election violence and also face questions on the turning of Kenya away from the West and embracing China.

The President also turned down the 2010 invite that would have seen him meet Queen Elizabeth II because it was rated as "a non-ceremonial guest", something top Foreign Affairs officials in Nairobi advised was beneath his dignity as Head of State.

Thika Super-Highway built by the Chinese. Under Kibaki, Kenya has increasingly turned from the West and embraced China. [PHOTO: FILE/STANDARD]

The Standard established the feelings by Kibaki’s allies the British were conspiring against him and his regime began on 2008 and may have only been compounded by the controversial UK ‘dossier’ brought to Parliament last month.

Among allegations made in the dossier are that President Kibaki was under investigation for the 2008 post-election violence and could be tried after his retirement next year.

The claims in the ‘dossier’ that among other things suggested Prime Minister Raila Odinga was the West’s preferred successor to Kibaki and that two of The Hague suspects with presidential ambitions would be locked up, are now under investigation by parliament’s Defence and Foreign Relations Committee.

Secret letters seen by The Standard show that Kibaki’s aides felt the British were plotting to meet the Kenyan leader to lecture him and "regain some political clout in Kenya" during the visit.

Post-election violence

The president’s visit would have coincided with International Criminal Court (ICC) investigations into Kenya’s post-election violence that has now led to the indictment of two of the President’s close confidants — Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and former Head of Civil Serice Mr Francis Muthaura.

The post-election violence not only broke out because defunct Electoral Commission of Kenya’s controversial declaration of Kibaki as winner but marked Kenya’s darkest period as the President and his insiders strove to remain in power, something ICC blamed for the extra-judicial and revenge killings executed by state agents and their allies then.

Between 2005 and 2009 the Kibaki regime also bought huge amounts of weapons from the Chinese, according to Western thinktanks, some of which it transferred to third countries, against UN regulations.

The regime was also, extremely divided over justice for victims of the post-election violence without progress on a new constitution, war on terrorism, major reforms and also under intense scrutiny for its human rights record including extra-judicial killings and an insurgency in Mount Elgon that forced a visit by former UN rapporteur for extra-judicial killings, Prof Philip Alston.

Sense of paranoia

n the failed visit Kibaki felt an invitation by former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, was low key and his advisers convinced him the British were biased against his regime after his disputed re-election in 2007.

The British themselves inflamed the Kenya regime’s sense of paranoia when the UK High Commission (BHC) in Nairobi attached a message to an earlier invitation by Brown characterising Kibaki’s planned visit as "a non-ceremonial Guest of Government," a characterisation that threw the Kibaki regime into fits of anger and whining.

It is apparent that the British extended the invite late 2009, which was followed by a clarification from British High Commission on December 17, 2009 and finally sealed with a formal letter by the former UK premier on January 13, 2010.

Significantly the BHC letter only reached the Kenyan officials on February 19, 2010. "The trip is off," an unnamed official at the Foreign Affairs ministry screamed in an advisory to the president’s office after receiving the clarification note from BHC.

The official’s brief notes against the invitation accuses the British of providing "a shallow itinerary and programme" beneath the dignity of the Kenyan leader.

But the spirit and temper of the denunciation was elaborated in confidential notes by new Foreign Affairs minister Sam Ongeri to the Defence and Foreign Relations Committee last week.

When he testified before the committee on Wednesday Prof Ongeri acknowledged Brown invited Kibaki and that the Kenyan leader turned it down because the planned protocol was "inappropriate".

He complained that after Kibaki’s failed trip the British were planning to roll out a State visit "to another State shortly." He does not name the alleged State but argues that the kind of visit planned for Kibaki did not amount to a State visit. "Further," Ongeri laments, "the president was to be hosted for dinner by the Foreign Secretary (Mr David Miliband)."

In his invitation Brown inflamed the suspicions of Kibaki’s handlers by declaring that besides offering British support "through current challenges facing you" he intended to make the planned meeting with Kibaki "a valuable opportunity to discuss Kenya’s reform path, as well as to pursue co-operation on shared bilateral and regional interests."

But the Kenyan authorities read a lot more in Brown’s apparently plain letter deciphering the devil in its details and their fears are confirmed in BHC’s clarification which read in part:

"The visit will be a non-ceremonial Guest of Government visit which will include a call on Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, dinner with Hon David Miliband MP, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs and a call on Hon Gordon Brown, Prime minister."

The advisory from Kenyan Foreign Ministry at the time discerned mischief in BHC’s and Brown’s statements. Kibaki’s advisors concluded that "a call on Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth" was a diplomatic nicety that concealed the real intentions of the meeting planned with Brown.

Bilateral co-operation

According to Kibaki’s advisors mischief was also evident in the phrase "dinner with Hon David Miliband" for they considered this a degradation of Kibaki and Kenya’s value to the British.

Whereas the advisory from the Kenyan Foreign ministry curtly derides the invitation as "shallow and degrading", Ongeri wrote last week "the (failed) visit was not actually intended to be an occasion to promote further bilateral co-operation and exchange."

The unnamed Foreign Minister wrote to BHC: "The trip is off. It is important to establish how such a shallow programme/itinerary that lacks in dignity and content was arrived at."