Gration’s leadership indicted in US report
An independent review of the US Embassy in Nairobi has accused outgoing ambassador Jonathan Scott Gration of "nearly running down the mission and exposing staff to security risks". The report by the Office of Inspector General, which is under the State Department gave a scathing indictment on Gration's management style that also includes disregarding US government decisions and lowering staff morale .
“The Ambassador’s greatest weakness is his reluctance to accept clear-cut US government decisions. He made clear his disagreement with Washington policy decisions and directives concerning the safe-havening in Nairobi of families of department employees who volunteered to serve in extreme hardship posts; the creation of a free-standing Somalia Unit; and the non-use of commercial email for official government business, including Sensitive But Unclassified information,” one of the report's key findings states.
The report focused on three key areas — policy implementation, resource management and management controls. The inspectors based their report on a review of key records and on-site interviews with the embassy staff and foreign office staff in Washington, DC, between April 9 and May 1 and in Nairobi, Kisumu, and Kericho, Kenya, between May 2 and 30.
Gration, the report noted, did not read classified messages from Washington. “The Ambassador does not read classified front channel messages and has not established a system to have his staff screen incoming cables relevant to Kenya and US interests in the region. The damning indictment on Gration's lacklustre management and diplomatic style brought to an abrupt end his tour of duty in Kenya on July 28.
On June 29, Gration announced his resignation citing differences in “leadership style” with Washington. He succeeded the outspoken Michael Ranneberger in May last, but maintained a "non-controversial" diplomatic demeanour and held very few meetings with Kenyan officials.
“There have been few reporting messages on the Ambassador’s limited number of meetings with Kenyan officials. His contacts with the press have been similarly limited and non-controversial,” said the report. His unilateral decision-making is also manifest in redirecting programming for nearly $550 million (Sh45.4 billion) in US health assistance that was found to have created confusion over its relationship to existing programmess.
For instance, he announced the establishment of a new unfunded programme, called Let’s Live, “with the unrealistic aim” of reducing by 50 per cent in one year Kenya’s premature mortality rates for infants, mothers, and non-communicable diseases. His relationship with the staff at the embassy also caused panic in Washington that the US' biggest mission in Africa will become dysfunctional unless remedial action was not taken.
“The Ambassador has lost the respect and confidence of the staff to lead the mission. Of more than 80 chiefs of mission inspected in recent cycles, the Ambassador ranked last for interpersonal relations, next to last on both managerial skill and attention to morale, and third from last in his overall scores from surveys of mission members. The inspectors found no reason to question these assessments; the Ambassador’s leadership to date has been divisive and ineffective,” the reports adds.
With such detached leadership both within and outside the embassy, the staff on several occasions preferred to overlook him and rather deal with the former deputy head of mission. Gration was also found to have downgraded and undermined the “an excellent Financial Year 2013 Mission Strategic and Resource Plan” and came up with "mission essential tasks" which were found to vary greatly in format and length and essentially include parallel objectives and performance indicators.
These “mission essential tasks” were found to consume considerable staff time but produced documents of unclear status and almost no value to the State Department in approving priorities and assigning resources. He also reduced country team meetings from weekly to bi-weekly and was unwilling to meet agency heads who wanted to brief him on their programmes.
“After his first year at the embassy, several have still not been given time on his calendar to explain their programmes and have stopped asking. Like many multi-agency missions, Embassy Nairobi is not easy to manage; the Ambassador has made the task much harder by compounding its complexity,” the report observed.
Before his posting in Kenya, Gration, a retired Major General of the US Air Force previously served as Obama's representative in Sudan and oversaw the secession of Juba from Khartoum last year.
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