Why Libyan rebels attacked Kenya's embassy in Tripoli

By David Ochami

Libyan rebels have attacked the Kenya Embassy in Tripoli because they believe the country enjoyed close links with deposed leader Muammar Gaddafi and even supplied him with mercenaries. Separately, it has been established the UN in New York indicated that the Arab League rejected a UN offer for Kenya to lead a UN stabilisation force in Libya at the end of hostilities.

Though Kenya denies the attacks were motivated by the rebel group’s suspicions over ties between Kenya and Libya, it concedes its premises were not spared the mayhem in Tripoli.

The latest attack on the diplomatic premises took place on Sunday, according to a Kenyan diplomat in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The diplomat revealed gunmen sprayed automatic fire at the mission, ransacked it, and attempted to rape a Libyan woman who works there.

But Foreign Affairs Assistant minister Richard Onyonka says the attacks are motivated by "general lawlessness" in Libya, and a belief among some members of the Libyan Transitional National Council (TNC) that "any dark skinned people are linked to Gaddafi".

Onyonka said on Wednesday, "We are aware the attacks took place, they were sporadic." But he declined to link the assaults to a political motive.

"There is a tendency that individuals who are dark skinned (in Libya) are linked to Gaddafi," argued Onyonka.

Reports reveal the attacks have been continuous and sporadic since the capture of the Libyan capital by anti-Gaddafi forces, two weeks ago.

At the start of the anti-Gaddafi rebellion in February, former Gaddafi chief of protocol Nouri al Mismari told Al Jazeera that Kenyan, Chadian, Malian and Nigerian mercenaries were fighting to crush the Transitional National Council rebellion.

Besides that, Western diplomatic sources in Nairobi have revealed that two former senior diplomats at the Libyan Embassy in Nairobi supplied this information to the TNC, and key Western embassies in Nairobi.

The two diplomats fled Nairobi to join TNC early July, after implicating some Kenyan officials in the alleged recruitment of Kenyan mercenaries through war-torn Somalia and other channels to Libya.

The African Union and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kenya acknowledge that several attacks have been made on the Kenyan embassy, in the Siyehiya neighbourhood of Tripoli, but give different interpretations on why the property has been targeted. Kenya opened the mission in 2004 and its envoy there is Antony Muchiri.

According to AU Commission Chairman, Jean Ping, who spoke to South Africa’s e-TV on Tuesday morning, the attack sprung from acts of racism and belief that sub-Saharan embassies in the Libyan capital supported pro-Gaddafi mercenaries.

Meanwhile the Kenyan diplomat in Addis Ababa also argued that Ping’s analysis of the attack on the Kenyan mission is disputed because the TNC forces have also attacked premises owned by Vietnam, Venezuela and the Philippines.

Fostering racism

It is important to note that Vietnam and Philippines have not recognised TNC, while Venezuela and its President Hugo Chavez remains a strong ally of the fugitive Libyan leader who is also perceived to be close to President Kibaki and Vice- President Kalonzo Musyoka.

On Tuesday Ping accused the TNC of fostering racist hatred against black Africans from within and outside Libya.

He claimed TNC was treating all "dark skinned people as mercenaries".

"They are killing black people," he said, and added that all dark-skinned people are accused of mercenary activity while some embassies were attacked for the same reasons.

"They are attacking some embassies such as Kenya’s," he added.

Meanwhile The Standard has learnt that the statement issued by Internal Security minister George Saitoti last week when he was acting Foreign Affairs minister has annoyed key people in the Office of the President allied to President Kibaki.

It is alleged that key allies of the President’s accuse Saitoti of issuing the statement, predicting the collapse of the Gaddafi regime and recognising TNC.

The Standard has also learnt that prior to the arrival of the rebels in Tripoli, international pressure on Kenya to recognise Libya’s TNC had intensified. This was because of the country’s delay in recognising Libya’s new rulers.

In July The Standard disclosed the US had written to the Kibaki regime in April and June urging it to recognise the TNC. It is now understood that the British and French governments and even TNC itself also lobbied Kenyan officials in May, through to July, to ditch Gaddafi.

Kenya is not among the 20 African countries that have recognised the TNC. But early last week, Saitoti, who has since left the ministry following reappointment of Moses Wetangula as Foreign minister, declared that the collapse of the Gaddafi regime was "inevitable". He pledged Kenya’s willingness to work with the ‘interim’ authorities in Tripoli.

"The British and French approached us to consider recognising the TNC," said Patrick Wamoto, who until last week was acting Permanent Secretary in the ministry.

Mr Wamoto told The Standard mid-last week that the British and French diplomats in Nairobi lobbied Kenya "which is a member of the African Union Peace and Security Council", not to endorse a censure of the UN Security Council and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation military action against the Gaddafi regime in Equatorial Guinea between June 23 and July 1.

Peace and Security meeting

A top diplomat at the Libyan Embassy in Nairobi told The Standard on Sunday that the diplomats intend to switch allegiance to TNC, but they are lobbying for the concurrence of Kibaki Government to avoid instant deportation.

Last week Libyan diplomats were expelled from Zimbabwe after defecting to TNC. Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe still supports Gaddafi.

Wamoto confirmed TNC envoys also tried to lobby Kenyan diplomats attending the AU Peace and Security Council for recognition in May, through to July, at meetings in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

"They were lobbying us among other African countries at the AU Peace and Security meeting," he said adding:

"They were lobbying us for recognition, but we thought that was not the best way to go."

Wamoto said Kenya could not recognise TNC unilaterally, because she was bound by AU resolutions calling for a negotiated settlement to crisis in Libya.