Two months ago, news that Mr. Daniel Mukiri Kinyanjui, the Kenyan Ambassador to Scandinavia, had been recalled by the Kibaki government was made official. Just like any other diplomat, Mr. Kinyanjui had completed his four year “tour of duty”, a period that also saw relative calm and quietness when it came to politics between the Embassy and fire-breathing Kenya-Stockholm politicians.
Not a single anti-government demonstration by any group was witnessed outside the Embassy during Kinyanjui’s reign. As the soft-spoken Ambassador packs his luggage to say good bye to Stockholm, he goes down as having had it smooth and easy-going with Kenyans in Stockholm.
One explanation is that when Mr. Kinyanjui assumed office, a new government had just been installed in Kenya through a popular vote that ended more than four decades of dictatorship by two Presidents under the Kenya African National Union (KANU).
The holiday Mr. Kinyanjui has been enjoying at the Embassy has not been accidental. The Ambassador was a key beneficiary of the “good will” the Narc government had from Kenyans when the coalition took power in January 2003. Kinyanjui also profited heavily from a change of tactic by Kenyan opposition in Scandinavia that had actually supported Narc, not because it agreed with the Coalition’s politics but because of the then urgent need to remove Moi from power, a ruthless despot who had become a major stumbling block in the struggle for democracy and human rights in Kenya.
Mr. Kinyanjui assumed office at a time when many Kenyans who came to Sweden for “political reasons” had retired from politics to pursue economic objectives. Kinyanjui landed when a handful of Kenyan asylum seekers whose cases had been dismissed by the Swedish authorities during the 90s had retreated into matrimonial enclaves to secure permanent resident status in Sweden. Some Kenyans who had been granted asylum had also gone back to Kenya after Narc took power or simply maintained a low profile to watch the new Narc government from a distance.
For other asylum seekers who were faced with serious immigration problems and difficult lives in the underground, politics took a back seat and when Kinyanjui arrived in Sweden, there was already a marked decrease in political activity especially outside the Kenyan Embassy in Stockholm.
The last demonstration that was organized by the Kenya People’s Democratic Movement (KEPEDEMO-Mapinduzi) in December 2002 outside the Embassy and whose key demand was Constitutional reforms before elections attracted about 10 participants. This was a year before Mr. Kinyanjui’s arrival.
After he presented his credentials, the out-going Ambassador met a friendly crowd of Kenyans that was not only interested in giving the Narc government a chance but also in working with the Embassy for the benefit of Kenyans in Scandinavia. The first indication that Kinyanjui would have a “walk-over” in Stockholm came when almost “who is who” in Kenyan politics in Stockholm teamed up at the short lived “Hakuna Matata” restaurant to launch a Narc branch in Sweden.
This unique initiative died soon after the MoU was dumped by Kibaki. When tribalism crept back into government and corruption began to take root, critics who took the initiative to set up Narc Stockholm quickly saw the serious complications that would arise with a Narc branch in Stockholm.
The new regime, led by General Kiguoya (Kibaki), was recklessly moving in a direction that would certainly make it indefensible within a very short period of time. Consequently, the move to launch Narc-Stockholm was quickly put on ice as groups and individuals who had come together to form the branch went on vacation to observe and analyze serious events that were unfolding in Kenya. In the meantime, Ambassador Kinyanjui seized on the opportunity to extend his honey moon at the Embassy.
A major boost for Ambassador Kinyanjui is that as anti-Kibaki sentiments began to build towards the end of 2003, a tiny group of opportunists mainly from the Kikuyu ethnic group also began to exhume the monster of tribalism to explain the political crisis that was quickly engulfing the Narc government. The main argument by these ethnic crusaders was that members of the Luo community in Kenya led by Raila Odinga were out to subvert the Kibaki Presidency and that under the circumstances, all Kikuyus in Sweden needed to support Kibaki to thwart the “Luo conspiracy”.
The most vocal critic who clashed publicly with members of this group was Mr. Martin Ngatia who dismissed them as a bunch of short sighted ethnic chauvinists whose world view was narrow despite their having lived abroad for many years. An important aspect of this development was that this group provided Ambassador Kinyanjui with a “safety net” as the Narc government slowly began to split.
Kinyanjui also benefited from the fact that at the time he arrived in Stockholm, there was no central and non political Kenyan organization in Stockholm that the new Ambassador could deal with directly. What this meant was that the Ambassador did not have to worry about pressure from any organized force because the organizational vacuum was replaced by ad hoc Committees which sprung up whenever a function that could link the Kenyan community to the Embassy came up.
Kinyanjui is now on his way back to Kenya. But he leaves one legacy at the Embassy. He goes down as the first Ambassador to facilitate all-night parties for Kenyans during Jamhuri days while he also takes credit for having opened his office to Wakenya whenever an ad hoc Committee needed his attention at the Embassy.
Kinyanjui’s successor is taking over at a much more difficult time because the popularity of Kibaki’s government has not only waned but the regime is facing a formidable opposition that might even overthrow it. The new Ambassador is taking over fourteen months before General elections in Kenya and at a time when ODM-Kenya branch is in the process of being formed in Scandinavia. The implication here is that the new Ambassador might not have it as smooth as Kinyanjui because the battle-lines are slowly being drawn even before her arrival in turbulent Stockholm.
Okoth Osewe
makosewe@gmail.com
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