Moses Trubadur, a Kenyan Musician in Stockholm, attacked the Kenyan Embassy for collecting personal information of Kenyans while doing nothing to help the community in Scandinavia. Broadly, Trubadur is right because for years, the Kenyan Embassy in Stockholm has been repeatedly lackadaisical in helping Kenyans in situations of urgent and dire need. Since Ambassador Purity Muhindi took over at the Embassy in August last year, the situation has only deteriorated and few Kenyans are surprised.
As Trubadur aptly put it, we have an Ambassador who has never introduced herself to Kenyans in Scandinavia since she took over from former Ambassador Kinyanjui. Purity has continued to perpetuate a “no hands policy” on matters touching on Kenyans in Scandinavia.
When Juliet Kavinga’s body was discovered last July after she was brutally murdered by a Swedish national, the Kenyan Embassy stood by as a spectator as if Kavinga was not a Kenyan national. Kenyans in Stockholm had to form the ”Juliet Kavinga Committee” to stop a group of opportunist Swedish nationals from exploiting the tragedy to make money out of Juliet’s body. Although the media reported on the story, there was not a single comment from the Embassy.
The Juliet Committee was formed out of anger after a total stranger announced in the Swedish media that he would bury Juliet’s body in Stockholm. Other Swedish opportunists set up a Foundation to “fund raise for Projects” even before the issue of transporting Juliet’s body to Kenya could be addressed.
Angered by the theatre in the Swedish media, the Juliet Committee mobilized Kenyans and raised Ksh 480.000 to transport Juliet’s body to Kenya. At the fund raising, sympathetic Embassy staff sent their donation privately through the late Mr. James Kiboi. Officially, the Embassy did nothing and the whole responsibility – from the memorial service to the transportation of the body – was left to Wakenya in Stockholm.
ANNUAL INVITATION TO JAMHURI DRINKING SPREE
Even if Juliet had left her personal details with the Embassy, there wasn’t much the institution could have done and this is the reality with the current collection of personal information from Wakenya by the Embassy. It is a time consuming-money wasting exercise that has no meaning unless the embassy could come up with a better explanation.
Throughout its history, the Embassy is known for inviting Wakenya for a two hour drinking spree during Jamhuri day and that is once a year – on 12th December. It is a drinking spree because there is never speeches, only drinks as people rumble for two hours. What does the birthplace of Wakenya got to do with Jamhuri. More intriguing, what does the birthdays of Wakenya got to do with alcohol consumed on Jamhuri day because that is the only day the Embassy normally uses its database to contact Wakenya.
A few years ago, a Kenyan woman, was knocked down by a surface train under mysterious circumstances that pointed to possible murder. Those in the know believed that the Kenyan woman’s death had something to do with being pushed on to the rail by unknown people. When the Embassy was approached to try and help in turning stones to unearth the truth, the institution refused, choosing instead, to accept uncritically the verdict by Swedish police that the Kenyan woman had died in a ”train accident”.
Don’t worry that the scene of the accident was neither a train station nor an intersection. It was at a secluded and well fenced off area that was off limiti to pedestrians. Even for a lay man, it was difficult to understand how the Kenyan woman could have left a pub in Järfella in a car and in the company of four Swedish men at 10.00 PM only to be found dead hours later.
While the Embassy stood by and watched events from Birgerjarlsgatan 37, Wakenya organized meetings to raise funds for the woman’s son to travel to Sweden from Kenya because the Swedish authorities refused to talk to anybody who was not a “next of kin”.
Wakenya raised enough cash and both the lady’s son and uncle travelled to Sweden over the case. Mrs Nyambura Ngatia was at the head of campaigns to bring the woman’s relatives to Sweden. At the funeral, which was held at Järfella, the Embassy never sent a single representative.
THANKLESS EMBASSY AFTER SOLIDARITY WITH KIBOI’S FAMILY
The body of Mr. Achacha got stuck in Sweden for three months as Wakenya stuggled day and night to raise funds to transport his body to Kenya. As usual, the Embassy was nowhere to be seen. Even if Mr. Achacha had left his personal details to the Embassy, there is nothing the Ambassador could have done to help because this is the official policy.
Then, when Mr. James Kiboi passed away in a house inferno in Norway last year, his body was readily transported to Kenya through the Kenyan Embassy in Stockholm and no Kenyan was asked to contribute a penny towards the transport. Dead bodies aside, is this discrimination or do Kenyans in Scandinavia need to accept that there are some Kenyans whose dead bodies are more important than others?
Kenyans did not just stream into Kiboi’s residence daily to mourn with the family. They pitched tent at the residence for days but what happened in the end? Kenyans had to make noise for the Embassy to organize a memorial service for Kiboi so that they could pay their last respects and Gerry Midenyo led the campaign. After Kiboi’s burial, the Embassy never even bothered to send a “thank you” message to Kenyans for the huge solidarity during the trying moments.
A thank you message that was published in the Daily Nation praised Prof George Saitoti and others who attended the funeral but left the whole of the Kenyan community in Stockholm out because they are not important. The advert was placed by Kiboi’s family but the Embassy could also have made an effort to reach Wakenya because Kiboi was an Embassy official. A Kenyan who had travelled all the way to Kenya to attend the funeral was never mentioned in the Nation report and Kenyans in Stockholm wondered why their efforts were never appreciated. The Embassy must be told the truth even if it means repeating it several times.
If the Embassy has a policy of not transporting bodies of Wakenya back home for burial, how comes that the body of the late Dr. Mukaru Nganga was transported to Kenya at the Embassy’s expense? Surely, the demarcation between “VIP Kenyans” and “Odiangabuks” (worthless and ordinary) is very real when a Kenyan dies in Scandinavia.
Arthur Opot passed away on 20th November 2005 but his body was stuck in Sweden for more than three months as Wakenya struggled to raise funds. Where was the Kenyan Embassy and what could they have done with Opot’s personal information? I hear someone at the Embassy saying that “We could have informed the next of kin”. Stop there because that role is normally played by Wakenya.
MAGGERO’S BODY WAS REDUCED TO ASHES AS EMBASSY WATCHED
Mr. James Wuod Maggero was one Kenyan who had very strong connections to the Kenyan Embassy. It was for this reason that Jenipher Awuor, (the Assistant Ambassador?) made an effort to visit him at hospital during his last days.
But when he passed away, the Embassy simply made a disappearing act. This was despite the fact that Wakenya were fighting tooth and nail to try and block the cremation of maggero’s body without the involvement of his family back in Kenya.
What did the Embassy do? It never attended a single meeting of Wakenya, choosing instead, to host Maggero’s Swedish wife at the Embassy who had apparently gone to inform the institution that Maggero, a Kenyan citizen, had passed away.
Maggero’s body was eventually reduced to ashes under the very nose of the Ambassador and without a single intervention on grounds that the matter was ”a private family affair”. Once again, don’t worry that Maggero’s Kenyan family never attended the cremation because the Embassy could not help. The family sent a letter through a lawyer asking for a delay of the funeral but the Embassy had already decided not to get involved.
SACKING NJENGA TO HIRE A SWEDISH COMPANY
Too much attacks based on dead bodies? Let us look at the case of Mr. Njenga Muirani, a Kenyan national whose case is also the most recent. He was working for the Embassy but after Ambassador Kinyanjui left, Njenga was immediately fired from his job as a gardener to be replaced by a Swedish company.
To add to his tribulations, the Embassy refused to pay Njenga his salary of 10.000 kr because the person he worked for (James Kiboi) had died. Although Njenga transformed Kiboi’s bushy villa into a neat abode fit for a diplomat (the neighbors reportedly clapped their hands and helped with cutting equipment when Njenga arrived), Josephine Awuor wrote to Njenga telling him that he will never be paid. It was a slap on the face. The case is still pending.
There are some things Embassy staff can do better. Instead of spending more time in helping Wakenya, an Embassy official has set up a religious sect in Stockholm at a place called Baggarmossen. We won’t go into allegations of what happens at this sect because we are still gathering evidence. But one question could be posed. Has the Embassy embarked on a clandestine “recruitment drive” of sect members through the collection of personal data and addresses of Wakenya?
The Embassy is not in the habit of summoning Kenyans to meet Kenyan MPs and other officials during their trips to Sweden. During their sojourns, these officials are normally “well insulated” from Wakenya so that they may escape from “embarrassing questions” from fire-breathing Kenyans in Stockholm so what does the Embassy want to do with personal information of Wakenya?
Only in Scandinavia do we, as Kenyans, have an Embassy that grabs its own land then sells it after distorting the boundary. The case is still pending before the Swedish authorities.
At KSB, we believe that Ambassador Muhindi should first put her house in order before stretching out her hand to Wakenya. Trubadur’s attack on Kenyan Embassy was timely and to the point.
Okoth Osewe
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