Mr. George Henry Kinyua, the First Secretary at the Kenyan Embassy In Stockholm who has been in charge of Counsellor Affairs, has been transferred to Canada ”on a promotion”. Impeachable sources in Nairobi could not, however, confirm when Mr. Kinyua will be leaving for Canada although the diplomat is expected to leave before the end of the year. The Embassy could not immediately comment on the news.
Mr. Kinyua was posted to the Embassy in 2005 together with Mrs Josephine Vivian Awuor, the Principle Counsellor. Reasons for Mr. Kinyua’s transfer before completion of his mandatory four years ”tour of duty” were not immediately clear.
A source close to KSB at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Nairobi said that it is routine for diplomats to be transferred to different parts of the world especially ahead of a General election when a new government might assume power with lots of unpredictable developments.
Although officially Mr. Kinyua has been the First secretary, it is believed that he has mainly been in charge of ”security affairs” at the Embassy. The position of ”Security attache” used to be important during the days of the underground Movement, Mwakenya when Moi dictated but the position became watered down following the opening of the democratic space in Kenya.
Mr. Kinyua has been very social with Kenyans in Stockholm. Among the current top diplomats, he remains the only one who has consistently been mingling with Kenyans at different functions especially during bereavements. When Bryan Njoroge lost his Mother in Kenya during the summer, Mr. Kinyua was one of the Kenyans who gathered for Prayers at Njoroge’s place while when this writer lost his brother last month, Mr. Kinyua was also in attendance together with his wife Mrs Magdaline Mwiriki Kinyua.
Another recent function where Mr. Kinyua was spotted was the gathering of friends that was called by Mr. Nyori to welcome his son who had just been born. Mr. Kinyua was seen by many Kenyans as a good candidate who was in a position to replace Mr. James Kiboi, a very social member of staff who lost his life in a house inferno in Norway in September last year.
Prior to his death, Mr. Kiboi was the public face of the Kenyan Embassy and although Mr. Kinyua tended to fill the vacuum with considerable effort following Kiboi’s demise, his departure is likely to leave a huge vacuum at the Embassy unless his replacement lives up to the social standards the diplomat has been trying to set.
Most importantly, Mr. Kinyua has been very close to the Baggarmossen Church where he has been a member. A staunch Christian, Mr. Kinyua is believed to have played a leading role in the setting up of the Church soon after he arrived from Kenya. However, the diplomat took a step backwards to give room to other Kenyans to lead the Church, probably because of the difficulty in reconciling his diplomatic profile and religious affiliations.
The problem was that critics in Stockholm saw Mr. Kinyua’s direct involvement in Church affairs as contradictory with his role as a diplomat who was not supposed to openly take sides especially on matters of religion. Kenyans who are not religious felt that by offering to ”lead the Church”, the diplomat was, in reality, on his way to isolating non religious Kenyans when he was supposed to have been uniting everybody.
These Kenyans began to raise criticisms, arguing that it was better for Mr. Kinyua to remain an ordinary member of the Church instead of taking to the pulpit on a regular basis to preach to the faithful. Mr. Kinyua appears to have quickly understood the complications and retreated to play a low profile in the Church as an ordinary member of the congregation.
Another problem was how to fight propaganda to the effect that with Mr. Kinyua, a top diplomat, at the helm of Bargarmossen church, Kenya government resources were being used to build the Church. Critics began to question why Embassy car was being used to ferry passengers to the church while questions also arose as to who was fuelling or maintaining the car during private operations.
Mr. Kinyua will, most likely, be missed by Wakenya in Stockholm who had just started to understand his modus operandi. His departure will leave the Embassy even more unable to defend itself because Mr. Kinyua was seen as the Spokesperson of the Embassy especially on controversial issues which could not be handled by the Ambassador who is just about a year old at the Mission.
Mr. Kinua had just returned from a trip to Kenya when KSB gathered that he is facing a transfer. It is not known whether he went to Kenya to seal the transfer or whether he was just on holiday.
Okoth Osewe
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