Jostling for envoys jobs
Updated on: Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Story by: Obadiah Ayoti
THE much anticipated appointment and re-deployment of ambassadors and high commissioners by President Mwai Kibaki has not been effected due to intense lobbying and
political intrigues.It is understood that Party of National Unity (PNU) and Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) operatives are locked in intense jostling and canvassing for key postings.
The appointments which were scheduled to be announced last week by President Kibaki are expected to be made this week following extensive consultations with Prime Minister Raila Odinga. The President is expected to make the ambassadorial appointments alongside those of chief executives of state corporations.
PNU and ODM leaders are said to be silently exchanging jibes with each party fighting for strategic missions abroad in what is also being seen as attempts to consolidate power bases. At the centre of the intense jostling are influential Western postings that include the United Kingdom, United States, Germany and France. Also attracting keen interest is South Africa.
Sources intimated to Kenya Times that Kenyan envoys to the United Kingdom and United States, Joseph Muchemi and Rateng Ogego respectively, are set to be recalled and their positions taken over by allies of the Prime Minister. The rationale, we are told, is the apparent cordial relationships the PM enjoys with those in power in these capitals. ODM strategists are understood to have been pushing for the removal of Ogego, whom they believe owed his appointment to former Foreign Affairs minister Raphael Tuju.
Also targeted for recall are the ambassadors to New York Zachary Domnic Mbururi-Muita, Rachel Omamo (France), Ann Belinda Nyukuli (Rome, Italy), Mutuma Kathurima (Berlin) and Thomas Amollo (South Africa).Other postings up for grabs include missions in Cairo, Brussels, Geneva, Canada, Australia, Russia and Stokholm. Former cabinet minister and ODM strategist in last year’s general election Dr Amukoa Anangwe is said to be eyeing St James Court (the UK) but PNU bigwigs are lobbying for him to be posted to a lesser strategic mission.
Anangwe’s appointment is premised on the presumption that since Raila enjoys good rapport with the West, it would make more strategic sense (economic ties) to have his man in the UK.On the other hand, the diplomatic quid-pro-quo (something for something) arrangement floated requires Kibaki to appoint envoys to key Eastern countries like China where the president is said to enjoy massive support for increased business deals over the five years he has been in power.
To this end, Kibaki is understood to have already appointed a former powerful Internal Security minister during the Moi regime as Kenyan ambassador to China. The new envoy is yet to take up the Beijing posting. The former senior Kanu official recently withdrew from the race for a key Rift Valley Parliamentary seat which was subsequently won by a PNU candidate.
The move comes at a time when the ministry of Foreign Affairs has made a major reshuffle in various missions abroad, replacing 200 officers. The officers will be replaced with new ones who are currently undergoing training at the Kenya Foreign Service Institute. The changes were made in anticipation of new appointments of heads of mission abroad.
The tussle for the prestigious appointments comes against a backdrop of discontent within ODM and amid claims that the party has been short-changed placed at the periphery in the coalition by President Kibaki who still wields too much power and influence despite having agreed to share power equally with the Premier as stipulated by the National Accord and Reconciliation Act.
The dissenting voices in ODM who are mostly MPs point out that about four months down the road since Raila was sworn in, his office is not fully functional either by design or default, that it is a sham for a portfolio of that stature to have only four members of staff who include the Permanent Secretary Mohammed Isahakia. They question why those who were top strategists and ODM supporters have not been appointed to ambassadorial and parastatal positions and why President Kibaki retained all the positions after the signing of the accord.
When reached for comment last evening, Foreign Affairs minister Moses Wetangula downplayed the issue, insisting that President Kibaki and Raila would make the appointments at an appropriate time.”There is no crisis to warrant emergency appointments. The two principals are still consulting and it is prudent that you give them time,” said Wetangula.But an ODM insider confirmed to Kenya Times about the tussle and expressed hope that there would be equity in the postings.
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