The Kenyan Ambassador to Scandinavia has not been in the news at KSB for months now. Since she transferred Jamhuri day to Oslo, away from Stockholm, the Capital city of Scandinavia, we decided to give her a break so that she could try to recover from what could be “chronic psychosis” to say the least.
It was like President Kibaki ordering that Jamhuri day be celebrated in Lodwar, away from Nairobi. The interesting thing is that nobody from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs realized that something was amiss with the Ambassador’s “weird innovation” of changing Jamhuri day venue. But that is now history.
Since January, it has been public knowledge that Wangari Maathai would be in town on 1st of April together with former US President Bill Clinton to attend an International conference on climate change. Sensing that another Kenyan and International dignitary was coming to town, Ambassador Purity Muhindi, holed at the Kenyan Embassy, saw her possibilities from a totally different dimension.
It was once again time for her to show her “chosen few” in Stockholm that she is the boss. She has called a secret dinner on Friday and the script used for the invitation of guests has not undergone any fundamental revolutionary change. During the last six months, KSB has a list of dignitaries who have been “coming and going” with the Ambassador shielding them from Kenyans as if Kenya-Stockholmers are man-eaters.
Since late last year, William Ruto, Moses Wetangula, Jakoyo Midiwo and other so called dignitaries have been trooping to Stockholm without their presence being brought to the attention of Kenyans because we were giving the Ambassador time to reform. When Jakoyo Midiwo was in town, the Ambassador gathered her usual Walambaji at her residence for a secret dinner Party. Midiwo then left quietly for Kenya without knowing that he had actually been shielded from Kenyans and that the crowd he met was cosmetic.
According to Mr. Martin Ngatia who was contacted by KSB for comment over Purity’s continued “bad behavior”, the Ambassador is “behaving primitively” because Wangari Maathai is not the kind of personality to hide from Kenyans.
“Wangari Maathai’s caliber is so high that she is not the kind of person to be hidden from Kenyans. We want to meet Maathai and discuss with her the shooting to death of innocent Kenyans by police, the crisis in the Coalition and the on-going starvation in our country when the wealth of the nation is being looted”, Mr. Ngatia told KSB.
Anti-Ambassador campaign
The last time Maathai was here, she had just scooped the Nobel Peace Prize and Kenyans here collaborated with the Kenyan Embassy (through former Ambassador Kinyanjui) and Green Peace to meet her in Slussen. It was a very interesting moment and Maathai emerged as a politician who could take up questions head-on. The event was mixed with song and dance as Kenyan musicians like Moses Trubadur entertained the audience. Why should the Embassy deny Kenyans the opportunity of meeting her?
According to Mr. Ngatia, Purity is a tribalist and this explains why she is always surrounded by people from her region and who cannot dare criticize her. In fact, Purity is a beneficiary of election rigging because the continued presence of First Lady Lucy Kibaki at State House has meant that Purity has had to be in office since her posting was allegedly influenced by Lucy.
Another problem is that the coalition partners have been unable to agree on the distribution of diplomatic posts and this situation has benefitted Purity because the issue of her transfer was removed from the table. It is rumoured that Lucy slapped an official from the Foreign Affairs Ministry when it emerged that the Ambassador’s name was in a list of people that had been ear-marked for recall.
After the slap, some Ambassador’s who were eventually recalled without consultation with PNU simply refused to return to Kenya, arguing that they had not grabbed enough resources to enable them settle at home. Part of the grabbing of resources explains the secretive and, sometimes, distant organization of Kenyan functions by the Kenyan Embassy where corruption scandals occasionally explode into the public domain. We have in mind the Kinyua container scandal which took Kenyans here by huge surprise.
This time around, Kenyans need a protracted campaign to the government to get Purity out of the way because she is a stumbling block to the development of good and fruitful relationship between the Kenya-Stockholm community and the Embassy. The campaign should begin from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and if no action is forthcoming, it should spread to The Office of President and The Office of Prime Minister.
If need be, Kenyans here should work it out with one of the MPs to raise the issue in Parliament because if Kenyans cannot meet Wangari Maathai because she will be in the company of the Ambassador’s sycophants, then something is definitely wrong with our country. We are a failing State and the Ambassador’s shielding of a public figure like Professor Maathai is not just shameful but out-rightly despicable. Most likely, Maathai does not know that she is being shielded from Kenyans because if she gets the message, she will question the Ambassador’s weird tactics.
Photo credit: Aero Osanya
Okoth Osewe
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But !
What a name ? How come somebody is called Purity !
I call her impurity ! what do you think Mzee ! in the next issue refer her as Ambassador impurity, because that is what she is !
Smacks of April Fool’s Day. A great shot nevertheless.
Haiiiya!opps ! she have done it again. Why am l not suprised? Osewe, you and Bw, Ngatia couldn’t have said it better.kepp us informed.
Wangari Maathai, Bill Clinton, and Tony Blair to discuss climate change
April 1, 2009, 5:30 pm
City Hall
Stockholm, Sweden
Nobel Peace Laureate Wangari Maathai, President Bill Clinton and Prime Minister Tony Blair will address a forum on “Visions for a Low-Carbon World – Moving Forward in the Face of Financial Crisis.”
More information: Swedish Postcode Lottery