A weird mix of anxiety and trepidation has gripped some Kenyans in Stockholm ahead of a meeting at Scandic Hotel where Kenya’s Prime Minister, Raila Odinga, is scheduled to address Kenyans on Friday. The Kenyan Embassy in Stockholm has sent invitation cards to a cross section of Kenyans but those who have no cards are increasingly becoming worried with the ticking of every minute.
When KSB was alerted about the problem, I personally contacted Mr. Andambi, an official, who said that what Kenyans without cards need to do is to send an email to the Embassy with contact details so that the cards could be sent. The problem now is that although numerous Kenyans sent their details via email on Monday, they had not yet received the cards by Wednesday, 21st October.
A plausible explanation could be that the Embassy could not have acted on the messages because the Mission was closed on Tuesday, October 20th which was a public holiday in Kenya. However, some Kenyans who are raising the alarm have told KSB that by now, the Embassy should have responded to emails that were sent on Monday acknowledging receipt of the emails or indicating whether the cards had been sent so that they could expect them.
“I have been left in a situation where I don’t know what has happened. Because time is running out, I don’t know whether I will get the card on time to use it on Friday”, a distraught Kenyan woman told KSB.
Another issue is that majority of those who have received the cards appear to be sympathizers of PNU. So far, no PNU member has called KSB to register complaints although at the time of going to press, 13 ODM supporters had called to say that they seem to have been left out.
“What Ambassador Purity is doing is that she is discriminating on the cards by dishing them to PNU supporters and leaving ODM supporters out”, another Kenyan told KSB.
When asked why Ambassador Purity should practice discrimination on the card issue, an ODM supporter said that Purity would like to pack the hall with anti-Raila elements so as to give the PM a hard time during the meeting.
Kenyans to storm the meeting with or without cards
Matters were not made better when it emerged that Mr. Martin Ngatia, a Kenyan who was the most vocal supporter of Raila Odinga’s Presidential bid in 2007, had too, been left out of the mailing list as a line-up of other Kenyans were showered with cards.
When questioned by KSB why Mr. Ngatia had not been invited to the meeting, Mr. Andambi claimed that the Embassy does not have Mr. Ngatia’s address, a claim that was dismissed by Mr. Ngatia who told KSB that the Embassy has been sending him letters since the days of Ambassador Kinyanjui.
Mr. Ngatia accused Ambassador Purity of deliberately playing games with the cards issue because they were bent on dividing Kenyans through tribalism after failing to deliver at the Embassy. Mr. Ngatia said that it was unfortunate that every Ambassador posted to Stockholm “is an idiot” who cannot even learn from the Swedes.
He said that the Swedish authorities were not allowing members of the public to attend the EU Development Conference which Raila is scheduled to address but that this year, members of the public have been allowed in because of growing openness in Sweden.
“The Ambassador should have copied the Swedes by opening the meeting but she is doing the opposite by using cards to block people from meeting Raila”, Mr. Ngatia told KSB.
After the Embassy set up a web site, many Kenyans thought that the “card system” of invitation had ended. The expectation was that the site would be used to invite Kenyans to functions as has been the case of late. As the “card system” was being re-introduced, there is no information at the site to show that Raila would be in town, a big miss which has also heightened suspicions.
Some Kenyans who have not received the cards have vowed to storm the meeting with or without cards. “Raila Odinga is a national leader and the Embassy should not use invitation cards to decide who gets to attend the meeting”, a Kenyan told KSB.
Other Kenyans have claimed that since Purity was appointed by President Mwai Kibaki, she is out to frustrate Raila Odinga as part of a program drawn at State House Nairobi. Attempts to block perceived Raila supporters from attending the meeting using the card pretext is seen by some ODM supporters as a continuation of attempts to block Raila from addressing the UN General Assembly recently and subsequent attempts by PNU operatives to block him from meeting President Barack Obama in the United States. Both attempts failed.
“PNU is viewing Raila’s trips abroad as part of his 2012 campaigns and so they would like to make things as difficult as possible”, an ODM-Scandinavia member told KSB.
One possible explanation with the Embassy “cad game” is that the Mission is trying to polarize Kenyans into PNU and ODM supporters, a strategy likely to fail because many Kenyans in Stockholm have risen beyond petty Party and ethnic politics. In Stockholm, Kenyans with different political affiliations get along quite well and the card game is likely to stimulate more anti-Purity sentiments among Kenyans.
KSB has repeatedly maintained that the Ambassador is a stumbling block at the Embassy, not just because of her weird methods of leadership but also her tribalistic approach to issues. The view of KSB is that Purity should be recalled because she has failed in her responsibilities as the Kenyan Ambassador to Scandinavia. Purity should have used the Raila meeting to purify her tainted image and prove critics wrong but unfortunately, she continues to act like the late Owino Misiani’s proverbial monkey which is always a monkey regardless of the circumstances.
Okoth Osewe
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COMPLETE NONSENSE.
THE HALL HAS LIMITED CAPACITY AND NOT ALL KENYANS CAN BE ALLOWED IN.
KENYANS IN SWEDEN BEHAVE LIKE IDIOTS ALL OF THE TIME.
KSB: Raila will be speaking to more than 5,000 Conference participants in a hall in Stockholm. He met Kenyans here in 1998 and everybody was accommodated in a hall. Have you been to the hall where he will be meeting Kenyans tomorrow to know its capacity? If Kenyans in Stockholm behave like idiots all the time, could some Kenyans outside Sweden be behaving like imbeciles all the time?
Moses Oguta, so all Kenyans in Sweden behave like idiots? How judgmental you are! How could you so stupidly group a whole community as such? If this is what we are, then you Oguta, are the folowing: Frogwash, fugly, donkey, craptacular and bugly.
Moses Oguta, if you were twice as smart, you’d still be stupid. You are a ninnyhammer who is a coccydynia, suffering from hircismus, and walk around with a dasypygal.
Going by what you have written, you are really IDIOTS. Most of you anyways.