Viewing cable 09NAIROBI1084, A/S CARSON AND NSC SENIOR DIRECTOR GAVIN’S MEETING WITHDEPUTY PRIME MINISTER KENYATTA
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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 NAIROBI 001084
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AF/E FOR SUSAN DRIANO
E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/11/2019
TAGS: PGOV PREL KDEM KE
SUBJECT: A/S CARSON AND NSC SENIOR DIRECTOR GAVIN’S MEETING WITH
DEPUTY PM/FINANCE MINISTER KENYATTA
Classified By: Ambassador Michael E. Ranneberger for reasons 1.4 (B and D)
¶1. (C) Summary: In a May 12 meeting with Deputy Prime Minister/Minister of Finance Uhuru Kenyatta, Assistant Secretary for African Affairs (A/S) Johnnie Carson and National Security Council (NSC) Senior Director for Africa Michelle Gavin expressed deep concern over political tensions in Kenya. Gavin delivered a tough message from President Obama: the U.S. would not do business with Kenyans who obstructed reform or encouraged political violence. Kenyatta sought to deflect concerns, arguing that the government’s focus should be on economic rather than political reform, given Kenya’s multitude of idle youth. He blamed an irresponsible media and a slow moving Parliament for the lack of overall progress on the reform agenda. A/S Carson and Gavin objected to Kenyatta’s assertion that the media and Parliament were to blame and exhorted Kenyatta to work expeditiously towards significant progress on the reform agenda prior to the August 4-6, 2009 AGOA Forum in Nairobi. Kenyatta was diplomatic enough to pay lip service to the reform agenda but could not provide any tangible evidence of a commitment to change. End Summary.
¶2. (C) Meeting with Deputy Prime Minister/Minister of Finance Uhuru Kenyatta on May 12, A/S Carson and NSC Senior Director for Africa Gavin expressed the deep concern of the new U.S. Administration over political tensions in Kenya. While noting Kenya’s critical role in Africa and its positive history of partnership with the United States, A/S Carson said there was growing concern that the political tensions that led to the eruption of violence in 2008 were building up again as a result of the slow pace of reform. He added that the tensions within the coalition appeared greater and stronger than the glue holding the coalition together. A/S Carson also emphasized USG concerns about the recent extra-judicial killings of human rights activists from the Oscar Foundation. A/S Carson said the killings had the hallmarks of a police hit and “shook a lot of human rights advocates.” Particularly worrying, A/S Carson said, was the lack of prosecution or even the serious gathering of evidence. A/S Carson reminded Kenyatta of the linkage between political and economic reform, noting that one cannot attract investment without political certainty and stability. He said that failure to move rapidly on the political side will undermine what Kenya wants to do on the economic side. No one wanted to see Kenya fall or go backwards and we wanted to help where we could. Pointing to the upcoming August 4-6AGOA Forum, A/S Carson made clear that he wanted Secretary Clinton to come to the Forum with a positive message, but that without significant reform she would be coming with a harder message for the GOK.
¶3. (C) Gavin made clear President Obama’s deep concern over Kenya’s political gridlock. She indicated that the U.S. wanted to help but that the new Administration is not interested in business as usual with political elites obstructing reform or contributing to political violence. The President is worried, she added, that Kenya is headed in the wrong direction. Gavin emphasized the importance of addressing disenfranchised youth and noted that their plight spoke to the need for economic growth and implementation of the reform agenda.
¶4. (C) Kenyatta said Kenya’s current political stalemate (over whether the Vice President or Prime Minister leads government business) could be managed and that it was simply part of the transition from one system of government to another. In Kenyatta’s view, the power to lead government clearly rested with the Vice President; he said he could not understand the Prime Minister’s position in seeking to take over that power. Moving to the reform agenda, Kenyatta asserted that the focus, due primarily to problems of youth unemployment and the serious criminal gang threat in Kenya, had to be economic — rather than political — reform. According to Kenyatta, while the government had made progress on constitutional and electoral reform, focusing exclusively on the political front would be a mistake. A/S Carson and Gavin demurred; it was important, they said, to move on both tracks expeditiously as economic and political progress were inextricably linked. Kenyatta blamed an “independent Parliament” and “irresponsible media” for impeding progress on the reform agenda.
¶5. (C) On the subject of extra-judicial killings, Kenyatta condemned the actions but said there must be a greater understanding of the context in which they are taking place. He lamented the powerful draw of Kenya’s pernicious criminal gangs, including Mungiki, on
Kenya’s growing multitude of idle youth. Zigzagging, he conceded that the police are likely involved with the criminal gangs, and claimed that the Oscar Foundation had links with Mungiki. In closing, Kenyatta sought additional USG assistance for Kenya. He complained that the U.S. decision to deny Kenya access to MCC funds was based on misperceptions — rather than the reality — of corruption in Kenya. If Kenya was so bad, Kenyatta asserted, it would not be receiving support from multilateral institutions such as the World Bank. Kenyatta said he wants a partnership with the U.S. rather than hammers and conditions, which he said moved regularly.
¶6. (C) Comment: In the face of repeated expressions of concern by A/S Carson and Gavin about Kenya’s lack of reform and potential collision with renewed violence, Kenyatta appeared both defensive about the government’s muddling and non-committal toward changing the status quo. Kenyatta was diplomatic enough to pay lip service to the reform agenda, but could not provide any tangible evidence of a commitment to change. End comment.
¶7. (U) This cable has been cleared by A/S Carson and NSC Senior Director for Africa Gavin.
RANNEBERGER
About the Author
The misterious raging and killing fires in Kenya slums and National Parks will soon dissipate when the Six named Pev masterminds will be taken to Hague ICC in Holland .Hence these are dirty works of distraction from the main issues and Agenda affecting millions of the Kenyan Masses!
Let us tango! For God’s sake let us dance if that is all you want!! Life is not going to be the same for Kikuyus if that is what you want. They will all be pushed back to Central Province if that is what you are advocating for. What do the rest of Kenyans still have to loose if all you can do is to gloat about your MAN being the PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF KENYA after stealing votes? The rest of Kenyans just lost their fundamental human right, JUSTICE and all you can do is to GLOAT! Go buddy, keep GLOATING but remember this: it took ONLY one brave Chinese man to do TANGO with the Chinese military tanks for the the Chinese to get their justice! I can assure you, there is ONE Kenyan ready to do a TANGO DANCE with your MAN till all Kenyans get their delayed JUSTICE!!! The battle is just beginning!!!!
Police shot my friend and ordered me to eat his brains
By Alex Kiprotich
“I was in the business of buying and selling cows. On that fateful morning, Chemorei called me that he was selling his cow because he needed money urgently to pay school fees for his son who had been sent home,” he says.
Abubakar says after handing over Sh8,500, they decided to head where the cow was tethered, but this short trip was cut short by the arrival of police officers who surrounded the compound and ordered them to sit down.
“We were ordered to sit down. Shortly I was told to lie head down, as my friend was moved away from me,” he said.
The 40-year-old said the officers interrogated him, wanting to know who he was and what he was doing in the compound.
“I told them I was a businessman buying and selling cows and had come to buy one from Chemorei,” he said.
He said the officers frisked him and took away Sh60,000 he had in his pockets before beating him up.
“Some used their gun butts to hit me, while others squeezed my genitals until blood came out,” he says.
He says as they were beating him up, he recalls hearing other officers demanding a key from Chemorei. After sometime he heard gunshots, which lasted for about ten minutes.
“I knew I would also be killed because I heard Chemorei pleading for his life saying they had got what they wanted,” he said.
He said after the guns went silent, he was ordered to stand up and he saw a gory sight of his friend – his head had been ripped apart and blood was splattered everywhere.
Medical expenses
He says the officers, holding him by the waistline of his pants, dragged him to where Chemorei’s body lay. They ordered him to scoop his brain from his gaping head, and ordered him to eat.
Abubakar says he knelt over Chemorei’s body and did as the officers had ordered, “Tumia!”
He says he thought the officers wanted him to scoop it and place them near where the body lay.
“I did not understand what he meant until one placed a gun nozzle on my forehead and said I should eat it,” he said.
“I slowly opened my mouth and emptied the contents into my mouth. I felt nauseated, but with the gun pointed at me, I summoned the courage to swallow it.
The officers, he said seemed to derive gratification from this. As he grimaced, they exchanged knowing glances and ordered him to do it quick or else they would shoot him like his friend.
“It was the most disgusting thing. But I had no option,” he says, with a stammer. He says the officers were not yet done with him as they ordered him to lift the body of Chemorei. “They told me to lift the body and when they realised I could not they gave me two other officers and we carried it to the police Land Rover, which had been parked at the gate,” he says.
Abubakar, who has become impotent because of the police torture, says inside the Land Rover, he was forced to lie on Chemorei’s body. He was then covered with a blanket.
“The experience was harrowing. Something out of this world. When we arrived at Kitale Police Station, I was told to alight. I looked like a demon, everywhere there was blood on me,” he said.
He says had he known what was going to happen he would not have gone to his neighbour’s home.
“It was my first time at his home though we used to meet in town and chat with Chemorei,” he says.
Since then, he says life has never been normal with him. At times he finds himself talking to himself and avoiding where there are people and vehicles.”I think he is traumatised by what he went through. He is not the man I knew when we married,” said Saujed Ndiema the first wife of Abubakar.
Saujed who has nine children with Abubakar says they have come to terms with what he went through.
She said at first it was not easy as everyone would avoid him because it is satanic to eat flesh of another human.
“Imagine what it means being referred to the wife of that man who ate someone’s brains. But people understand he would have been killed had he not obeyed what the police ordered,” she says.
Her children, Habib and Shanim, said they hope someday justice would be done. Abubakar has sold off most of his land and all his livestock to cater for medical expenses in the hope that his manhood could be restored, but has not been successful so far.
“This was part of my land,” he says pointing to homesteads bordering his.