For the three Kenyans who have sent mail to KSB, seeking to establish if Ambassador Purity Muhindi has left for Kenya, we can confirm that by yesterday, the Ambassador was still in Stockholm. Yesterday, I was at the Embassy to get a copy of my passport and other documents authenticated for a bank transaction in Kenya. Just to get an Embassy official to put a sign on a copy of a Kenyan passport and an Embassy stamp to confirm that it is a true copy of the original costs Ksh 1.380 (100kr).
Although the transaction was duly receipted, the receipt does not indicate that the charge was for the authentication of a copy of my passport which I had brought along. Instead, the receipt showed that I was being charged for the service of being supplied with a document along the lines of a passport, passport renewal, Emergency Certificate, CIN, Visa and “Other document”. When I subsequently took my Swedish ID card to a Swedish bank for a similar service, it was free.
There are entities such as Notaries which charge a higher amount of money for authentication of copies of documents especially for legal reasons so the amount the Embassy is charging for the same service is not much. The question is whether it is legal in the case of a passport issued by the Embassy and whose cost at the time of issuance had already been sorted by the applicant. Why should a signature of an Embassy official on an A4 copy of a Kenyan passport cost Ksh 1,340 when the official is already being paid by the taxman to provide such services to the public? From my perspective, this amount can only be justified if the Kenyan government is in business in which case it could pass for robbery of the citizenry without violence.
I did not ask any questions at the reception because I understood that the official who was conducting the transaction had nothing to do with the matter. I could only recommend that he takes copies for safe keeping.
Eavesdropping on Two Swedes
An interesting twist was that as I was relaxing on the sofa at the reception waiting to be served, Ambassador Purity suddenly walked in and dashed to her Office directly. I was camping at a corner at the waiting room and it was impossible for her to see me without zooming in my direction where we were seated along with two Swedes whose visas were being processed.
I knew that they were waiting for their visas because they openly talked about going on Safari with an elderly man opening up to me to reveal that he had booked his ticket and was set to depart on April 15th 2013. He added that he had been reading a lot about Kenya and enquired about the coming elections. I thought of pumping them with propaganda linked to the coming elections but decided not to spoil their expectations of a sunny weather and beautiful sceneries at Amboseli. With nothing important to discuss, I simply decided to eavesdrop on their conversation after cheating them that I could not understand Swedish because I had just arrived from Kenya. As they rumbled in Swedish, I simply sat back to gather intelligence.
I heard them talk about poverty in a rich and beautiful country. They also knew about the 2007 post-election violence and hoped that this time, elections would be peaceful. One interesting bit is that the elderly man knew about the ICC cases facing Uhuru Kenyatta and his side-kick, William Ruto. He even predicted that Raila Odinga would win the Presidency and gave this as a motivation for travelling in April, time when he hoped that the election dust shall have settled. Another piece of information which emerged was that the elderly man had relatives who had lived in Kenya since 1969 and who had refused to return to Sweden because they thought that life in Kenya was more exciting. My documents were soon ready and it was time to go.
Purity’s “Last Supper” with loyalists
I was a bit surprised to see Purity at the Embassy because my mind-set was that she may have departed for Kenya. She was completely in a hurry and I suspected that may be, she was on her way to the airport but called in to check on something she may have forgotten in her office.
Although I have been campaigning for her to be recalled, arguing that her overstay was costing the taxpayer millions while she had distanced herself from Wakenya in Stockholm, Purity is usually diplomatic enough to say hello, sometimes stretching her lean hand for a Kenyan-style hand-shake. One issue which was cleared by my visit at the Embassy is that Purity may have packed her belongings but she was still very much around.
In Stockholm, a comprehensive overview of her performance may be fitting but this could wait. Last Friday, agents reported that Purity had a secret “Farewell Party” where invitations were limited to a tiny cell of loyalists aka walambaji in Stockholm who have been providing the “Kenyan crowd” whenever Purity needed to show-case wakenya in Stockholm.
The problem now is that there are some die-hard walambaji who were never invited to this Party and they are bitter. One of them who missed the vinywaji told KSB that “asante ya punda ni mateke”.
He claimed that he has been there for Purity during very hard times but that when the time for the “last supper” came by, he was strategically omitted from the guest list because he did not have a car. He told KSB that during the period when he was supporting Purity amid criticism at KSB and other Forums, he had to constantly fight charges of being a mlambaji. Things were kind of good because he did manage to meet and dine with Kenyan VIPs during their Stockholm stop-overs. Now that he had been kicked in the azz, he could only reminisce with nostalgia.
On the whole, the departure of Purity is a welcome break and the only hope is that the next Ambassador will be “a people’s Ambassador” who will descend down the Ivory tower to meet and interact with Kenyans at the grass roots. The next Ambassador should borrow a leaf from former Ambassador Mukiri Kinjanjui who landed on hard ground but used diplomacy to get along quite well.
Okoth Osewe
About the Author
Your posts are always interesting and every day one of the first things I check when I go to my email is to see if there’s something from you. Your little bit of Kenya in Stockholm keeps me in touch with Kenya, my birthplace. Thank you, please keep posting.
KSB: Welcome Lela Woods.
Ebu sikieni maajabu Kenya imerogwa >
Huyu mama arudi nyumbani amekula ya kutosha.Kibaki godfather wake anaenda naye aende.
Killing of Police-dog!
A police officer in Eldoret died on Tuesday night while undergoing treatment after being attacked by Moi University students protesting over blackout on Tuesday night.
The officer who was on patrol with a colleague at around 10pm was hit by a stone on his head that was thrown from an upper floor in one of the hostel rooms. His colleague also sustained serious injuries.
“The officers were on patrol when the incident occurred. The stone was thrown from the top of a room seriously injuring them,” said Eldoret South police boss.