KENYAN US DIASPORA, KENYA EMBASSY IN WASHINGTON AND THE TATTERED IMAGE OF KENYA IN THE US

Folks,
Democracy with total clean up of corruption from Kenya Coalition Government system is all we are committed to do and must be speeded up. If the beginning will start with Washington DC Embassy office, it is exactly what we intend to do.

If the Coalition Government takes this warning lightly and do not provide us with someone come Tuesday, they will have themselves to blame. We gave our ultimatum of four days for which to remove Ogego from Washington DC, come Monday, we will swing into full gear preparation to remove Ambassador Ogego from Office and institute investigation of corrupt dealings that has been rampant in the said office.

With this email, we call upon goodwill Kenyans abroad with experience to submit application urgently in order to fill this vacuum of position for selling Kenya's reputation and image to the business community for purposes of investments and trading with Kenya. This calls for persons with credible 5 years track record in excellent career reputation who are capable to discharge diplomatic services as required. The application must state qualifications and experience in Sales and Marketing in a competitive Global Marketing with respect to environmental preservation.

This appointment will replace Ambassador Ogego until the Coalition Government finds us, the diasporas, a suitable non-partisan person to man Kenya's Embassy in Washington DC.

If push will turn to shove, that is exactly what we will do in order to remove Ambassador Ogego from Washington DC Office.

US to deport Kenyan over scam at embassy

A Kenyan embassy employee in Washington has been ordered deported in a row over missing funds.

Mr Douglas Ndede is at the centre of an investigation into the disappearance of $2.5 million (Sh200 million) from the embassy cash. However, Kenyans living in the US have accused ambassador Peter Rateng Ogego of using Mr Ndede as a sacrificial lamb and demanded

Mr Douglas Ndede is at the centre of an investigation into the disappearance of $2.5 million (Sh200 million) from the embassy cash.

However, Kenyans living in the US have accused ambassador Peter Rateng Ogego of using Mr Ndede as a sacrificial lamb and demanded Mr Ogego be recalled. Mr Ndede’s visa expired the moment he lost the embassy job and he has no diplomatic immunity.

In a letter distributed on the Internet, Ms Judy Miriga, Kenyans in diaspora spokesperson, says: “We give the minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr (Moses) Wetang’ula, and Kenya’s Coalition Government four days to remove Ogego, failing which we will evict him from office on Tuesday next week.’’

Three weeks

Mr Ndede has been given three weeks to leave the US. After his visa was revoked by the embassy, immigration officials stormed Mr Ndede’s house and he was detained at a Virginia station for eight hours.

He was later freed but he and his two children must now wear an immigration tag on the leg as they await deportation.

The Kenyan community claims that most of the recipients of the $2.5 million (Sh200 million) lost at the embassy are senior officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Nairobi.

Contacted, Foreign Affairs permanent secretary Thuita Mwangi said he was not aware of the deportation. Kenya has no foreign mission official by the name Douglas Ndede, he added.
However, he said some external auditors had visited Washington and they were compiling their report. He declined to comment on the Internet letter.


Kenya seeks to spruce up its image in the United States

By MUGUMO MUNENE

With its image battered by political rows, Kenya is walking the global market looking for an image maker who will also push its interest among foreign governments and international agencies. It has launched a search for a public relations and lobby firm to be based in the United States, where much of its work will be in Washington and New York.

Washington is the seat of the United States Government, now headed by Mr Barack Obama, whose father was Kenyan and New York is the home of the United Nations, where key decisions in international diplomacy are determined.

The gravity of this image building assignment is underlined in an advertisement appearing in last week’s issue of The Economist, which stresses that applying firms must have more than five years’ experience “working for foreign governments in managing relations with key government and public institutions.”

Clearly, the Grand Coalition is convinced that its diplomatic representatives in the world’s most powerful nation need help in the delicate task of pushing for support, influencing decisions and defending the unsavoury aspect of its decisions and deeds back home.

Image is important for governments. It can make all the difference between economic growth and shrinkage and will easily determine the clout a head of State wields in the corridors of foreign ministries overseas, in this case the State Department, Congress, the Senate, the White House and the United Nations.

Kenya has two missions in the United States – one in Washington headed by the country’s ambassador to the United States and another in New York representing Nairobi at the United Nations. Have the two been found wanting or has the government simply decided to be more aggressive in the pursuit of its interests under an Obama government?

The man in charge of Washington, Mr Rateng’ Ogego, also oversees a consular office in Los Angeles, on the west coast. Mr Obama’s historic electoral victory left Mr Ogego, once a left-leaning political activist opposed to the dictatorship of Daniel arap Moi, in a rather awkward position.

As envoy, he had crossed swords with the fast-rising Illinois senator when Mr Obama visited Kenya and criticised the Kibaki government’s handling of corruption in the wake of the Anglo Leasing scandal and its governance record.

Mr Obama had complained in a speech at the University of Nairobi that corruption and tribalism had reached a crisis point, but Mr Ogego in a letter to the senator retorted that the attack was uninformed and in bad taste. There was obviously nothing personal.

Mr Ogego’s defenders will argue that he was simply pushing the line laid out by Nairobi, where Foreign minister Raphael Tuju had similarly issued a stinging attack on Mr Obama, questioning the senator’s understanding of Kenyan affairs.

In turning to an image maker, the Kenyan Government is taking a well-trodden path. A similar initiative by the Museveni government next door has stoked a furious controversy and attracted a parliamentary investigation.

Nigeria, whose nationals feature prominently but not exclusively, in drug arrests at foreign airports and in the infamous cash transfer swindles, last month launched a “brand Nigeria” campaign and set up a department within the Information Ministry to refurbish its foreign reputation. One of its tasks is to clean up the perception of Nigerians as con artists.

Under President Obama, lobby work is set to become harder. His government has pledged to reduce lobby influence in Washington and has barred White House aides who leave government from lobbying or working on issues they previously were involved in.

“We need to close the revolving door that lets lobbyists come into government freely and lets them use their time in public service to promote their own interests when they leave,” President Obama said.

Deeply concerned

The tender for consultancy was advertised just days before US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson flew to Nairobi to express Washington’s discomfort with turf wars in the Grand Coalition Government.

“We have seen and have felt, as far away as Washington, concerns about the stability of the coalition ... we are deeply concerned and worried whether the events of the last several weeks were again a prelude to a round of instability,” Mr Carson, himself a former US ambassador to Kenya, told reporters on the day he separately met President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga.

“The political tensions must not be allowed to turn into a political crisis, and a political crisis must not be allowed to turn into political violence,” he said. Kenya has been fighting hard to restore a badly battered image that started with the violence tied to the disputed December 2007 elections that left more than 1,000 dead and thousands of others displaced.

Matters have not been helped by the appearance of political instability arising from wrangling in the coalition government that was formed to return the country to peace. The advertisement, carried in the May 9 edition of the magazine invites consultants with a minimum of five years’ experience in public policy advocacy and communication strategy in Washington D.C. and New York to submit their applications to the Cabinet Office in Nairobi. The tender closes on May 28.

Battered image

Only in the last decades of the twentieth century have foreign governments found it necessary to go beyond traditional diplomacy to compete effectively in the frenzied quest for influence in Washington. By the early 1990s Japan, the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, France and Mexico were the biggest spenders on such activities in the US.

The new initiative, which officials at Nairobi's Harambee House say was spawned by the Obama presidency, is designed to alter the battered image Kenya has suffered in the US since the election-related violence that rocked the country and shocked the world.

Government spokesman Alfred Mutua on Wednesday said the government wanted to cash in on the Obama presidency to promote trade with the US and attract more tourists. “The Obama presidency is a lifetime opportunity and we need consultants to advise us from the US side about the thinking of the media and the governance structures in the US,” he said.

It is the same Dr Mutua who once said Mr Obama was being used as a stooge of the Opposition, then led by Mr Odinga.





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