From the subsequent hullabaloo the appointments raised, a critical appraisal of the CVs of these appointees has hardly been made. The sweeping conclusion is that they cannot possibly be competent ambassadors because they owe their selection to kindred and political clout. While it is true they may not have necessarily been made through a fair and public recruitment exercise, the wheeler-dealer manner of their appointment need not necessarily be an indictment of their (in)capacity. To be fair to some of the choices, they are well read and distinguished professionals outside their lineage and political affiliations. Are we to ignore this merely because of their links to more famous siblings or political heavyweights?

To put the matter in perspective, it is important to appreciate how other countries pick their ambassadors. The global practice is usually to mix dyed-in-the-wool career diplomats with overtly political appointees. In the latter, personal relationship with power wielders counts for more than an Ivy League CV and the truism that blood is thicker than water often acquires a favoured appointment meaning. The rationale for this is that diplomacy is a political engagement as it is, say, social-economic or military. This can be discerned by the choices of well-connected, political clout-wielding personalities that governments make for postings they consider important or sensitive.

Often, politics is the first born in the pecking order of ideal diplomatic strategies. Getting it right to a large extent dictates the success of other equally important pursuits.

Take the US for example. To effectively represent the country’s growing need for involvement in world affairs, Congress passed in 1924 the Rogers Act establishing structures to appoint envoys on merit measured by passing diplomacy exams. This was further strengthened by the Foreign Service Act of 1964 that consolidated appointments to diplomatic and consular services. Passing the Foreign Service Exam and climbing the diplomatic corps ladder is officially the most assured route to a diplomatic posting. But it is not unusual for presidents to bypass career diplomats in favour of "private" individuals with no known diplomatic expertise. Such political appointees can be tapped from any professional or social sphere – journalists, clergy, businessmen, scholars etc. Past US ambassadors to the UN, for instance, have included a failed presidential candidate, a judge of the Supreme Court, a former Secretary of State, a former senator and several businessmen. Presidents have reached out to their blood kin too for important diplomatic postings without necessarily diluting the delivery of expected outcomes. In the US, the Kennedys may have perfected the art of keeping key state jobs within the family, which successful governments have since imitated. But they also bequeathed to the US a governance culture of marrying blood and proven competencies such that appointing a brother or a sister to a sensitive post need not necessarily compromise performance. The same would apply to the husband-wife team of the Clintons.

But there is an important checks-and-balances proviso to the appointment process in the US that is conspicuously missing in our country. Ambassador-designates must be subjected to scrutiny and confirmed by the senate. This safeguard ensures the president cannot take the liberties of appointing just anyone he fancies on account of personal or political ties.

Ideally, the same should apply in Kenya. While the President retains the right to name our envoys, his choices should be subjected to Parliament approval.

As the elected custodian of public interests, Parliament is well suited to exercise this role by interrogating the credentials and general suitability of the Executive choices. This would give the Executive a much-needed backing for its preferred candidates while ensuring potential picks are not denied deserved postings on account of considerations incidental to their competences. However, to do this we urgently need legislation stipulating the mode of these appointments.