Envoys’ refusal to return home is severe blow to our image abroad

Otuma Ongalo

When Somali MPs came visiting recently and refused to go back to their country, they became a laughing stock.

We castigated and reminded them to return home and clean the mess in their backyard instead of savouring our hospitality.

It did not prick our conscience that wherever we were telling them to go back to is a hell on earth, where anarchy reigns supreme and the line between death and life is quite thin.

Now, the wind of shame is being blown to our side. No, it is not wind, it is a terrible storm that threatens to reduce into smithereens Alfred Mutua’s Najivunia kuwa Mkenya slogan and has left many proud Kenyans crestfallen.

This week, news filtered in that our diplomats in key postings have refused to come back home. They have refused to return because they have not fully savoured the luxuries of their host cities and countries.

Like typical politicians, some of them claim they have not yet reaped dividends worth their investments during the election campaigns.

The envoys’ surprise stance is a clear indication of lack of confidence in the land they purport to represent.

They, for instance, reduce to nought the efforts made by the Kenya Tourism Board to woo back tourists and investors after post-election chaos. Which diplomat will have the audacity to convince tourists or investors to visit the land he or she is not willing to return to?

One of the key duties of a diplomat is to establish a friendly relationship with the host country by building trust in own country.

Despite the skirmishes we experienced early this year, Kenya remains a stable country. However, even instability is not reason enough to make envoys fall in love with the countries they were posted to even after being recalled or when their tour of duty expires. It reminds me of a man entrusted with a love note but instead falls in love with the woman he has been sent to. You do not expect him to praise the sender, do you?

We have not heard of Afghanistan, Zimbabwe or DRC envoys refusing to return home enmasse. In fact, dedicated envoys are at their best when their respective countries are experiencing crisis.

In what appears to be the latest bloat to our country, the men and women charged with improving our image abroad are now busy washing our dirty linen in the international arena. They are telling the world that this country cannot provide a conducive atmosphere to an individual used to luxuries of the developed world.

What is wrong with our envoys?

Perhaps the simple answer is that many of them are not envoys, in the strictest sense. When you cover a wolf in a sheepskin, it does not cease being a wolf.

In the recent past, career diplomats have been paving way to political appointees who know nothing about diplomatic etiquette.

A politician or a politician’s stooge posted to head a diplomatic mission will remain a politician or simply a stooge. He or she will seek to reap instead of sowing. A political appointee owes his or her allegiance to the appointing authorities, not the nation.

We have politicised all our key institutions so much that experts are no longer in charge. Since the signing of the National Peace and Reconciliation accord, key appointments have not been based on merit. It all depends on how much stake is shared between ODM and PNU stalwarts to assuage political egos.

Ironically, other political appointees are waiting on the wings to replace the ‘rebel’ envoys.

Perhaps envoys are simply learning from the political class that one does not simply relinquish a key position even after the term expires or public mood demands so.

Ordinary Kenyans are virtually on their own. When the madness of local representatives – the MPs – grips the international representatives, where shall the voice of reason come from?

The writer is The Standard’s Production and Quality Senior Editor

oongalo@eastandard.net