Why the Opposition should not expect backing from the West

Smith Hempstone

Many Kenyans who were old enough in the early 1990s must remember Smith Hempstone, the US ambassador to Kenya at a time the opposition was agitating for the return of multi-party politics.

Hempstone, a hefty man by any standards, set the tone and tenor of the multi-party debate and push by openly siding with the opposition and members of the civil society. For his courageous stand, he was labelled a “rogue” ambassador and the nyama choma eating envoy for his love for the Kenyan cuisine.