Former President Daniel arap Moi’s uneasy relations with foreign missions

US ambassador to Kenya Smith Hempstone.  [PHOTO: FILE/STANDARD]

By KENNETH KWAMA

KENYA: Was there a plot by foreign missions to sabotage President Daniel arap Moi’s government in 1983? This was the dominant question as politicians crisscrossed the country campaigning for the September 1983 General Election.

The then president revealed his unease with the perceived role of foreign missions at a public rally in Nyeri on August 6, 1983. The Sunday Standard captured the proceedings in a story titled Moi warns diplomats.

“The President observed that some foreign diplomats were sponsoring candidates in various constituencies with a view to having their interests catered for. President Moi cautioned that if any diplomat got involved directly or indirectly with candidates aspiring for the General Election, he would not hesitate to report such diplomats to their home countries,” stated the paper.

Moi went on to win the elections, but the overarching lesson in his spat with foreign missions is that it is a battle that never ends.

His successor Mwai Kibaki had his turn and President Uhuru Kenyatta has found himself in similar situation.

The latter is meting out ‘cold treatment’ to the US Government, which is widely believed to have vouched for his rival Raila Odinga during the March 4 General Election.

Due to the uneasy relations, Kenyatta’s government broke from tradition and skipped the US Independence Day celebrations, which was held at the US ambassador’s residence in Nairobi about two months ago.

It is still too early to tell the direction Kenyatta’s relationship with the US will take, but if the past is a prologue, then Moi’s liaison provided all the fireworks of what strained ties with foreign missions can do to a government.

It climaxed in the early 1990s during the reign of the then US ambassador Smith Hempstone who openly advocated a multi-party state.

He worked from 1989 to 1993 and was a tough critic of Moi.

Hempstone was credited with helping usher multiparty elections in 1992.

This state of affairs was captured by the Sunday Standard, which quoted the President declaring that the seat of Vice-President was not vacant and no aspiring candidate should imagine of occupying the seat. The paper quoted Moi saying “Mr Mwai Kibaki is and shall remain the Vice-President after the September General Election.”

 Unlike the present where leaders elected on the Jubilee ticket can challenge or even go against their coalition’s stand, in 1983 there was no room for dissent or being seen to be cosying up to foreign missions.

In Nairobi, Hempstone advocated the end of dominance by Kanu and once gave refuge within the US Embassy to human rights lawyer Gibson Kamau Kuria who was being sought by the police and spirited him to London.

 The then government mouthpiece, the Kenya Times denounced Hempstone with a curt headline: “Shut up, Ambassador.”