Kenya’s diplomats doing superb job

The current composition of the diplomats in terms of career versus political appointees is said to be “the worst it has ever been”, so says Dennis Onyango, an accomplished journalist, in one of his recent commentaries titled “Politics and diplomatic posting.” ( The Standard, 21 April 2008).
Although the commentator deliberately ignored to substantiate any stated facts in his commentary, the reality is that when it comes to diplomats “political appointments” is an accepted norm in all democratic governments all over the world.

This phenomenon is not restricted to Kenya as Onyango tried to imply. For instance, in United States, the pricey diplomatic post is that at the United Nations, in New York.
Successful previous US top diplomats at the UN such as Mrs Magdalene Albright, and then Congressman, now Governor Bill Richardson (New Mexico) both of who ended up serving as cabinet secretaries (ministers) in the Clinton Administration were both not career diplomats.
Other famous Americans who served at the UN include Andrew Young, under President Jimmy Carter, who then went to become the mayor of Atlanta.

Taking it closer to home, the late Smith Hempstone who is one of most remembered American ambassadors to Kenya in our in recent memory was not a career diplomat but a trained journalist.
The commentary left an impression that these political appointee diplomats are the reason why, and to use his own words, “Kenya is seen to be doing badly in diplomatic circles compared to, for instance, neighbouring Tanzania…Kenya is doing badly in diplomatic postings, compared to the nations the country is competing on the continent.”

In one aspect Onyango was contradicting himself where he praised the Tanzanian UN Permanent Representative Ambassador Augustine Mahiga to be a career diplomat extraordinaire.

But like Mahiga, Kenya UN Permanent Representative Zachary Dominic Muburi-Muita is also a career diplomat with an impressive curriculum vitae.
Onyango goes to give the career histories of the two diplomats but in disguise kept on praising the Tanzanian and in one sentence he notes:
“How he rates with his Tanzanian counterpart, is a different issue,” In addition to Muburi-Muita at the UN New York, we have Franklin Esipila, a career diplomat, manning the Addis Ababa based Africa Union, while responsible for diplomatic duties in Ethiopia and Djibouti, and not to forget an academician Dr Maria Nzomo who heads our UN mission in Geneva.
Political appointees or not, Kenya has an excellent mix of career and non-career crop of diplomats and they are doing a superb job.

What the journalist forgot was the fact that our missions are staffed with well trained foreign service employees and as such it is their job responsibilities to effectively assist those head of missions in their respective stations to discharge duties for the benefit of the country.
In fact, non-career diplomats are usually very effective as opposed to career diplomats. And here is why.
Political appointee diplomats are usually very much aware that their time is limited and as such they usually strive to make a great impact as opposed to a career diplomats who might not want to rock to the boat.

Personally, I did not support our Ambassador to US Rateng Ogego in the war of words he engaged with Senator Barack Obama.
Not because Barack Obama has known Kenyan roots but due to the fact that he is a US senator and a natural friend of Kenya.

I thought both Dr Alfred Mutua and Mr Ogego missed the boat when they by engaged in a war of words with Obama. Ogego’s rookie mistake cannot be attributed to all political appointees in diplomatic posting.

I have always said that the biggest enemy of Kenya is none other than Kenyans themselves. Our media people are found of praising foreigners and look down on their fellow Kenyans.
They search for every fault they can find and make it a big headline issue. Right now the current stars are the US and UK Nairobi based diplomats.
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Commentary & Analysis
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