Kenyan president’s key American ‘saleswoman’, Ambassador Meg Whitman, quits to signal imminent hard times for Nairobi

Kenyan president’s key American ‘saleswoman’, Ambassador Meg Whitman, quits to signal imminent hard times for Nairobi

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The resignation of the US ambassador to Kenya has been received with joy and celebration by human rights activists who accuses her of aggravating human rights abuses by the President William Ruto’ government.

Some Kenyans interpreted the resignation as a warning shot by incoming government in Washington that it was no longer going to ‘nanny’ to President William Ruto’s government that it accused at home and abroad of corruption, human rights abuses and nepotism.

Notably, the resignation comes barely a week after US Foreign Secretary Antony Blinken warned Nairobi of unspecified consequences unless the government failed to deal with extrajudicial killings, disappearances of critics of the government and corruption.

Ambassador Whitman has been sarcastically described by Kenyans and Americans in Nairobi as President Ruto’s ‘saleswoman’ –  a major departure previous holders of the office credited with spearheading democratic, constitutional, governance and social reforms.

The timing of the envoy is also telling: it comes two weeks after former president Donald Trump swept to power and is lay ground to rid the next government of Democrats that were appointed by outgoing President Joe Biden. Instructively, president-elect Trump has no room for Africa and other developing countries he describes as s**hole, corrupt and irrelevant to US political and economic interests.

Ms Whiteman’s exit brought back memories of ‘Rogue Ambassador’ run-ins with then ruling party, Kanu, government.

The term ‘Rogue Ambassador’ was used widely in the early 1990s in Kenya to describe the then opposition-leaning US ambassador to Kenya, Smith Hempstone, who was this week back again on the lips of Kenyans.

Only that this time the phrase was used to describe Ambassador Meg Whitman accused by human rights of having been supportive of an excessive regime engaged in human rights abuses including abductions and extra-judicial killings in Kenya. 

On Wednesday (November 13) Meg, whose term in Kenya has been characterised with controversy against the backdrop allegations of going to bed with an oppressive and abusive regime, announced her resignation as Washington’s representative to Nairobi.

“Today, I announced to my team at the US embassy (in Nairobi) that I submit my resignation to President Biden,” Whitman said in a statement to the media on Wednesday.  Kenyans – politicians, lawyers and human rights activists – excitedly reacted to this announcement with many celebrating her exit.

“Rogue US Ambassador to Kenya Meg Whitman resigns after being called out by Kenyans on social media,” wrote Omwamba on X. “Bye Meg, we won’t miss you,” wrote another X user, Okiya Omtatah Okoiti, a Kenyan Senator and human rights defender.

Ambassador Hempstone (1989-1993) was a darling of the opposition due to his open and strong support, both materially and politically, to the democratic movements at the time in Kenya.

The open support for the multi-party democracy forces made him an enemy of the stat and then President Daniel arap Moi. It is in fact Moi, in a feat of  rage, who referred to him as a ‘rogue ambassador’, a monicker Hempstone embraced and which he used in his autobiography, Rogue Ambassador: An African Memoir.

Three decades later, the term ‘rogue ambassador’ has flipped its reference, thanks to the chequered tour of duty by Meg in Kenya, who Kenyans have bid “good riddance”.

Meg first stoked controversy in 2020 after he declared the contested presidential elections free and fair, without referring to any elections’ observer report. She was quick to follow with yet another blunder when she took to the front banner to market Kenya abroad for investment inflows at a time the opposition supporters were being gunned down in deadly protests.

She did not stop there. In June and July 2024, deadly protests led by the generation Z (Gen Z) hit Kenya, resulting in the invasion of Parliament on June 24, 2024, by the youthful protestors. The protests forced President William Ruto to dissolve his cabinet and reorganise his government. Further, the government reacted to the protests, which were peaceful, with brutal force through abductions and extrajudicial killings.

While other envoys in Nairobi reacted by condemning the Kenyan government for the abductions and extra-judicial killings, the US envoy kept off. She did not append her signature to the joint statement.

  • A Tell report / By Tervil Okoko, a veteran Kenyan journalist
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