The Kenyan US embassy. Former Finance Minister Njeru Githae has been
nominated to take over as the new Kenyan ambassador to the US. PHOTO |
BMJ MURIITHI | NATION MEDIA GROUP
After one year without a substantive
representative from Kenya, Washington, DC will now have a new ambassador
if Mr Robinson Njeru Githae gets the nod from the National Assembly.
President
Uhuru Kenyatta on Thursday night announced the nomination of the former
Finance Minister, who is expected to replace the current Charge d'
Affaires, Ms Jean Kamau.
The announcement is likely to put to rest speculation that Mr Kenyatta was snubbing the United States.
Interestingly,
it comes just a week after he attended the much publicized US-Africa
leaders’ Summit during which he met US president Barack Obama at White
House dinner in honour of the African heads of state and government.
MAJOR TRADING PARTNER
Since
the former Kenya’s envoy to the US, Mr Elkanah Odembo, was recalled in
July last year, the Kenyan Mission has remained without a substantive
ambassador.
Early this year, a group of Kenyans based
in the United States sent a petition to Mr Kenyatta asking him to post a
new envoy in Washington.
“The US is a major trading
partner and we would like the government to take the Mission more
seriously than it is currently doing,” read part of the plea.
On
Thursday night, a statement by the President's spokesman, Manoah
Esipisu, said Mr Kenyatta had found it necessary to ‘realign the
assignment of portfolio responsibilities of the Government’.
A
number of Principal Secretaries and ambassadors were shuffled. Ms
Kamau has been moved to Bangkok, Thailand as a full ambassador.
Ms
Kamau made headlines in April after she boycotted a premium event in
which Kenyan elite athletes were honored in Boston, MA. She skipped the
event ostensibly because she had learnt that former Prime Minister Raila
Odinga would be in attendance.
Kenyans took to the
social media to condemn the action with some terming it as
‘disrespectful’ of a former senior government official.
Mr
Odinga later told the Nation that he did not approve of “the treatment
given to me by embassy officials during my sabbatical in the United
States.”
PLAYED KEY ROLE
Ms
Kamau will however be remembered for her role in the 2013 Kenya-US
Diaspora conference which was billed as one of the most successful
events hosted by the Kenyan embassy in the US.
Last month, Ms Kamau played a key role in ensuring Kenya’s participation at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in the US capital.
She
also goes down as a fierce defender of her officers. During her stint
as the head of Mission, some Kenyans residing in the United States
complained that the embassy officials were ‘inefficient, rude and
unprofessional’ in dealing with the members of public. But in an
interview with the Nation in May, Ms Kamau dismissed the allegations and
said there was a channel to direct complaints on the embassy website.
She
asked Kenyans to lodge formal complaints with the embassy “so that
there is proper follow-up on any issues they may encounter.”
The
appointment of Githae, a former Minister for Finance and Member of
Parliament for the Ndia Constituency is already generating varied
reactions from the public . Kariuki Gitau of California said in a tweet
soon after the announcement; “I thought political rejects were gonna
give a chance to many jobless graduates”.
But an
official at the Kenyan embassy in Washington who wished not to be named
said by bringing in a former Finance Minister, President Kenyatta was
sending a message that he takes the bilateral relations between Kenya
and the US seriously.
“Mr Githae was in the Kibaki
government at a time when major Vision 2030 economic decisions were
made. There can’t be a better choice for Washington which has committed
itself to work with Kenya on many fronts,” she told the Nation by phone.
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