At the end of the eighth Devolution Conference, the controversial "rogue ambassador” remark by Azimio leader Raila Odinga became the talking point for an event marking 10 years of the devolved system.
At the end of his keynote address that remarkably highlighted the challenges and successes of devolution in Kenya, Raila unsurprisingly hit back at US Ambassador Meg Whitman, who had a day earlier, on August 16, said the 2022 election was fair and credible.
"Kenya held what many analysts and commentators say was the freest, fairest and most credible election in Kenyan history,” Whitman said, adding the polls were observed by local and international observers, upheld by the Supreme Court, and power transferred orderly and peacefully.
She was making an investment pitch titled 'Why Africa, Why Kenya', in which she enumerated a list of factors she believes make Kenya the Number One destination for investments in the region. It was the speech she made during the American Chamber of Commerce in March.
The US envoy seems to be pushing more economic interests than political.
In her AmCHAM Summit address, she said, "Since I arrived in Kenya, my team and I have been laser focused on strengthening the US-Kenya trade and investment relationship in coordination with the Kenyan government."
Raila slammed her saying, "Tell the rogue ambassador Kenya is not the United States. Kenya is not a colony of the United States. Keep your mouth shut. Otherwise, we will call for your recall back to your country”.
A storm was triggered, with the Executive leadership led by President William Ruto defending the envoy.
The National Assembly leadership led by Speaker Moses Wetang'ula and Majority leader Kimani Ichung'wah joined in her defence, as did a section of UDA-affiliated governors led by Susan Kihika of Nakuru.
While the opposition leader and his troops maintained the envoy was insensitive and should not interfere with Kenya's domestic affairs, those on the government side said she only stated facts.
The protestation of "interference of domestic affairs" by foreign powers/ governments is synonymous with governments.
A few weeks prior to the devolution conference during the height of anti-government protests, Foreign Affairs summoned the Diplomatic Corps warning them against interference in Kenya's internal affairs.
This scenario, which brings out political hypocrisy or convenience, if you like, is well explained by the story of the 'Rogue Ambassador'.
The political connotation of the term ‘Rogue Ambassador’ in Kenya's political context is or can be drawn from former US envoy to Kenya Smith Hempstone (1989–93). He died in 2006 aged 77.
His tour of duty was during a period when the opposition was agitating for multiparty democracy, a push that involved protests against the Moi dictatorship. The US was pushing for 'democratic' regimes as well as respect for human rights in Africa as a foreign policy.
In his interview with Charles Stuart Kennedy on May 6, 1998, Hempstone recalled that before his posting to Nairobi, Senator Paul Simon of the Committee for Foreign Affairs asked him, "How do I know that we can count upon you to defend human rights in Kenya?"
He replied, "You can count upon me because I am an American, senator."
So, Hempstone, until the appointment a journalist and editor who had widely covered Africa, pushed President George H W Bush's democracy and human rights agenda. He had reported from Kenya pre-Independence, from where he wrote Africa, Angry Young Giant.
As ambassador, he became a friend of the opposition, a high-profile critic of Moi's regime and supporter of multipartyism. Raila and his allies such as Governor James Orengo are among the key heroes of the multiparty push under the Second Liberation.
In the aforementioned interview, Hempstone recalls that things deteriorated after the killing of Robert Ouko and the Saba Saba riots.
"I had put out my lines already to the opposition. It was clear that Moi didn't like my doing that. But I told him, 'It is my duty to know and to report what is going on in this country to the [State] Department," he narrated.
"I pointed out to him what had happened in Iran, where we had had no contact with the opposition because the Shah didn't want us to and we ended up with egg on our face. So, I said, 'I'm sorry, but I feel I must do this'."
This is how human rights lawyer Gibson Kamau Kuria took refuge in the American embassy and sought asylum, which was granted.
He added that he protested openly both the opposition's brutality and the security force's [GSU] brutality in putting it down. He goes on to speak about how the opposition politicians were mistreated in detention and the US cutting aid, including military support, as a result of clampdown on dissidents.
Kennedy asks him, "In a way, a government can rightly say, 'What the hell's business is it of yours to talk about how people were being treated'."
To which Hempstone responds, "Except I would say it is our business. We don't just export Coca-Cola and blue jeans. We export democracy. Thomas Jefferson didn't say that all Americans have these rights. He said, 'All men have these rights'. I thought, 'If you want to have warm relations with us, you will give them these rights. If you don't give a damn about your relations with us, you treat them any way you want to'."
Moi restored multipartyism in 1992.
Hempstone's 'bulldozer diplomacy' against the Kanu dictatorship earned him the title Rogue Ambassador, which he went on to title his book: Rogue Ambassador: An African Memoir
Some believed he was acting on his own, thus rogue, but as far as he was concerned, he was implementing the President's policy.
"I said to some of the brighter ones amongst them, including Bethuel Kiplagat, who had been the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs before, a very good man, I am a political appointee. If I were doing something that President Bush didn't want done, he would have me out of here in five minutes. You know that. So, why do you talk all this nonsense? It's sort of ironic," he said.
A report in the New York Times notes that Kenya Times ran front-page cartoons depicting him as a fat pig. One headline said, 'Shut up, Mr. Ambassador'. Same phrases today.
From Hempstone, who was a darling of the opposition but rogue in the eyes of the Kanu regime, we now have the reverse.
With the US supposedly backing the legitimacy of the government, the opposition is now accusing the US envoy of being rogue.
The opposition has in the past asked the international community not to keep quiet on Kenya's political situation, itself calling for interference in domestic affairs.
And when the diplomats speak, the government is quick to refer to Article 41 (1) of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations on non-interference in internal affairs.
Politics of convenience!