WikiLeaks exposes our weaknesses when in the company of foreigners

There is an embarrassing aspect of many of us Africans that we cannot run away from. We become hopelessly vulnerable in the company of foreigners.

When they lend us an ear, or pretend to, we turn into drooling chatterboxes ready to spill out everything we know, and much that we don’t.

That is the unpleasant reflection WikiLeaks is showing of us. It is embarrassing that what the President or the Vice-President or the Prime Minister will tell Michael Ranneberger in private is in many respects more candid than what they will reveal to some of their closest political allies.

The weakness is widespread. Cabinet ministers will drop everything they are doing to respond to lunch summonses from nondescript diplomats who are not even ambassadors. They will tell them more about their ministries than they are ready to disclose to the Kenyan public.

Ease of access

From the cables leaked by WikiLeaks, you easily detect the US embassy’s own surprise at the level and ease of its access. This weakness is by no means confined to politicians.

At diplomatic receptions, journalists and civil society types will blabber on uncontrollably as their hosts indulgently replenish their glasses.

The hosts find it very easy to extract information while not sharing any of their confidences in return.

The mining of sensitive information from top officials is the stuff of diplomatic work. There should be no surprise there, or the fact that those confidential conversations are later carefully written down and cabled to Washington or London.

What is quite revealing from the WikiLeaks trove is the extent to which US ambassadors in Kenya go to insert themselves into local politics and to direct the same for their country’s interest.

To an amazing degree, the US embassy is not just a mere chronicler of events in Kenya, as most embassies are. It is a very active player, even a decisive one at crucial moments.

That is made plain by the cables relating to the 2007-2008 pre-election and post-election period.

Later, Speaker Kenneth Marende is depicted as seeking out the embassy before making one of his so-called Solomonic rulings.

Aside from the intense embarrassment they have caused some politicians, the “WikiLeaked” cables are quite remarkable for the acuity with which they portray the leadership. The depiction of the Vice-President is easily the most devastating.

The cables can also be quite hilarious, as when John Michuki is reported to say that Raila Odinga’s master’s thesis in East Germany was about “making nail bombs”!

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The trouble with living in Kenya is that one has to put up with so much nonsense. A nominated MP stands up in Parliament and claims there is a “plot” to assassinate her. She claims some Israelis have been sent on that mission. It is not clear by whom or why anybody would be bothered with her.

Still, she grandiosely compares herself to Tom Mboya, JM Kariuki and Robert Ouko. You want to laugh.

It is this kind of histrionics that make the grand coalition such a messy thing to manage.

Commissioner of Police Matthew Iteere has since given a blow-by-blow account of the MP’s movements on the day she claimed she was to be “assassinated”.

She had been assigned a police guard throughout her visit to Mbita, save for a spell she momentarily excused herself from the guest house she was spending the night in.

Afterward, she showed up at a police station to claim she had been robbed. One of the items she said was stolen was her cell phone.

Yet it was understood to be in her possession when she went to report the “robbery”. She has since gone quiet after the commissioner responded to her claims.

Mr Iteere did remind everybody that it is an offence to make a false report to the police. It uses up resources needlessly. He should go ahead and prosecute this case.

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