Jumbled protocol: Diplomatic blunders leave egg on face of gov’t officials in Kenya

This has been displayed by what seems to be an opaque structure on who should undertake specific mandates and the making of incautious sentiments that have grave ramifications.

Starting with the most recent incident, Kenya on Sunday distanced itself from any involvement with a press conference held in Nairobi on December 15 that announced the creation of an alliance that showed allegiance to several rebel groups, including the M23 rebel group, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The conference sanctioned by Congo opposition figure Corneille Nangaa announced the creation of the "Alliance Fleuve Congo". 

Nangaa announced that his platform currently comprises 17 political parties, two political groupings and several armed groups. 

Confusion was however witnessed as Government spokesperson Isaac Mwaura had released a media coverage invite to make a briefing on "diplomatic issues" and minutes later he called it off.

The briefing was shortly cancelled and a statement from Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary (CS) Musalia Mudavadi was released denouncing the nation's involvement from the alliance formation.

This painted a mandate uncertainty on whether such diplomatic are a sole mandate of the Foreign Affairs docket, posing questions as to why Mwaura was expected to make the address.

Kenyans on X were swift to raise the question as city lawyer Ahmednasir Abdullahi remarked; "Now...what is this nonsense! Don't we have a competent CS and a PS (Dr@SingoeiAKorir) to brief us/world on "diplomatic issues" relevant to Kenya?...this government is a circus...and not even an entertaining one!"

Another wrote "Between you and Mr Mwaura who is in a position to deal with diplomatic issues. Bcz its seems there is a confusion?"

Another reacted "This Kenya is confused, what statement is Mwaura going to give now?"

This comes barely two weeks after Kenya’s Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Korir Sing’oei took to X claiming that he met the Albanian President Bajram Begaj in Dubai, UAE while it was Albania's Prime Minister Edi Rama instead.

Shortly after posting the tweet, on December 3, 2023, PS Sing'oei deleted it and then sent out another post identifying PM Rama correctly.

This also attracted censure from Kenyans online who questioned how a leader in an esteemed docket would make such a careless mistake.

Still on the diplomatic muddle, Sing'oei took on Senate speaker Amason Kingi on December 6 telling him to keep off the foreign affairs docket, following a post on X where Kingi said he had met with a diplomatic representative of Somaliland.

Kingi shared that he had met Somaliland Ambassador to Kenya Mohamed Ahmed Mohamoud and explored new avenues for collaboration and partnerships between the two East African nation's governments.

Sing'oei made haste to attack Kingi, telling him that according to Kenya’s foreign policy and that of the African Union, only the Federal Republic of Somalia is the recognized state entity and not Somaliland as Kingi had elucidated.

"Only the federal Republic of Somali is the recognized state entity... Somaliland, a region within the Federal Republic of Somalia, has a  liaison officer for commercial purposes in Nairobi. This office is not an embassy," Sing'oei noted.

"Foreign policy of the republic is a function of the National government and that Parliament's role is to oversight the exercise of foreign relations by the national government."

Kingi was also quick to delete the post from his account.

On May 15, 2023, Sing'oei also threw Public Service CS Moses Kuria (then Trade CS) under the diplomatic bus after the CS made controversial remarks through his X account regarding the ongoing crisis in Sudan.

Kuria opined that the only solution to end the crisis was to have the African Union (AU) commission troops to bomb Khartoum, Sudan's capital.

"The Sudan lesson is so simple. The community of nations should militarily invade any country where armies overthrow the government. Appeasement does not pay off. Military juntas do not become democrats because of the false principle of noninterference," he wrote.

Sing'oei disowned Kuria's comments and clarified that he made the remarks in a personal capacity and was not speaking on behalf of the State.

At the time of Sing'oei's reply, CS Kuria had already pulled down his tweet, but there were screenshots plastered all over X.

"The personal views expressed by Moses Kuria do not represent government policy in this complex and challenging issue. We continue to work with all parties towards a peaceful resolution of the Sudan Crisis," PS Sing'oei wrote on Twitter.

President William Ruto has also been a victim of diplomatic blunder as on November 14, 2022, he announced on X that Kenya no longer recognised the existence of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) state.

He added that Kenya would close down its presence in the Northern country.

"Kenya rescinds its recognition of the SADR and initiates steps to wind down the entity’s presence in the country,” Ruto wrote on his account.

He added: “Kenya supports the United Nations framework as the exclusive mechanism to find a lasting solution to the dispute over Western Sahara.”

In what seemed as if the President threw himself into hot soup, he made an abrupt U-turn and deleted the post.