Kenya defends Corsi deportation

Kenya is under no obligation to explain the deportation of the author of a book that discredits US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, the Foreign Affairs minister said On Wednesday.

Mr Moses Wetang’ula said the decision to deport Dr Jerome Corsi, an American himself, was taken by the Immigration Department.

“Every country has a right to revoke the immigration status of visitors and kindly request them to leave. That is what happened and the Government owes nobody an explanation,” said Mr Wetang’ula.

The minister was speaking at Nairobi Serena hotel when he met African diplomats.

The writer was arrested on Tuesday morning as he prepared to address a news conference to launch his book, The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality, and taken to the Immigration headquarters at Nyayo House.

He was later deported on a British Airways midnight flight out of Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. The book has been heavily criticised worldwide for its inaccuracies.

But former Subukia MP Koigi wa Wamwere criticised the deportation.

“Kenya can now be said to be sliding back to the old days of intolerance when writers such as Ngugi wa Thiong’o were detained without trial,” Mr Wamwere, himself an author, said in Nakuru.

He claimed that the action against the American was a blot on the coalition Government and the ruling elite.

Mr Wamwere said that Dr Corsi’s book was not banned in the US and that Kenya could not pretend to be “more democratic than the West”.

“Deporting this author is an insult to the intelligence of Kenyans, who are capable of reading and making intelligent choices.”

Mr Wamwere said although Senator Obama had Irish roots, no European country was kicking out Dr Corsi irrespective of whether they supported the election of Mr Obama or not.
Coalition government

‘‘This deportation can only mean that the coalition Government is metamorphosing into a dictatorship of the worst kind,’’ Mr Wamwere added.

The former MP said that Dr Corsi would now be regarded as a hero and Kenyans cast as villains.

At the diplomats’ meeting, the dean of the African envoys, Mozambique high commissioner Marcos Namashulua, asked Mr Wetang’ula to explain his memo directing them not to play Kenya’s National Anthem during their celebrations.

The envoy also wanted the minister to explain the proposal for a grand opposition in Parliament. The minister declined to comment on the two issues in the presence of the media, saying he would handle them in their closed door sessions.

Commenting on Somalia, Mr Wetang’ula disclosed that the Government would train about 10,000 Somali security forces that would be deployed back to their country to help maintain peace.

“This is a bid to address the inability of the African continent to raise about 8,000 soldiers required to help keep peace in the war-torn country,” he explained.

Governance charter

The minister said the recruitment has to be in line with the representation formula agreed upon in the country’s governance charter with the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (Igad).

The officers are to be put on a payroll to prevent them from becoming warlords. The minister said the Government was negotiating with the United Nations Development Programme to see how they can be paid as peace is sought in Somalia.

“Igad will hold an extraordinary session in Nairobi soon to extend Somalia’s transitional charter,” he said.