Stop political tours, Raila tells US envoy

Prime Minister Raila Odinga on Wednesday asked US ambassador Michael Ranneberger to stop his political activities among the youth.

Relations between Washington and Nairobi are tense following revelations of unflattering cables written by US embassy staff on the Kenyan political elite.

The leaked cables are said to show that embassy staff regard Kenya as “a flourishing swamp of corruption” and to regard with disdain both President Kibaki and Mr Odinga.

On Wednesday, the PM advised the envoy to use diplomatic channels to mobilise the youth to participate in politics rather than going out and doing it himself.

Government Spokesman Alfred Mutua on Tuesday sensationally accused an unnamed foreign government of paying the youth to topple the government.

Mr Ranneberger on Wednesday denied funding the youth to undermine the government and described relations between Nairobi and Washington as some of the strongest in Africa.

At the same time, Mr Odinga revealed details of the phone call he received from a top US diplomat warning Kenya of “unpleasant” information that will soon become public.

More than 250,000 secret memos have been stolen from the Department of State, most of them instructions to its diplomats and their honest reports about the countries to which they are posted.

The publication of the cables has caused America embarrassment across the globe.

Mr Odinga said the government was treating the leaks, by the whistleblower website Wikileaks, as US government internal communication and was not threatened by them.

He told Parliament that the government does not panic because of leaked information, but now the administration knows what “some of our friends think about us.’’

However, he described the information as “helpful and positive criticism”.

He said he was unaware of any plans to overthrow the government. “The government cannot panic because of some money being given to Kenyan youth in the ongoing US empowerment programme,” the PM said.

“What is Sh1.5 billion? We as a government are putting Sh5 billion to support the youth while the World Bank has given Sh61 billion towards the same,’’ he said.

But he cautioned that such projects must follow the proper channels. “The government is stable politically. It will take more than hiring a few youth here and there to overthrow the government.”

He insisted that whatever the US does in Kenya has to be within the framework of cooperation between the two countries.

“It is not proper for an envoy to recruit youth and put them somewhere and tell them what to do,” the PM added.

He was responding to a statement by Mr William Kabogo (Juja, Narc Kenya) who had demanded a full disclosure of the conversation between the PM and the US assistant secretary of state for African Affairs, Mr Johnnie Carson.

Mr Odinga said Mr Carson called him to warn him that some information would come out over the next few days and it was not pleasant.

He said Mr Carson informed him that somebody had hacked the US government website connecting embassies to its office in Washington and that “the information was not going to be pleasant.”

“I have no fear something untoward will come out other than what Kenyans already know,” Mr Odinga said.

On Mr Carson’s call, the PM added: “He said I was calling to make you be aware of some information that will be coming out in the next few days. He said that some of the information may not be very pleasant because of the way they (US embassies) communicate with their headquarters.”