Kibaki, Raila among key leaders named in Clinton’s e-mails published this week

Top Kenya politicians are among the leaders of various countries whose names feature in the controversial emails released by Mrs Hillary Clinton, who is seeking to succeed Barack Obama as the next president of the United States.

In one of the emails forwarded to her from the US Embassy in Nairobi, Ms Clinton was told of how the then US ambassador to Kenya, Mr Michael Ranneberger, was summoned to State House and given a dressing down.

The whistle-blower website Wikileaks had just published a report indicating that the envoy had reported to Washington about how corruption was rife in Kenya.

The then President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga told the envoy that Kenya would not tolerate his activities in the country. At the time, there had been reports that Mr Ranneberger was going around the country financing youth groups engaged in political activities.

Another email from Mr Burns Strider, the founding partner of the Eleison Group, a Democratic Party consulting firm, says that Mr Odinga had said that Africa did not need to be lectured about democracy. He made the remarks hours before Mrs Clinton arrived in Nairobi as part of a seven-nation tour of Africa.

CONCILIATORY NOTE

According to the email, when Mrs Clinton met Mr Odinga, she said: “The absence of strong and effective democratic institutions has permitted ongoing corruption, impunity, politically-motivated violence and a lack of respect for a rule of law. These conditions ... are continuing to hold Kenya back.”

At the meeting, Mr Odinga switched to a more conciliatory tone and said that African countries could learn from her example when she conceded defeat to Mr Obama during the Democratic primaries.

“That is a lesson Africa needs to learn seriously,” Mr Odinga told the meeting. “In Africa, in many countries, elections are never won, they are only rigged. The losers never accept that they lost. If we do this, we will be able to develop democracy truly in the African continent.”

Mrs Clinton is now a leading presidential contender for the Democratic Party ticket. She has been riding a storm after it came to light that when she served as secretary of state, she conducted official government business using her private email accounts. In May, a US court ordered that the emails be made public between June this year and early 2016.

Mrs Clinton travelled to Nairobi in August 2009 as part of a seven-nation African tour that mainly focused on trade and support for the fight against terrorism.

The following year, Kenya was in the thick of campaigns for and against the proposed Constitution.

WARNED OF VIOLENCE

Debate on the hot issues about the Constitution also feature in the emails released so far.

One non-profit organisation involved in maternal health had lobbied for pro-abortion clauses while another involved in “democratic practices” anticipated post-referendum violence after the August 4, 2010 vote.

As campaigns heated up over the draft Constitution, the National Democratic Institute, an American NGO, wrote a situation report warning of possible violence after the referendum from the "No" side, led by Mr William Ruto.

At the time, Mr Ruto was the MP for Eldoret North and a Cabinet minister in the Grand Coalition Government of President Kibaki and Prime Minister Odinga.

“Perhaps the biggest fear is that the ‘No’ camp is not going to accept the results and this will spark post-electoral violence (especially in the Rift Valley). So far, there is no evidence that this will occur,” the institute wrote on the referendum day.

“However, the point of greatest danger is after the announcement of the results, not before. So far as the political leader of the No side, William Ruto, is concerned, the results in Rift Valley are at least as important as the national total.”

Eventually, Mr Ruto conceded defeat, together with church leaders in the ‘No’ campaign and there was no violence.

The emails also reveal that Planned Parenthood, an NGO, had tried to influence support for a liberal Constitution that would favour abortion.

It also petitioned Mrs Clinton to use her planned visit to Nairobi to ask leaders to support that position.