For a British Foreign Office mandarin, it was unusually colourful language, and an unfortunate metaphor for the businessmen as they tucked into their roast beef at Nairobi’s luxury Serena hotel.
Accusing the Kenyan government of arrogance, greed and corruption, Edward Clay, the British High Commissioner, told his audience that ministers ”could hardly expect us not to care when their gluttony causes them to vomit all over our shoes”.
The remarks sparked a diplomatic tiff between the two countries which rumbled throughout Thursday and is likely to simmer on despite a guarded and somewhat baffling apology from Clay.
A flamboyant figure, Clay (58) made his remarks at a function on Tuesday. Though the lunch had been private, his address, which included an attack on the government of Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki, as well as a skit based on a poem by AA Milne, was published in full in a Kenyan daily the following morning.
This triggered a storm around the country, where disillusionment has taken hold about the new government’s ability and willingness to root out corruption.
The Foreign Ministry demanded that Clay provide ”facts and figures, names, deals” to back up his accusations, setting a noon deadline.
”His job is not like that of a comedian,” said the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ali Mwakwere. ”He has abused us, and we are telling him to explain the facts of the case — or else he should shut up.”
He went on: ”We are not ready to entertain derogatory remarks, hallucinations, assumptions, imaginations or rumours on the person of ministers, senior government officers and by projection virtually insulting the presidency and the president as a person; that is unacceptable, undiplomatic. It is like rumour-mongering.”
The deadline came and went, with the British insisting it is up to the Kenyan government to uncover the details of corruption.
But under growing pressure, Clay, who had been refusing to speak to reporters all day, suddenly issued an apology. He said he regrets causing offence but insisted he stands by the substance of his attack.
”I regret if my language offends anybody,” he told Kenyan TV. ”But you know the point of language. It’s like the skin of a fruit or a nut. The fruit wants to draw attention to itself and invite people to peel it and then look at the fruit inside and see whether it’s good to eat, whether it agrees with you.”
The apology was even more baffling given that the Foreign Office cleared it in advance.
Clay, a father of three girls, previously attracted notoriety when he served as high commissioner in Cyprus. In July 2001, he called a Cypriot MP who was demonstrating against the presence of British radio masts on the island ”a medical monkey up a stick”, after the MP climbed up an antenna in protest. The remark inflamed local opinion.
The morning after the United States issued a security alert for Nairobi last December, he took breakfast in two hotels identified as terrorism targets, insisting security precautions were adequate.
Photographers were tipped off to take pictures of the envoy being frisked on his way in, which were published in the Nairobi press the next day.
That display of sang-froid won him the approval of ordinary Kenyans, and, while his language has raised eyebrows, his attack on corruption has been supported by the press and public.
The East African Standard, which broke the story, said in a leader: ”Below the indelicate vomit imagery, beneath the usual British scepticism about us, Mr Clay was speaking the ugly truth about the state of our country and its government.”
The head of the Anglican church in Kenya, an influential figure in a deeply religious country, joined the attack on the government on Thursday. Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi said: ”We are deeply concerned about the talk of high-level corruption in the government.
”If the government’s commitment to fight corruption is to carry credibility and conviction, then it must act firmly against the culprits in its ranks in accordance to its pledge that there will be no sacred cows.”
The Kibaki government came to power on a wave of optimism after years in which corrupt ministers and officials had bled Kenya dry, but the public have been dismayed by a new scandal involving plans for a £20-million passport computer system. The project was expanded to cover visas and border controls on the advice of the government’s information technology department, whose director was later suspended in connection with the affair.
Two bids from international firms were rejected before what the government described as an ”unsolicited” proposal from a company called Anglo Leasing and Finance, which was paid a ”commitment fee” of more than £600 000.
In May, the auditor general said the proposal may have been made with ”foreknowledge of the recommendation to enhance and expand the system”. The company has denied wrongdoing and repaid the fee. Four government officials, including the information technology director, have been suspended.
A separate development that worried foreign donors was the removal of the government’s leading anti-corruption official, John Githongo, from his prestigious office at the president’s office to the Justice and Constitutional Affairs Ministry.
The downgrading, which was rescinded after 24 hours, was widely interpreted as an attack by senior government figures on Githongo’s determined fight against corruption. In his luncheon speech, Clay described it as an attempt to ”kneecap” Githongo.
Gladwell Otieno, director of the Kenya chapter of Transparency International, an anti-corruption watchdog, said that sleaze under the Kibaki government can not be compared to the plundering that took place under the previous president, Daniel arap Moi. However, she warned: ”Corruption is growing. Once you allow it to sneak back in, it can grow very quickly.
”We know the fight against corruption is not won overnight but we have been surprised at the magnitude of arrogance and obfuscation. High officials believe they are not accountable to anyone.” — Guardian Unlimited Â