Kenya on Wednesday lashed out at a senior European Union envoy who warned that the country would lose millions of euros in EU aid if President Mwai Kibaki does not sign a tough new anti-corruption law by year’s end.
Kenyan Foreign Minister Chirau Ali Mwakwere indignantly accused Eric van der Linden, the new EU ambassador to Kenya, of ”rude and undiplomatic” behaviour for issuing an ”ultimatum” to the president in comments he made a day earlier.
”It is rude and undiplomatic to issue ultimatums to the head of state,” he told reporters at a news conference called to announce Nairobi had issued a formal diplomatic protest to the envoy.
”It runs counter to every principle of diplomatic etiquette to issue threats to the very person to whom he is accredited,” Mwakwere said, complaining that Kibaki’s government had been unaware of the deadline until Van der Linden’s remarks.
”As a country, we only heard what he said as reported; he has not communicated to us through official channels,” he said. ”That is unacceptable, unprofessional, undiplomatic and amateurish.”
On Tuesday, van der Linden said the EU would be forced to withhold the first tranche of a planned €120-million aid package Kibaki fails to sign into law by December 31 a Bill to make Kenya’s graft-riddled government procurement more transparent.
If that deadline is not met, he said the 25-nation bloc could lose authorisation to disburse the next two tranches of the package.
Parliament passed the much-delayed Public Procurement Bill in July, but it cannot take effect until Kibaki signs it, something that Mwakwere maintained could not be done before it went through the proper channels to State House.
”The legislative process is not intended to please foreigners or attract donor funding,” he said. ”Foreigners are not custodians of Kenya’s national interest. The government acts on basis of what is in Kenyan’s national interest.”
Mwakwere has slammed foreign ambassadors in the past for their outspoken comments on corruption, notably in February when former British high commissioner Edward Clay said the government had failed to fight massive graft.
At the time, Mwakwere called the now-retired Clay an ”incorrigible liar”.
”It is only in Kenya that we have errant ambassadors, nowhere else in the world,” he lamented on Wednesday, advising foreign diplomats to respect diplomatic protocols enshrined in the Vienna Convention.
Van der Linden also said that the Kibaki’s government must do more to clamp down on corruption, noting that flagging anti-graft efforts had already led to the suspension of some aid from bilateral donors.
Mwakwere said the Kenyan government appreciates foreign aid but that it does not need to be lectured to.
”While assistance from our partners in development is welcome, and plays an important role in our development, it should not be used as leverage for interference with this country’s legislative process,” he said. — Sapa-AFP