Inside Kenya-US diplomatic ties under Kenyatta

Donald Rumsfeld had arrived in Nairobi to see Jomo Kenyatta, when things went wrong, diplomatically.

It was June 17, 1976, but these finer details have all been forgotten. Diplomacy is a tough calling…

A year earlier, and at only 42, Rumsfeld had been appointed by US President Gerald Ford as the youngest Secretary for Defence. He would later serve George W. Bush in a similar capacity – this time as the oldest.

Some stories are really interesting, as former US ambassador Anthony D. Marshall related in some not-so-much publicised reminiscences now held by the Library of Congress. First, did you know that Jeremiah Kiereini had appointed himself the US ambassador?

But first about Rumsfeld. At the airport, he was met by Marshall, the man who had arrived in Nairobi at a time when politicians were still wary of US diplomats.

This was after the first US ambassador to Nairobi, Bill Atwood, had written a book, Reds and Blacks, which reported conversations with Kenyan officials, some spoken in confidence.

But Atwood was a journalist and had entered into the system as John F. Kennedy’s speechwriter, during the campaigns and as ambassador to Kenya after Kennedy was assassinated in November 1963.

MARSHALL'S ENTRY

But he made a goof by writing his Kenyan experience and it is now accepted by some of the diplomats who took after him that this was not a smart move and it hurt the ties between US ambassadors and those inside the Kenyatta state. 

“It was like operating in an iron curtain country,” Glen Ferguson, the man who took over from Atwood, told Marshall on his Kenyan experience then. “The Kenyans simply didn’t want anything to do with the American ambassador, which was most unfortunate indeed.”

By the time Marshall arrived in Kenya on December 19, 1973, the Atwood affair had not been forgotten.  “He wasn’t entirely forgotten by the time I got there, but what I was pressing was not politics, I was pressing business,” Marshall would later say.

Marshall had arrived in Kenya from Madagascar, where he had been accused of plotting to instal a US ally, Andre Resampa, as successor to ailing President Phili Tsiranana – once described by New York Times as a “hot-tempered man”. 

In Antananarivo, Marshall was regarded as the chief “instigator” and Washington recalled him “for consultation”.

Later on, he was declared persona non grata and that is how he ended up in Kenya. That is how Resampa was arrested after being accused of being anti-French and pro-American.

GEOLOGIST EXPELLED

Interestingly, the Malagasy Affair, as it was known, did not feature anywhere after he arrived in Nairobi. He was once asked: “Did the charges in Madagascar of CIA involvement in the episodes there at the time you left cause any ripples with the Kenyans? Did you have anything to overcome with Kenyatta? And he answered: “None whatsoever, not even mentioned. They even complimented me on it.”

To his credit, it was Marshall who built the US embassy that was later bombed by al-Qaeda at the junction of Haile Selassie and Moi Avenue. “It was a real pain getting built. The hole kept filling up with water…”

Perhaps because of the political falling-out between some of the Kenyatta men and US diplomats over the Atwood affair, their quest for a better location was largely ignored. “It’s at a place where there is no parking, which was too bad. It was a third location that we were offered,” Marshall said later.

The suspicion did not end there, according to Marshall. It continued with the expulsion of an American geologist, Saul Miller, who had discovered ruby in Tsavo – the largest deposit in the world. 

“A lot of reporters descended on Nairobi specifically to find out about it and interviewed me. I should have left it to the Political Affairs Officer to comment on it, but I didn’t. I became involved. I involved myself. I thought it was important enough in our relations with the Kenyans to get this solved,” he later revealed.

MINE SAGA

There were many threats coming from the US over the Saul Miller case: “Washington was saying, if it can’t be resolved, we were going to cut off aid and such things as that. And I thought I wanted to do it myself. It was a long story. It went over a six-month period, in all. Newsweek, The London Times, The Washington Post and a number of others came in.”

But it was the Washington Post that had written most of the damaging reports on the Kenyatta government.

One night, a Nairobi reporter for The Washington Post followed Marshall at a dinner at the Indian High Commissioner’s residence in Nairobi.

“It was about 10:30 at night, and he said, ‘I've sent my story in. It’s going to break tomorrow.’ He said he’d like to stay around a couple more weeks and see what happens. I said, ‘Get out. Maybe nothing will happen, but you don’t want to even take a chance of being put in jail.’ And that could well happen. He left the next morning.”

By this time, Miller had gone into hiding and it was Marshall who asked him to give himself up. “They took his passport away and then kicked him out. Strangely enough, not too much longer, but a bit later, the lost file was found. At the same time, a legal process was pursued through which the mine was declared invalid for prospecting,” recalled Marshall on his Kenyan experience.

LAURA WOOD

Another interesting case was that of Laura Wood, a young American girl who was part of a large counterfeiting syndicate.

“One day I got a call from Charles Njonjo, the Attorney-General, who said, ‘I have a young girl by the name of Laura Wood, who is being detained and she will serve seven years in jail if it goes to court for counterfeiting.”

Marshall had said that she would like to see the girl, which was a bit odd for a diplomat. Actually, according to Marshall, the Attorney-General remarked:

“That was a little unusual”. I said, “Well, have a guard bring her to my office.” And the girl, as guilty as sin, was asked to say all she knew in return for lenience.

Apparently, she was a member of a ring that counterfeited notes from the Union Bank of Switzerland and they would get exchanged in camera shops in Nairobi and various other capital cities.

“If she will tell us all, maybe we can be lenient,” Mr Njonjo had promised Marshall. And instead of seven years, she was jailed for one year. Then the girl’s uncle arrived in Nairobi and went to see the ambassador. “I love this girl and she’s run into trouble and what can I do?” 

Marshall got in touch with Mr Njonjo and the girl was released after only a month in jail. “(Her uncle) took her back. He was in the publishing business, and he sent a lot of books and textbooks to the government in appreciation.”

ATTACK AIRCRAFT

Marshall also recalled another incident in Nakuru between Henry Kissinger and Kenyatta. The US had approved US$45 million to purchase a squadron of F-5Es after he got scared by Idi Amin’s threats to invade.

The Ministry of Defence had also asked for some attack aircraft and Kissinger was of the feeling that all these should be considered.

“I was against it, because I felt that they should not have an attack aircraft. I think Henry came around to that thinking too. I felt that if they wanted them to defend themselves, that was the point they were making against neighbours, and that’s fine, but why an attack aircraft?”

It was vice-president Daniel arap Moi who was to pursue the ambassador over the F-5Es. While Kenyatta was in a hurry to get the jets, he was told that acquisition was not an easy task.

Marshall had pointed out this to him. “I also pointed out to President Kenyatta that you couldn’t just have the planes tomorrow. Who was going to fly them? It would take two years of training in the United States. So we ended up giving them credits to buy the aircraft, which they did. They bought six while I was there. Then we gave them a grant for the training of the pilots.”

And that is how the story of Rumsfeld, the Defence Secretary, comes in. He had come to see Kenyatta as a follow-up to this issue. But first, he was to have a meeting at the Intercontinental Hotel. He had come to assure Kenyatta that his request had been approved.

KENYATTA FURIOUS

There was a brief meeting between Marshall and Rumsfeld. And as the ambassador went down, he found one of Rumsfeld’s staff members holding a press conference and breaking the news – before the meeting with Kenyatta.

“I blew my lid! I went back and told Secretary Rumsfeld, who was absolutely appalled,” recalled Marshall. “I'm not quite sure what he did. This was not his fault, at all. First of all, Kenyatta did not want this information released so the neighbours would know, at least not at that point...”

That evening, Marshall had dinner with Rumsfeld and he called Mbiyu Koinange, then-Minister of State. They met before dinner and he was taken to a library where Marshall broke the news of what transpired during the day.

“This is what’s happened.” Koinange, according to Marshall, “Turned pale”. Koinange said, “This is terrible. I'm not hearing this.”

“Yes, you are. I want you to know. I won’t say that I’ve told you, but I want you to know what has happened, when you wake up tomorrow morning, and see what has happened.”

Was Kenyatta furious? According to Marshall, he was: “In the next morning, I later learnt that Kenyatta was furious and he thought it was one of his people.

USS BARRY

He said, “Tell me who this man is and I will have him properly punished. We walked into the State House in Nairobi; we walked into this large room with a long table and all of Rumsfeld’s people were down one side and all of Kenyatta’s people were down the other side. I think I was the second one; I think Rumsfeld was next to Kenyatta and then I was next, and icicles were forming on the ceiling. I mean, Kenyatta was frigid.”

And he said, “I want to welcome you to Nairobi.” No further welcoming words. And then he said, “I think you want to say something,” turning to Rumsfeld. And I interrupted him.”

It was this interruption that saved the day. Perhaps. “Mr President, I just would like to ask you whether we are going to a smaller meeting after this, whether this is our only meeting?” With that, he got up and said, “We’re going to a smaller meeting now.”

He hadn’t even been thinking of it, of course. So we moved into the other room with just the Secretary of Defence, myself and a couple of others. The first thing that Rumsfeld said was, “No, this wasn’t your fault. This was mine. One of my people did it and he’s going to be punished.”

To try and soften Kenyatta, the US diplomat arranged for Kenyatta’s children to go on the USS Barry. When the envoy later went to deliver a message to Jomo, he asked whether the children enjoyed the visit:

“Oh, my children had a wonderful time and they’re still here.” So he called them and they came in, and they still had their caps on…”

AMBASSADOR-DESIGNATE

Then Kenyatta asked the diplomat to stay with him in Mombasa to watch the evening dances, “which is like turning on the television for him. That is what he did every single evening”.

There is also the story of Jeremiah Kiereini. One day, the US ambassador went to break the news to Kenyatta that Mr Kiereini had received acceptance from the US as Kenyatta’s ambassador-designate.

Kenyatta hit the roof: “Who? Why?”

Marshall: “You appointed him…”

Kenyatta: “No, I didn’t. Sometimes people do things I don’t know about. And sometimes they do it because they fear me.”

Marshall: “I’m not at all surprised. They have every right to fear you.”

The ambassador said that Kenyatta “roared with laughter”.  That is how Kiereini’s attempt to become an ambassador evaporated. And in his place J.P. Mbogua was appointed.

Diplomacy can be tough.

***

Many years later, Marshall ended up in jail after he was found guilty of criminal charges for swindling millions from his mother after she was struck with Alzheimer’s disease. 

He faced many accusations of mistreatment of his mother and mismanagement of her affairs. He had participated in forging her signature and will.

The jury found that Marshall and his lawyer had taken advantage of Mrs Astor’s failing mental health to gain control over her fortune by inducing her to change her will several years before she died in 2007 at age 105.

In December 2009, Justice A. Kirke Bartley Jr. sentenced both men to one to three years in prison, but allowed them to remain free pending appeals.

[email protected] @johnkamau1