Murkomen feeds goofs and gaffe gift horse by Kenya leaders

Transport Cabinet Secretary (CS) Kipchumba Murkomen is a politician who had grown his publicity as brilliant lawyer, focused on international trade, and often tapped as a TV guest on shows.

Until Monday night, he had hardly put a word wrong in his analyses. Then he showed up on Citizen TV and made a snide remark about Rwanda and its President Paul Kagame.

“Rwanda is not like Kenya. Rwanda is an autocracy and there whatever the President [Paul Kagame] says is the law,” he said defending the government procedures. The words didn’t elicit a formal response yet from Kigali, but bloggers incensed with his remarks descended on the CS, with some accusing him of being part of “institutional corruption” he can’t criticise.

Read: Foreign PS Korir Sing'oei downplays Murkomen’s Rwanda comments

In fact, Murkomen was ‘eaten alive’ by Kenyans online, who felt he had strayed too far afield by an unprovoked attack on a President of a friendly country. The criticism seemed to work as Murkomen tried to walk back his words, too late.

“I have expressed my admiration for Rwanda’s style of leadership, which has made it possible for them to build good infrastructure including a new airport and enforce discipline and order on their roads.

“It’s not just Rwanda, countries like the UAE, Morocco, Saudi Arabia among others have a style of leadership that has delivered great success to their people because their leaders have the power to make firm DECISIONS. Our style of leadership has many positives but it’s too bureaucratic and takes years to make a very simple decision, which ends up being very costly for our people,” he wrote later on X.

Whatever he meant to put across, the gift of misspeaking has become a poke mark on the Kenya Kwanza government’s face.

After the goof, Foreign Principal Secretary (PS) Korir Sing’oei waded in on the matter.

“Each country within the EAC has a unique democratic praxis suited to their contexts,” said Dr Sing’oei on X formerly Twitter, after calls that he should give the CS some diplomatic training.

“We celebrate this diversity of expressions and institutional arrangements. Rwanda is a key brotherly Nation and the Head of State of Rwanda, H.E. Paul Kagame, is an iconic leader whose bold leadership is admired at home and abroad,” added Sing’oei.

Kenya’s tradition in the past has often been to refrain from criticising the political systems of neighbours. It is the unwritten rule that has kept friendships with Rwanda and all others. Now some observers think government officials need re-education on basics of diplomacy and public communication, seeing as Murkomen is not the only one to have used words considered disparaging.

Ahmednasir Abdullahi, a lawyer in Nairobi, asked the PS to prepare a workshop on that.

“Sing’oei you need to URGENTLY organise workshops for government officials and educate them on basic tenets on the comity of nations,” he said the PS on X.

“CSs must be taken through a crash course, teaching them the responsibilities that come with their new constitutional offices! Very soon, Kenya will be a pariah state in the hood!”

Murkomen did not apologise for the statement on Wednesday but did try to explain away the context, and lost the battle. Other top government officials have caused Sing’oei trouble in the recent months.

Earlier this month, senate Speaker Amason Kingi described Somaliland as a ‘republic’ with which Kenya “enjoy ties that stretch back to its days under British colonial rule, which bequeathed them almost similar systems and structures of governance at independence.” The problem is Kenya considers Somaliland a part of Somalia.

Dr Sing’oei had to intervene to re-clarify that stance by Nairobi. But then legislators took offence to the way he reprimanded the Speaker in public.

Mr Kingi would later delete the post on X. Nonetheless, it saved Nairobi another protest note from Mogadishu. Kenya had last year misplaced a Somaliland flag among those of countries invited to State House, forcing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to apologise to Somalia.

Public Service CS Moses Kuria once asked for an intervention “to bomb Khartoum” in Sudan to stop warring factions; the Sudan Armed Forces led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the Rapid Support Forces led by Mohamed Hamdani Daglo Hemedti from killing their people.

“The Sudan lesson is so simple. The community of nations should militarily invade any country where armies overthrow the government. Appeasement does not pay off,” he argued in a post in May, several weeks after war broke out in Sudan.

“Military juntas do not become democrats because of the false principle of non-interference.”

The Ministry of Foreign and Diaspora Affairs would later intervene to clarify Kenya’s position was to cultivate confidence building between parties to resolve the conflict through dialogue, as proposed by regional bloc IGAD.

In spite of the public clarification, Kenya has struggled to be seen as a fair arbiter in Sudan, rejected by Burhan and accused of forcing its ideas on IGAD. A quartet of IGAD leaders President Ruto led to resolve Sudan problem fell through and the bloc, sort of, abandoned it, on December 9 after deciding to appoint a team of distinguished envoys instead.

Earlier, Agriculture CS Mithika Linturi found himself in controversy, just months after taking over, when he told the media that they planned to cultivate maize in Zambia for importation. Lusaka later dismissed the statement as untrue.

Perhaps the government’s biggest problem has also been communication, especially on social media. Prime Cabinet Secretary and Cabinet Secretary for Foreign and Diaspora Affairs found himself with an egg on his face after tweeting a message of a telephone call with US counterpart Antony Blinken, but used the image of Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. The post was later deleted after criticism.

But earlier this month, Dr Sing’oei found himself in a shameful position after he posted a message about a meeting Albanian President Bajram Begaj while in Dubai. The problem was he used the image of him with Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama.

State House also found itself on the gaffe-streak after naming an ‘ambassador’ for Somaliland among a list of envoys the president had nominated. It forced the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to clarify that the nominee was in fact going to be a consul-general to Hargeisa, not an ambassador.