Evan Gicheru (left) and Amos Wako (right)
The minor of the quarter million secret and confidential memos that began publishing this weekend will take analysts a long time to digest. And naturally the allegations that the U.S. was in a nuclear stand-off with Pakistan, or that the Saudia king called for the U.S. to obliterate Iran will be the headlines for a long time.
But in the world of U.S./Kenyan diplomacy, Wiki is as integral as anywhere.
US ambassador Michael Ranneberger called today on the Kenya government to prosecute Attorney General Amos Wako and replace Chief Justice Evan Gicheru. This was a bombshell that was not news.
These miserable little politicians who have caused such harm to Kenya have been called everything by the U.S. … except by their names. Until today. And I think, thanks to Wiki Leaks.
It must be what Wikileaks is doing everywhere. Analysts refer to “embarrassment” but nothing revealing. Diplomacy are the frilly clothes put on ugly bodies to make everything look respectable.
In Kenya everyone has known for some time that Wako and Gicheru are among the most corrupt of the corrupt. But both command local (and highly ethnic) constituencies that bristle with the notion their leader is a crook and hit-man.
So until now, foreigners involved in Kenya have been polite. Ranneberger has exhausted every inuendo possible to let the Kenyan press know that the Obama administration wants these two men out before better aid and relations can begin.
And not just the U.S. Most western donors, and The Hague which has begun (with the Kenya Government approval) prosecution of those alleged as the principal culprits in the 2007 election violence.
Wako was one of the first public witnesses to travel to The Hague to testify (in secret).
Ranneberger was just getting out in front of WikiLeaks, today. All the big wigs were at the development forum this morning, including Prime Minister Raila Odinga and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Uhuru Kenyatta.
They all listened stoically as Ranneberger finally said the names.
Said first, I presume, by WikiLeaks.