Tag Archives: Ambassador

Embassy Kenya: Six Years after Robert Godec’s Confirmation Hearing as Ambassador, no word on vote on his nominated successor

Posted on by
Reply

Flashback to six years ago, during the “lame duck” Congressional sessions following President Obama’s re-election:

NOMINATIONS OF ROBERT F. GODEC AND DEBORAH ANN McCARTHY WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2012 U.S. SENATE, COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS, Washington, DC Hon. Robert F. Godec, of Virginia, to be Ambassador to the Republic of Kenya Deborah Ann McCarthy, of Florida, to be Ambassador to the Republic of Lithuania

The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:25 p.m., in room SD–419, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Christopher A. Coons, presiding. Present: Senators Coons, Lugar, and Isakson.

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. CHRISTOPHER A. COONS, U.S. SENATOR FROM DELAWARE Senator COONS. I call this hearing to order. I am honored to chair this hearing for the ambassadorial nominees to serve this Nation in Kenya and Lithuania, Ambassador Robert Godec and Ms. Deborah Ann McCarthy. Both nominees have impressive and long records of service and accomplishment in the Foreign Service of the United States, and I look forward to hearing about their priorities for advancing U.S. policies and interests in the countries to which they may soon go as our Ambassadors. I am also very pleased to be joined by my good friend and ranking member, Senator Isakson, of Georgia, and particularly honored that Senator Lugar, the ranking member of the full committee, has joined us today; and I understand Senator Durbin, of Illinois, may as well join us shortly. I apologize for the delay in getting started. We had a vote on the floor of the Senate.

As some know, Kenya has particularly important meaning for me. The first time I ever set foot in Africa was as a undergraduate spending a semester at the University of Nairobi, and I later volunteered at an orphanage in Ngong. My experience there was transformative, and changed my perspective on the world, and gave me a new sense of purpose and focus. And I returned to Kenya, for the first time in 25 years, just a few months ago.

In Nairobi, I had the opportunity to speak at the Kenyan National Prayer Breakfast, as Senator Isakson has, as well, this year, with President Kibaki and others, where I affirmed the centrality for the United States of the upcoming elections and our sincere hope that the violence and chaos of the 2007 elections can be averted. The United States, in my view, is, and should be, closely watching the process surrounding this election, and we’ll work closely with Kenyan officials to ensure the elections are peaceful, credible, and transparent. And I emphasized then, as I will again today, that we do not favor any particular outcome or candidate, but, instead, a free and fair process. Kenya has made remarkable progress in recent years in reforming its constitution, building democratic institutions, expanding press freedoms, and improving its economy. I was particularly impressed, during that visit with the younger generation of Kenyans, in the great potential that exists amongst entrepreneurs. There are many other things to be concerned about in the process toward the election, and I look forward to hearing about them in more detail from Ambassador Godec. Several factors may well influence the outcome of the election— ethnic tensions, the balloting registration process, the behavior of the police and security services, messaging of the candidates—all of which I hope we will get into in some more detail.

The other main area of concern for me regarding Kenya is its military involvement in Somalia, the ongoing security challenges, both within and without Kenya and its borders. Kenya is home to the largest diplomatic mission in Africa, from which a host of government agencies oversee bilateral and regional programs, and serves as a base for humanitarian relief, food security, and global health initiatives, and I’m eager to talk about that, as well as the potential for trade and investment in the region.

To serve as our next Ambassador in this critical post, in my view, President Obama has chosen wisely in nominating Ambassador Godec, who has served as Charge´ in Nairobi since August and has been received positively by government, civil society, and NGOs. Having built a strong career as the former Ambassador to Tunisia, he recently served as Principal Deputy Counterterrorism Coordinator in the State Counterterrorism Bureau. Prior to his service in Tunisia, he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs. This is Ambassador Godec’s second time in Nairobi, following a posting from 1996 to 1999 as Economic Counselor.

PREPARED STATEMENT OF RICHARD G. LUGAR, U.S. SENATOR FROM INDIANA It is a pleasure to welcome Ambassador Godec once again before the committee, in this case as the President’s nominee to be Ambassador to Kenya. His stewardship as Charge´ over the last several months comes at a very challenging time for our large and important East Africa Embassy. He has brought deft and experienced management to Nairobi and effectively sustained our varied interests and priorities with Kenyans and the Kenyan Government at a critical time. Among the most important interests is United States support for a free and fair electoral process leading up to national elections in 2013, the first since the abhorrent violence that followed the 2007 elections. United States interests extend broadly in East Africa and recognize the commitment Kenya has made in Somalia under the AMISOM umbrella, as well as its long support for regional peace initiatives. Kenya also has been a key counterterrorism partner in a variety of areas that are of mutual concern with broad global potential for impact. These include Kenyan efforts fighting al-Shabab and building its own counterterror capabilities in maritime and border security. Our extensive cooperation extends to providing a regional platform for the Defense Threat Reduction Agency and the Center for Disease Control in securing biological materials that pose a threat to millions if neglected. I would like to thank Ambassador Godec for his expeditious review of a longstanding request incorporating DTRA into a large Embassy country team.

President Trump nominated Illinois State Senator Kyle McCarter to replace Godec back on March 28, 2018, and a confirmation hearing was finally held on July 31, 2018, but no public word has come about an actual vote by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. McCarter was to make follow-up submissions about controversial tweets to the Senators. In the meantime, McCarter had announced prior to his nomination that he was not running for re-election to the State Senate and a Republican has been elected to succeed him in January. Trump’s Republicans gained three seats overall in the U.S. Senate.

Godec is now the longest serving U.S. Ambassador to Kenya, well exceeding Michael Ranneberger’s essentially double Bush-Obama term (even without including Godec’s six months as Charge d’Affaires).

Godec Confirmation Hearing

Posted on by
1

The U.S. Senate Foreign Affairs Committee will conduct confirmation hearings on the nomination of Ambassador Robert F. Godec for Ambassador to Kenya on Wednesday, November 28.

Godec has been serving in Nairobi since late summer following the resignation of Ambassador Scott Gration. Gration and his wife are staying in Nairobi.

Gration resigns–to leave Embassy late July

Posted on by
2

U.S. Ambassador Scott Gration released a statement to the media in Kenya this morning stating that he had resigned, effective late July, citing differences with Washington over “my leadership style and certain other priorities.”

See the Standard here.

Imenti Central MP Gitobu Imanyara said: “the resignation of Ambassador Gration is good news for Kenyan-US relations particularly in terms of the reform agenda. He has been too sympathetic to the lords of impunity.”

Published speculation on impact of release of Kenya cables . . .

Posted on by
Reply

In “World Politics Review“, Nairobi-based security/defense writer Lauren Gelfand suggests that the coming Wikileaks release may undermine efforts against corruption, due to Ranneberger’s recent outspokeness on that issue, but more generally asserts:  “But although the documents will be embarrassing, and possibly damaging to Ranneberger’s legacy, they are not likely to yield any revelatory information.”  No sourcing is presented for this conclusion, which is different than what I hear elsewhere.  Regardless, we shall see when we see.

If there is nothing “relevatory” but rather embarassing to Ranneberger specifically, then I don’t see why this should present a major setback to the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission or other reform efforts as Gelfand suggests.  The next Ambassador can take the same positions and carry out the same policies, now, on corruption.  It will be up to the President and Secretary of State to see that this happens.  The point here is consistency.  It will take years to really turn around corruption, one way or the other. 

If bad things did happen in regard to the 2007 election, Obama and Clinton were not in the Executive Branch at that time, so it wouldn’t be their fault in the first instance.  Perhaps it is time to “lance the boil” so that the U.S. can be more effective in helping Kenya in the future, especially with a new election coming in less than two years. I wish that the State Department Inspector General would have looked at the matter long ago, but it is what it is.

Gration spoke out on Obama/Odinga “smears” in 2008 campaign

Posted on by
3

It is easy to see why President Obama might want retired General Scott Gration as Ambassador to Kenya for the 2012 presidential campaigns in both the U.S. and Kenya. Gration served as a campaign military and foreign policy advisor to Senator Obama in 2008 and spoke out against allegations from the U.S. hard right that Obama played some nefarious role as a secret supporter of Islamic terrorism in respect to Raila Odinga and the 2007 election in Kenya. Gration became acquainted with Obama through accompanying him on his visit as a Senator to Kenya in 2006.

Gration has enhanced credentials as both a retired air force major general and the son of missionaries who grew up in Congo and in Kenya and speaks Swahili. He has said that he was a Republican prior to the 2008 campaign.

Here is Gration’s October 17, 2008 letter to the Washington Times:

Mark Hyman’s “Obama’s Kenya ghosts,” (Commentary, Sunday), was a disgraceful smear on Sen. Barack Obama. Because I accompanied Mr. Obama on his trip to Kenya, I can say unequivocally that Mr. Hyman’s piece was filled with lies and innuendo.

• Mr. Obama’s 2006 trip to Kenya was authorized by the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who congratulated Mr. Obama on a successful trip when he returned.

• Mr. Obama did not “campaign” on behalf of Raila Odinga, has never endorsed him, and was not “nearly inseparable” from Mr. Odinga during his time in Kenya. Mr. Obama met with a wide range of Kenyan and American officials, including a Nobel Prize winner, human-rights defenders, and President Mwai Kibaki. He did not have a single scheduled meeting with Mr. Odinga.

• Mr. Obama was accompanied throughout his trip by myself and two other active-duty U.S. military officers; and the U.S. ambassador attended meetings and events throughout the trip. The Obama staffer – Mark Lippert – that Mr. Hynes names is a naval reservist and Iraq War veteran whose deployment began several months before the Kenyan elections and continued well past it.

• The Obama speech that Mr. Hyman references was a widely praised effort that condemned corruption and tribalism while urging the promotion of private enterprise and accountable, transparent government.

• Mr. Obama and Mr. Odinga are not cousins, and efforts to assert otherwise have been described as “stretched to the point of ridiculousness” by an independent fact checker.

Mr. Hyman references telephone contacts that Mr. Obama had with Mr. Odinga in January. He fails to mention that those contacts were encouraged by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and were accompanied by public statements that Mr. Obama made on Voice of America, Kenyan radio, and in a Kenyan newspaper, calling for calm and a peaceful resolution of Kenya’s political crisis. Repeatedly, Mr. Obama asserted, “the opposition (led by Mr. Odinga) must turn away from the path of mass protest and violence in seeking participation in government.”

Mr. Hyman’s piece concludes with an astonishing attempt to tie Mr. Odinga, the sitting prime minister of Kenya, and, by absurd association, Mr. Obama to acts of terrorism committed against the United States of America. This false and outrageous charge says a lot more about Mark Hyman than it says about Barack Obama.

Given the partisan crossfire from Washington and elsewhere in the U.S. on the Kenyan constitutional referendum, and the partisan crossfire over the 2007-08 Kenyan election crisis, it is hard to imagine that there will not be the same type of attacks on both Obama and Odinga from from the U.S. in the 2012 campaigns.

Githongo to Speak at CSIS Friday: “Prospects for Political Reform”

Posted on by
Reply

The African Center for Security Studies and the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies will host “Prospects for Political Reform in Kenya: A Discussion with John Githongo, Kenyan anti-corruption campaigner, Moderated by William M. Bellamy, Director of ACSS and former Ambassador to Kenya”

Friday 10:30am-12:00pm at CSIS

Public Event, but RSVP to CSIS Africa Program at africa@csis.org

Space is Limited!

Worth reading Githongo’s June speech in Senegal upon receiving ACCS’s  “African Visionary Award”  here.