Don’t Mess from Texas: disturbing Privacy International report indicates Uhuruto re-election campaign bought Texas-based negative propaganda campaign (updated)

Read the important report here: “Texas media company hired by Trump created Kenyan president’s viral ‘anonymous’ attack campaign against rival, new investigation reveals“.

I am a native Texan myself, so I do not think that Texans are less likely to understand the moral, spiritual or foreign relations repercussions of aggressive tribalist propaganda on behalf of William Ruto and Uhuru Kenyatta than Americans in Idaho or Arkansas, say.  The problem is that the operation seems to have been conducted by a United States-based firm, staffed by Americans, orchestrating a digitized propaganda campaign directed against both Kenyan voters and those Americans such as myself and other amateur or professional “Kenya watchers” or U.S. government personnel who would conduct internet activity touching on Kenya politics and government.

The firm in question, Harris Media, based on this report but also their associated social media, seems to have affinity for what I think of as the “White Right”–the National Front, AfD, UKIP, Roy Moore, etc., aside from Trump.  I have noted the Uhuruto government courting these folks in the United States over the years — I won’t elaborate here but it has always troubled me as an American Southerner.  Some of these people also use Christian symbolism as part of their personal branding which is that much more troubling for me.

Unfortunately the Americans involved as of this writing have not filed a Foreign Agent Registration Act registration and made the associated disclosures to the Justice Department and the American public.

The Privacy International report appears to to reveal that the American firm was an “agent for a foreign principle” in conducting a propaganda campaign for Kenyatta and Ruto’s re-election, in substantial part through generating fear and loathing of the opposition. I do know that some of my friends in Washington wrongly predicted violent behavior on the part of the opposition in the context of the botched August 8 election. Could they have been influenced by this propaganda campaign, and/or by others that have not yet been uncovered by outside investigation?

Continuing Witness Fears as Ocampo due in Kenya Saturday

ICC Chief Prosecutor Louis Moreno-Ocampo will spend five days in Kenya, including visits with victims and to areas most affected by post election violence, and a public question-and-answer session, along with civil society, religious and business groups. He has also offered to meet with those who believe they may be unfairly identified as suspects.

In the meantime, the EU envoys have spoken out against a continuing climate of fear for potential witnesses. A variety of reports indicate a pattern of intimidation and threats against prospective witnesses, and concerns have been raised about leaks of witness identities from within the Kenya National Human Rights Commission which has done much of the initial investigative work on the violence. A former senior official of the Kenyan Administration Police is said to be among those who have fled the country for safety in the absence of an effective witness protection program in Kenya.

The Indian Ocean Newsletter reported that Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta hosted a meeting with Ministers William Ruto and Najib Balala at his Nairobi residence April 4 “to agree their stories for the ICC.”

ICC Prosecution Works to Protect Kenyan Witnesses

“Witnesses Reveal Dark Secrets of Election Violence”

“Key Witnesses in Poll Violence are Flown Out”:

At least 20 witnesses said to be holding crucial evidence on hate crimes committed during the post-election violence have been placed under protection.

Many have been flown out of Kenya for their safety while others are being protected in safe houses in various parts of the country, a civil society official involved in the international witness protection initiative disclosed on Friday.

They include seven people thought to have crucial evidence that could nail the masterminds of two of the worst atrocities committed in the Rift Valley during the violence, the official, who did not wish to be named to avoid compromising his trust, said.

The scheme under which the witnesses have been placed is managed by the civil society and international agencies and is not the one operated by the government.

ICC Prosectutions narrowed down?; Witness Protection and UN Sanctions?

US Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues Stephan Rapp says in Nairobi that the US will offer unspecified assistance in protecting witnesses to the post-election violence in the event that the ICC elects to proceed with an investigation, in the linked VOA report.   In the Daily Nation report of Rapp’s visit to Nairobi, the Ambassador says that Ocampo would be expected to prosecute “four to six” key instigators of post-election violence (assuming the ICC itself gives the go ahead to formally investigate); and that the evidence against these four to six is strong.

The Ambassador also said that Rwandan genocide suspect Felicien Kabuga had definitely been in Kenya and that Kenya could face UN sanctions by the end of the year if it “continues to serve as an obstacle” to his arrest.

Nick Wadhams in Time on growing threats against election violence witnesses.