Yesterday 15001
– Kenyan diplomats deny their nationality while on their foreign missions to avoid embarrassing the country
– This is because they operate in run down offices and have no money to pay rent and salaries to their staff
– They instead avoid visitors or tell landlords that they are Nigerian diplomats
Run down offices and lack of money has made Kenyan diplomats in their foreign missions lie about their nationality.
According to the Standard, they tell their landlords and visitors that they are Nigerian diplomats because they do not want to shame Kenya.
“They do not want to embarrass Kenya, the land of world class athletes, great tourism locations and vibrant cultures,” published the newspaper on Thursday, June 2.
A Parliamentary committee was told be the National Assembly’s Defense and Foreign Relations committee chairman Barre Shill that the diplomats avoided visitors by telling them they were broke.
“Some of us when we go to the missions we are really ashamed. They were really broke. They told us that when the landlords want to evict them from the consulates, they have to say they are not Kenyans so as not to give the country a bad name,’ said Shill as quoted in the newspaper.
Shill also added that over 50 missions had money problems and could not pay salaries and rent.
According to the government’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kenya has 55 missions abroad.
There are 20 in Africa, 13 in Europe, nine in Australia and Asia, eight in the Middle East and five in the United States and Ottawa.
Their current budget is KSh 13.9 billion but Shill (Fafi member of parliament) pushed for an additional KSh 7 billion be added to the foreign missions infrastructure.
Image: Reuters
No comments:
Post a Comment