Rogue Ambassador II

The spelling of his name has been as confusing as his mission as the American envoy to Kenya. In some quarters, he is Michael Rannerberger, in others Running Bag, Runner Bag or Raining Berger. Lately, he has been waving the Big Brother stick on one hand and waving the white flag, as a Kenya’s Envoy of Peace. He is waving both and telling us ‘My President Barrack Obama says…….’

I wonder what ‘our son’ from Kogelo thinks. For now Rannerberger seems to care less that we think that Obama is ours more than he is theirs. He believes he has a job to do.

As a representative of Big Brother, Rannerberger has not failed to remind us who is watching over us so we can return to sanity. As someone who was privy to the ‘Big Handshake’ between erstwhile ‘rivals’ President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga, we listened to him when he said, ‘peace is fragile and must be guarded jealously’.

This was a necessary reminder when Kenya was burning. We even allowed former US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Jandayi Frazer to talk peace to us before the powerful former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice came waving the big diplomacy stick that is a hallmark of a democratic state dealing with a ‘friend’.

Apparently, Rannerberger has taken it upon himself to show Kenyans especially politicians who is in charge now. He has not said it yet, but he thinks we are incapable of doing anything without coercion and intimidation by declaring: ‘It won’t be business as usual’.

Lately, he has been wagging his finger in many directions. First was the ‘banning memo’ on some politicians who he, by ‘Obama’s’ authority, banned from traveling to the US. The three picked the last bit of former Justice Minister Martha Karua song that ‘America is not heaven’. Rannerberger went quiet and it was business as usual for a while.

Since the politicians almost made us go to war again over the Waki and Kriegler Reports, Rannerberger has taken on the role of the peace envoy. With authorities from ‘above’, he has been crisscrossing the country launching healing and reconciliation efforts.

In Burnt Forest, he says, he has made it possible for a ‘Kikuyu to shake hands with a Kalenjin. This is no mean feat as sometime ago it would have been easier to take a walk to the moon than see this spectacle. Through USAID and other American donors, some markets that were burnt during the election violence, have been rebuilt and each of the two communities given space. In Eldoret, Rannerberger claims the same victory. His latest gigs were with Nabongo Mumia where some elder thought it benevolent to bestow the US ambassador the honours of a tribal elder. The vetting method for such honours… well no details yet.  But having ‘Obama’s ear’ seems good enough.

 In his peace mission, Rannerberger has also leant how to play the Nyatiti, one of the most renowned Luo musical instruments. When he was there, someone asked him if he was locking out MPs, who are responsible for most of our troubles of the reconciliation process. Rannerberger said the communities did not need MPs because of their ‘inability to understand peace’. He fell short of saying what he knows about the Waki Report. But while in Kisumu, he said he was preaching peace with blessings from his President Barrack Obama!

Rannerberger apparently has found his ‘get-around-passport’ in invoking Obama’s name. This has not gone down well with the lot in Parliament that cries, ‘sovereignty especially when it gets in trouble.

But why begrudge the man? Rannerberger has had to undergo change himself. Having been appointed by a Republican president, one who could not tell which was larger between Nigeria and Africa; he has had to adopt in order to work for Democrat. Perhaps the reason, in a bid to find footing, Rannerberger earlier in the year doubled up as a clearing agent. When he could not get MPs to pass an Act making clearance of relief maize at the port of Mombasa faster early in the year, he moved to Mombasa to push for clearing in person. 

That maize, there are claims, was genetically modified and since Kenya is still unsure what to do about biotechnology, perhaps according to him, it was better to feed the hungry and sort out the queries later. In any case better to have three arms and four legs than die of hunger.

And because the US envoy knows, most Kenyans hold Obama in awe; he has decided to invoke his (Obama’s) name whenever barriers appear. Rannerberger is perhaps fighting for a legacy, after all we still remember the ‘Rogue Ambassador’ Smith Hempstone, now deceased, who spent most of his time at Opposition rallies to the amusement of former President Moi. Could Rannerberger be trying to be Rogue Ambassador II?