Kibaki friends: Discontent increases over new alliance

By David Ochami

President Kibaki has made new friends in a quiet shift of ideology — a move causing disquiet among Kenya’s traditional Western allies, The Standard can reveal.

The exposure of a series of deals discreetly cut between Nairobi and Tripoli illustrates how close Kibaki has become to Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi.

State House also started courting China, Iran and Eastern European backers following strained relations with Western allies appalled by spiraling corruption and bad governance.

Under Kibaki, China and Iran’s diplomatic and economic influence have risen, converse to falling relations with the West.

But it is Gaddafi, whose latest ‘incursions’ into Kenya has touched off alarm bells. Tripoli’s activities have created the worrying impression of a ‘takeover’.

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and his newfound friends, (clockwise) Chinese President Hu jintao, Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi. Kenya’s traditional western allies are jittery over the ideological shift.

Libya’s sensational arrival and entrenchment in five years, though comparatively low, has alarmed the West and human rights activists for fear of Gaddafi’s real intentions amid claims that the support was corruptly procured and strengthens Kibaki at the expense of democracy.

Despite the fabled ideological closeness between Prime Minister Raila Odinga and Gaddafi, sources who did not want to be named for fear of a diplomatic row, said the Libyans detest the PM’s closeness with the US and his nationalist and populist credentials.

Sources also say the US is suspicious of Gaddafi’s short and long-term designs in the region.

Battle for investments

 

Libya and China’s chequebook diplomacy has come in the form of free oil, soft loans, investment, construction projects and bribery of the political elite to supplant client regimes, sources told The Standard.

Early last week, Kenya finally gave Libya Oil Holdings Ltd (LOH) the go-ahead to buy 50 per cent shares of Kenya Petroleum Refineries.

LOH will own shares, hitherto owned by three European multinationals — Shell International Petroleum Ltd, BP Africa Ltd and Chevron Global Energy Inc — introducing a twist to the battle for control of the refinery that has pitted the Libyans against Indian conglomerate, Essar Group.

According to the current issue of the Tripoli Post, the Libyans will reserve a fraction of its share for Essar Group after LOH finalises the deal with the three multinationals.

Libya’s sudden rise in the Kenyan economy demonstrates the allies’ other gains in the energy, information technology, telecommunications and hospitality sectors.

Kibaki backers deny he is auctioning the country or that he has a selfish motive for embracing the East, whose engagement is clouded in stealth, corruption and inferior quality.

They argue that the liberalised economy allows bids from Libya, China and other countries in the Orient.

Alarmed at disgraced Finance minister Amos Kimunya’s ouster and formation of a commission of inquiry to investigate the Grand Regency Hotel sale, Libyan diplomats and investment officials have been holding meetings with Kenyan officials to protect their newly-acquired investments.

Seeking bad boy

 

In the eyes of the West, Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a bad boy. He is a critic of the George W. Bush administration, and supports strengthened relations with Russia, Venezuela, Syria and the Persian Gulf states.

He has said Iran’s nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes and has refused to end enrichment despite United Nations Security Council resolutions.

In one of his most controversial statements, he called for Israel to be “wiped off the map”.

Chinese President Hu Jintao, another Kibaki friend, has his hands firmly on the main levers of power in one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing economies (and its most populous country).

Under Mr Hu, China has continued to increase spending on defence, and tensions remain high with Taiwan, which Beijing regards as a renegade province.

Once regarded as a pariah by the West, Gaddafi began his return to the international fold after Libya settled the Lockerbie bombing claims and agreed to stop developing weapons of mass destruction.

Western politicians, including the British, Italian, French and German leaders, have since visited Tripoli.

Gaddafi is the Arab world’s longest-serving leader.

A shrewd operator, he survived several attempts on his life and reinvented Libya’s system of government. The colonel came to power in a bloodless coup in 1969 against the ailing King Idris I.

In the late 1970s, Gaddafi introduced the Jamahiriya — a system of governance based around ‘people’s committees’ and free of partisan politics.

By the late 1980s, he had given up his official titles to become leader of the revolution, while retaining absolute power.

Over the years, Gaddafi has supported a broad range of militant groups, including the Irish Republican Army and the Palestine Liberation Organisation.

Libya’s alleged involvement in attacks in Europe in the 1980s triggered US military strikes in 1986. Dozens of people were killed, including Gaddafi’s adopted daughter.

The media rights organisation Reporters Without Borders has said press freedom is “virtually non-existent” in Libya. The State owns and strictly controls the media and the authorities do not permit the publication of opinions contrary to government policy.

That is why Libyan officials in Kenya read a Western plot in the Grand Regency saga and fear their properties might be nationalised after Lands minister James Orengo froze the hotel’s title last week.

Mr Hisham Ali Sharif, the Libyan embassy’s charge de affaires, said last week that Libya’s property in Kenya was acquired legally, quoting Mr Alhaj Saleh Bashir, who heads Libya’s civil service.

Investigation shows that besides the Grand Regency Hotel, the Libya Africa Portfolio (LAP) and its subsidiaries hold interests in oil and hotel properties in Nairobi, Mombasa and Eldoret, following a deal between Gaddafi and Kibaki after bilateral talks last year.

In the June 4-6 talks, the two sides signed agreements paving way for Libyan involvement in energy, telecommunications, information technology and other sectors.

Strong Africa

 

Compared to the West and emerging China, Libya’s investment in Kenya is small but growing. Libyan oil company – Tamoil — bought Mobil Kenya for $200 million (Sh13 billion) last year and renamed it Oilibya, which now has 64 pump stations across Kenya.

According to Bashir, Libya’s investment drive will not be deterred by “recent controversy and distraction”.

On Monday last week, Bashir captured growing suspicion of Libya’s private and public efforts in Kenya by attempting to assure “the people of Kenya that our investments…are free of all ulterior motives …”.

Libyan diplomats are conscious of the bitter memories from the shut down of their embassy in Nairobi in 1987 after claims that its ambassador, Wainis Masselaty, was fomenting dissent in Kenya.

“Libya is not interested in the past. We do not interfere in Kenyan affairs. We are interested only in cooperating with our Kenya brothers under the African Union to uplift the socio-economic conditions, to build roads and eradicate slums,” says Hisham.

Although Bashir denies any hidden motives in Libya’s investment, critics believe Libya has joined China, India, Turkey and other nations jostling to control key states in Africa.

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API/Standard.ke