Kenya’s press on Tuesday angrily demanded the sacking of the country’s foreign affairs minister over his weekend announcement that seven hostages held in Iraq had been released, which it said turned out to be a ”cruel hoax”.
Chirau Ali Mwakwere announced on Sunday the release of seven truck drivers, including three Kenyans, who had been held in Iraq since July 21, triggering jubilation among the hostages’ relatives, who had been on tenterhooks for days.
While their release was quickly denied by several sources in Baghdad and Kuwait City, Mwakwere confidently continued to claim the hostages had been released and were safe in the Egyptian embassy in Baghdad.
”Cruel hoax”, screamed the headline of The East Africa Standard, which demanded in an editorial: ”Sack Mwakwere for incompetence”.
”Now we know Mr Mwakwere’s diplomatic hubris was a diplomatic blunder; an inexcusable exhibition of incompetence; an embarrassment to Kenya and a callous play with emotions of the families whose breadwinners are marooned in Iraq,” the Standard charged.
”If Mr Mwakwere cannot take the initiative to resign, then President Mwai Kibaki should sack him for such blatant and reckless display of incompetence,” the editorial said.
”Our Foreign Ministry and, by extension, the whole government have committed and unforgivable blunder and someone should answer for it,” the mass-circulation Daily Nation said in an editorial.
”But what is incomprehensible is that a government minister can announce to all and sundry that hostages had been released, without, as it now turns, an iota of evidence,” it added.
The Daily Nation concluded its editorial by saying: ”As for the behaviour of our top diplomat, the less said, the better.”
Kenyan radio stations ran brazen commentaries on the blunder by the minister, who has spent a better part of his career as a diplomat.
The People Daily questioned whether Mwakwere has any credibility left: ”Given his past goofs, can we be expected to believe any statements he will make in future?”
While bristling with anger at Mwakwere, the newspapers conveniently failed to engage in any self-scrutiny for having splashed ecstatic headlines and pictures of celebrating families on their Monday issues despite wire reports that discounted the minister’s claim that the hostages had been released.
In a light touch playing on corruption allegations against government officials, the Nation‘s cartoonist, Gado, drew al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden reading a newspaper headlined: ”Kenyans face beheading in Iraq”.
Three hooded Iraqi militants deliver a message to him: ”There is a telegram from Kenya … They want to exchange their hostages for a bunch of corrupt ministers.” — Sapa-AFP