US Ambassador to Kenya Meg Whitman on Wednesday, August 16, hailed the level of democracy in Kenya during the hotly contested 2022 presidential elections.
The diplomat who spoke in Eldoret, Uasin Gishu County on the opening day of the Devolution Conference 2023 stressed that the 2022 presidential elections were held in a free, fair, and transparent manner.
“I arrived in Kenya days before the August 2022 general election. What I witnessed was nothing short of remarkable. Kenya held what many analysts and commentators say was the freest, fairest, and most remarkable election in Kenyan history,” Ambassador Whitman said.
However, on Thursday, August 17, a section of Azimio senators dismissed US Ambassador Meg Whitman for hailing the country’s democracy in the 2022 General Election.
The leaders who were led by Siaya Senator Oburu Odinga and his Kitui counterpart Enoch Wambua while addressing the media termed the remarks as “insensitive”.
“It was too insensitive for the US ambassador to talk about democracy in Kenya when this regime has actually criminalized legitimate rights of Kenyan people. To picket, demonstrate and assemble,
“This is a right enshrined in the Constitution and it is even borrowed from the American Constitution I really felt heart when the US ambassador is dancing and praising democracy in Kenya when such rights are being criminalized and being described as the destruction of property,” Siaya Senator Oburu Odinga said.
They further urged the US ambassador to desist from Kenyan affairs adding that the comments of the US ambassador are prejudicial to the ongoing bipartisan talks between Kenya Kwanza and Azimio discussions which are premised on electoral justice and corruption.
“We would not wish our foreign friends and partners to get involved in those domestic conversations,” the leaders said.
