Ambassador Martin Kimani had a hard time in Parliament on Thursday when he appeared for vetting following his nomination by President Uhuru Kenyatta as Kenya’s representative to the United Nations in New York.
Amb Kimani who was a co-secretary in the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) task force appeared before National Assembly’s Defence and Foreign Relations Committee which is steering the vetting.
His was a hard moment as MPs took him to task to explain why he listed President Uhuru Kenyatta as one of his referees in his resume.
One of the MPs accused him of ‘trying to intimidate them’ by listing Uhuru as a referee.
Mandera North MP Bashir Abdullahi tasked Amb Kimani to explain why Uhuru’s name is in his resume as a referee.
“The president is the appointing authority. Why did you have to list him as your referee? Are you trying to intimidate us by saying Uhuru is your referee?” Abdullahi asked.
Dumbfounded, he expressed remorse saying that he had no intention to intimidate the committee members by listing the President as one of his referees.
He owned up saying that he did not realizes that Uhuru was “the appointing authority” and for that, he is apologetic.
“Referees are those people who know your character. This is what I was thinking when I included him, but now thinking that my referee is actually the appointing authority, I realise I made a mistake. I would be happy to add one more name,” he said.
Amb Kimani is among scores of other diplomats who were recently appointed by President Uhuru while reshuffling several others.
If given a clean bill of health by the Defence Committee, Amb Kimani will take office which was left vacant following the appointment of its previous holder, Amb Macharia Kamau as the Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary.
Lazarus Amayo, the new head of the Kenyan Mission in Washington, US had been the Kenyan Representative to the United Nations in New York on an acting capacity.
Amb Kimani also disclosed that he his networth is Ksh58 million which he has accumulated in his 22-year diplomatic career.