AfricaNews Monitoring Team with additional files from The Citizen
Kenya Justice minister Mutula Kilonzo has praised WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for releasing the American diplomatic cables to the public. Mr Kilonzo said Mr Assange had done a "good job" so that "Kenyans realise that this is their country". "I am actually quite pleased with the leaks...If I find him, I'd give him a medal."
"He should not be persecuted by Americans. They should respect the freedom of information and of opinion." He termed the rape charges facing Mr Assange in Sweden as "deliberate" attempts to frame the whistleblower and make him lose credibility. "It is ridiculous for them to go to Sweden and frame charges of rape," he said in a 15-minute interview with radio station Q-FM,.
The Justice minister said, the whole WikiLeaks episode was evidence enough that Americans were "pretenders of liberty". The whole episode has raised a global diplomatic row.
Mr Kilonzo had an unflattering message to his Cabinet colleagues, whom, he indirectly accused of implicating themselves and the Head of State when they meet ambassadors. He said there was "some truth" in reports that there was corruption in the Cabinet.
"Even if it is one minister who is doing it and he's not been arrested and prosecuted, as the Wakambas say, it takes only one fly to rot a whole cow," he said. He added that by implementing the Constitution to the letter, and then all corrupt people in the Cabinet will be shown the door.
"It shouldn't stop there. We must arrest them, take them to court, then to jail and thereafter throw the key in Lake Victoria," he said adding that it was the only way to end corruption. "We must know that every time we speak with Americans, they don't love you, they're just spying on you," he said.
He noted that the diplomatic dinners and cocktails are normally the primary sources of information to ambassadors. "In these cocktails, they interrogate you so that, later, they go ahead and abuse your leader. The fact of the matter is that they'll be laughing at you," he said.
The WikiLeaks saga has rattled the Kenyan leaders with President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga having unkind words for the US ambassador Michael Ranneberger.
Mr Kilonzo told Q-FM: "I think it's a shame that we are 47 years old and every year before Christmas we are crying about corruption, corruption and more corruption." The latest leaks in Kenya termed the two principals as well as the Cabinet as anti-reformists.
It also revealed in details the drug trafficking ring that's ruining the lives of hundreds of Kenyan youth.
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