I don’t think there is any question of disagreement. The main problem we have had in the past is one of those who are already serving as ambassadors abroad, being reluctant to come back immediately. It could be that their children are in school, and they would like to return home when the school term is over. Say, for example, the ambassador’s tour of duty ends in February and the school term had just begun in January.
He may ask to be allowed to remain at that station maybe until the end of September, which is the end of the school year. We have had a number of such cases, including in our mission in Geneva. We have even had situations where there were two ambassadors in the same station at once. And the new ambassador could not present his papers, because the other one had not left.
But there is usually no problem between President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto as there was between their predecessors, President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga.
That previous government was based on power sharing, and if Raila was not comfortable with a particular nominee, that might be a problem. This time around President Kenyatta can deploy diplomats freely because it is not a power-sharing government. Of course the president and deputy president have to consult because it is important they should be on the same page.
But to the best of my knowledge, there has not been any major issue between the two men as far as this matter is concerned. The other thing I would like to mention is that ambassadors from certain countries to Kenya sometimes take a long time before they get their accreditation.
This was particularly so in the early years of this government, and particularly with some European countries. But things have since then considerably warmed up between our government and the development partners.