Kenya is potentially facing a diplomatic storm following the leak of confidential documents from the US military’s highly secure registries. The Pentagon leaks, posted by an unidentified man on a social media group, suggest that the US has been spying on senior UN officials. The cache of documents leaked, amounting to over 500 gigabytes, reveal a possible paper-thin relationship between the UN and Kenya after President William Ruto’s ascent to power. They also suggest that at least one member of the UN’s top brass has a deep mistrust of Ruto. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and his deputy Amina Mohammed were allegedly spied on by the US for an unspecified period of time. This follows a conversation between the two after the December 2022 African Leaders Summit in Washington D.C, where Ms Mohammed told Mr Guterres that Ruto was “ruthless” and that she did not trust him. No context has been provided regarding the comments, and it is unclear whether it was a formal or casual conversation between colleagues. The leak of these documents has revealed that the UN top brass will have to handle the embarrassment caused while also patching up relations with countries and leaders who may be offended by the alleged comments.
Aside from dealing with the US spying allegations, the leaks also indicate that the US believes that Mr Guterres is uncomfortably open to Russian interests, which has the potential to cause further diplomatic issues. The Black Sea Grain Initiative deal between Russia, Ukraine, and Turkey was struck last year, and the US has taken issue with Guterres’ stand when negotiating a truce between the countries. Kenya largely sources wheat and fertilizers from Russia and Ukraine, and hence it was expected to be one of the beneficiaries of the Black Sea Grain Initiative. The leak also revealed that Ukraine may have planned to attack Russia amid their conflict and that Western nations sent elite military fighters to assist Kyiv. Despite the planned counter-attack getting support from Western nations, the US allegedly felt it had little chance of success. The data leak also suggests that Egypt had planned to support Russia by secretly producing 40,000 rockets for Moscow. South Korea was also uncomfortable with bowing to US pressure to deliver arms to Ukraine, in fear of getting into Russia’s bad books.
The leak has raised concerns regarding the privacy and security of confidential information and the lack of accountability of organizations handling such information. “If the US could spy on the UN’s top brass, what hope does the rest of us have for privacy?” asked Professor Macharia Munene, an international relations expert. While the US has been known to engage in such activities, this leak has the potential to cause diplomatic issues and create rifts between countries.
