Kenyan envoy was not rejected, Qatar embassy says

Qatar through its embassy in Kenya has rubbished claims that it is one of the countries that rejected the nomination of an envoy.

A statement released on Thursday said the Embassy approved the nomination of Ambassador Paddy Ahenda on the October 10, 2018.

“The Embassy requests that the respected newspaper and all the other online news platform that carried the above mentioned unverified news , to carry out their due diligence and to confirm their stories before publishing,” the statement reads.

The embassy was responding to an article with the headline Fate of 7 Kenyan envoys in Limbo in the People Daily newspaper.

It further noted that the Kenyan Ambassador travelled to Qatar and even took up his position after it was approved.

The Qatar embassy further reiterated that the two countries have ‘strong bilateral relations’.

Amb. Ahenda had been listed alongside Ndegwa Muhoro (Malaysia), Hassan Wario (Austria), Benjamin Langat (Namibia), Johnson Kimani Ondieki (Turkey), Richard Ekai (Russia) and Sarah Serem (China).

The newspaper claimed that the seven envoys were ‘rejected’ because of questions arising from previous positions that they held in government and personal issues.