US diplomat differs with Kenya's Kiai at US-Africa summit

The exchange between Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Linda Thomas-Greenfield and Kenyan campaigner Maina Kiai took place on the opening day of the US-Africa summit in Washington. AFP | PAUL J. RICHARDS 

By Kevin J Kelley, Special Correspondent

In Summary

Mr Kiai asked members of a panel at the forum why African governments are more likely to place restrictions on civil society organisations rather than on private companies.

The top US diplomat for Africa objected on Monday to a claim by a leading Kenyan civil society activist that business figures are funding terrorism in East and West Africa.

The exchange between Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Linda Thomas-Greenfield and Kenyan campaigner Maina Kiai took place at a civil society forum on the opening day of the US-Africa summit in Washington.

Contending that businesses are financing Somalia's Al-Shabaab and Nigeria's Boko Haram, Mr Kiai asked members of a panel at the forum why African governments are more likely to place restrictions on civil society organisations rather than on private companies. Ms Thomas-Greenfield objected, saying, “We can't make that broad generalisation.”

She said that while terror groups may have connections with a few business figures, “the vast majority of businesses are not connected and are legitimate.”

Noting that the civil-society forum panel included the presidents of Tanzania and Ghana, Mr Kiai prefaced his remarks in a question and answer session by saluting the two heads of state for demonstrating “courage” by taking part in the forum.

President Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania and President John Mahama of Ghana lead African countries that provide “some of the widest space for civil society,” Mr Kiai remarked. Mr Kiai currently serves as the United Nations special rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association.