US Ambassador to Kenya Kyle McCarter explained what implications the US election could have on his job during an interview with Citizen TV’s Jeff Koinange on JKLive on Wednesday, November 4, 2020.
While breaking down the polls in the late-night show, he acknowledged that he was a political appointee whose confirmation was made on January 2, 2019.
According to the United States Office of Government Ethics, a political appointee is any employee who is appointed by the President, the Vice President, or agency head which an incoming administration needs to review and fill or confirm.
That means that if Democratic Party candidate Joe Biden wins the election, he will review and be at liberty to retain or replace the US Ambassador.
He recalled that he asked to be assigned to Kenya due to his love for the country, having done charity work in Tharaka Nithi County.
“My father was there in 1984. He was a teacher. He started bringing in food and medicine. Three years later I came to replace him, built a medical clinic and a school,” he stated.
Speaking on the progress of the vote count, he supported incumbent President Donald Trump’s argument that ballots that arrive via the mail service after election day should not be counted.
US electoral laws allow citizens to pick ballot papers before election day and return them via mail. Trump’s view is that ballots that are not returned by election day should not be considered legal.
"There is a date set for the election and there is a time that the polling station closes. You can’t extend that,” Kyle McCarter argued.
"This is a tough situation for me because I’m not on the ballot but I am...kind of... as a political appointee,” he added.
The ambassador also commented on how the US election would affect Kenya’s Free Trade Agreement with the US.
He stated that he was not in a position to predict what would happen to the deal which seeks to transform the cooperation between the two countries from aid to commercial trade.
“The Free Trade Agreement with Kenya is a good thing. The end result is going to be prosperity for both Kenya and America,” he expressed.
Speaking on the relationship between President Uhuru Kenyatta and his US counterpart, McCarter acknowledged that “President Trump gets along well with President Uhuru Kenyatta and that is why we have so much potential.”
