The arrest of Deputy President William Ruto's associate Aydin Harun's has once again put Kenya at the centre of a diplomatic crisis involving three capitals - Nairobi, Kampala (Uganda), and Ankara (Turkey).
It all began when Ruto was blocked from travelling to Uganda for not seeking approval from the relevant authority. Aydin, on the other hand, managed to fly out but upon return, he was detained at Wilson Airport.
Since the tussle began, the relationship between Kenya and Uganda has been on a downward spiral with a citizen from the neighbouring country having filed a suit against Kenya over the utterances by a section of ODM leaders.
The situation mimics a near bloodbath between Kenya and the USA in 1986 in what had emerged as a plot to assassinate the then President Daniel Moi alongside three other African Heads of State.
A report by Time Magazine indicated that the plot was predicated on a letter purportedly authored by Ku Klux Klan.
The target governments to be toppled at the time included those Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The letter also had names of fifteen missionaries who were reportedly being used by the white supremacist group to kill African statesmen.
Ku Klux Klan (KKK) was reportedly raising Ksh1 billion to help carry out the mission but had only managed to fundraise Ksh800 million.
The missive was first printed on the front pages of Kenyan newspapers and led to President Moi deporting 15 American Missionaries linked to the plan, some who had operated in Kenya for over 12 years.
The situation, however, quickly escalated when an ailing American missionary died while in the custody of the Kenyan police.
The US government was infuriated and the then US ambassador to Kenyan Elinor Constable threatened Kenya with war and Moi ordered the release of the missionaries.
“I don’t give a damn what you guys publish in your stupid newspapers. But if you touch one American citizen, it’s war. I will pull out the stops here. You will be so sorry,” Constable told Moi as the situation deteriorated.
It was later revealed that the letter originated from an obscure Kenyan pastor, David Kimweli, who had had a stint living in the United States where he accumulated money supposedly for carrying out missionary works in Africa.
During his visit to the US, Kimweli had visited Boone's Foscoe Christian Church where he claimed that he had managed to convert whole villages to Christianity while performing a barrage of miracles.
When he secured the money, however, he is said to have led a luxury lifestyle, nothing like what he had promised his benefactors in the states.
One of the missionaries, Paul Hamilton, revealed that he sold his house in the US to come to Africa after hearing the pastor's good work.
Fearing the visiting missionaries would discover his conmanship, the Machakos native penned the letter -implicating the entire delegation that was supposed to inspect his work.
