Customer Reviews

Rogue Ambassador: An African Memoir

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The book offers another dimension in this brutal killing that shocked the world. It sheds light on the power play that exists in Moi's evil government machinery that is willing to do anything to perpetuate the evil empire. This unbiased account is one that every Kenyan and friends of Kenya should read as we prepare for the inevitable homecoming of all children of the Kenyan Diaspora. Though a foregone conclusion, the fact that we need a government that respects its citizens and understands its mandate remains a recurring theme. "Building the New Kenya" is and should be our motto !

A good book.Tells of the aspirations of a people burried in tyranny-and their struggle to overcome it.The author tried his part and Kenyan people are grateful to him.The book is a must for anybody who would like to know the temperament for Kenya in the search for evasive political reforms.

Overall i think the book is a good read. Hempstone does a good job of telling the times as the they were during his term in office in Kenya. Some of the things maybe slightly exaggerated but i think the important thing is that it tells what was in our minds during this time but we as kenyans were unable to say. He also does an excellent job of describing Moi; dictator, vicious, illiterate, corrupt etc. (probably would explain why Moi is suing him)
There were several things that i didn't like about the book. Everytime Hempstone mentions a person he has to tell us what tribe that person belongs to...urrrgh....if there could be a reason for banning this book in kenya..this would be it! The other thing i noticed was that Hempstone does an amazing job of making himself look good in the book. The book is filled with notes of important people or not praising him for this or that....it struck me as very self promoting. Some of the stuff about locals was absolutely untrue. For example...at one pt he says the Samburu are know to diet on meat, milk and urine like the maasai. The urine part is an outright lie, i say this a maasai born + bred deep in maasai land...maasai do not drink urine...yaaak....blood we drink urine is a no-no!
The last and minor thing is the endless repeatations in the book. Several statements are repeated over + over again through the book...i got the impression that maybe a pt was being drum into my head.
Nevertheless, this book gives an interesting insite into the political issues in kenya as well as most likely alot of the other african countries. I was kind of disappointed that the book didn't go more into depth on the sudan crisis --- that region of africa needs serious help!

A good book.Tells of the aspirations of a people burried in tyranny-and their struggle to overcome it.The author tried his part and Kenyan people are grateful to him.The book is a must for anybody who would like to know the temperament for Kenya in the search for evasive political reforms.

This is a great book -- loads of fun to read while providing an insightful perspective of an important country.

Smith Hempstone tells us about his fight to encourage (if not impose) multipartism in Kenya. His book takes a brand new resonance now that, ten years later, his efforts were brought to fruition with the fall of the once unique Kanu party and the election of Mwai Kibaki as president.

This result alone deserves respect. However, about the book, a couple of things can be said. Lots of paragraphs are of doubtful utility, like the ones about "operation bullship", an operation that didn't happen anyway, so why bother indeed ? The most interesting topic in the book is how democracy made a leap forward in Kenya, and the whole book might have been better had it been organized more around this main subject.

The tone of the book lacks humility in my view, and since I was reading Leakey's Wildlife Wars at a similar time, I can tell that the latter conveys a much more humane feeling about what it takes to fight for improvment in a country. Maybe this is because Leakey is Kenyan. When Hempstone braggs about democracy being so fundamental in the USA, one can reply that achieving democracy is easier once you've wiped out the native people in a territory, and that you're left with European immigrants sharing the same lifestyle and language...

But apart from style, this book is a most valuable read, and all the more interesting since the recent political changes in Kenya.

Whilst the book is certainly a useful and informative perspective, and covers a fascinating and deeply perturbing subject, it's difficult to overlook the author's pomposity and self-righteousness; so much so, that, given his rose-tinted and deeply erroneous belief in wondrous US foreign policy, one begins to wonder whether his views upon events in Kenya at the time are equally skewed.

Having only lived in Kenya a very short while, and not during the time he describes, I cannot have my own understanding of events to corroborate what he says, and Hempstone certainly makes little attempt to back up any of the stories about the nefarious Biwott and megalomaniac Moi, beyond saying that he got them from reliable sources... Which is a real pity, because it would be so nice to see him truly skewer the indubitably corrupt and malignant politicians.

As a memoir it's certainly entertaining enough, as long as you learn to flip through Hempstone's self-promoting blather, which at times begins to sound like a curriculum vitae. It gives you plenty of fascinating historical background, and a decent understanding of the beautiful country Kenya is, but as reliable reference material, however... Who could say?

This is an important work that gives a frank perspective and historical account of Kenya, and the forces tugging at it. Mr Hempstone is a gifted writer, and this book reflects that. His reference to Mau Mau freedom fighters as terrorists leaves much to be desired. This is fact is a misrepresentation of Mau Mau. Mau Mau helped Kenya achieve independence from Britain (its means may not have been diplomatic, nevertheless, kenyans were liberated from the yoke of colonialism.) Apart from this fact, I would recommend it to anyone seeking a detailed account of the events of those years, but to caution you that this is infact written with lots of baggage that is the character of this man (he seems to relish the days of colonialism, yet he (and the US)did have an impact (positive or negative to Kenyans we do not know yet). Compelling and insightful.

I was in Kenya when Amb. Hempstone was there and all included in the book is highly accurate. It is a very good read about life in Kenya during those years.