Kenya Dissident Leaves U.S. Embassy for Britain

A leading political dissident who had taken refuge in the U.S. Embassy here from a government crackdown last week left the country late Wednesday under U.S. auspices, the embassy said.

Gibson Kamau Kuria, 43, a lawyer, was one of the most prominent opposition figures still at large after a police roundup of proponents of a multi-party system here when he sought temporary asylum in the embassy and asked for assistance in leaving the country.

American diplomats succeeded Wednesday in gaining permission from the Kenyan government for his departure, and he boarded a scheduled commercial flight for London shortly before midnight.

“I am personally grateful to the government of Kenya for permitting his departure and the government of the United Kingdom for admitting him to Britain,” U.S. Ambassador Smith Hempstone said late Wednesday.

Kuria’s refuge in the downtown embassy contributed to strained relations this week between Kenya and the United States, one of its biggest aid donors. American officials have also sharply criticized the government of this one-party state for the crackdown on the opposition, in which five prominent critics and more than 35 other people have been detained and threatened with sedition charges.

In Washington, Sen. Claiborne Pell (D-R.I.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called Wednesday for a reassessment of U.S. aid to Kenya, news agencies reported. In letters to Kenyan President Daniel Arap Moi and Secretary of State James A. Baker III, Pell expressed concern about the human rights situation in Kenya, and he urged Washington to make it clear that the aid relationship would suffer unless Nairobi respects human rights and opens the Kenyan political system.

In Nairobi, there were scattered incidents of violence Wednesday. Police were sent to slum districts in the northeastern section to quell a stone-throwing mob.

The trouble began Saturday when a crowd gathered in Nairobi to demonstrate against Kenya’s one-party system and to demand the release of prominent opposition figures. Police dispersed the demonstrators with gunfire and tear gas. In clashes in Nairobi and elsewhere over the next few days, at least 20 people were reported killed and dozens injured.