NAIROBI, Kenya, Jun 10 — A racial slur attributed to the Romanian Ambassador to Kenya, Dragos Viorel Tigau, is threatening to split diplomatic corps in Nairobi amid mounting accusations of inaction by the UN Office in Gigiri.
Tigau, also accredited to Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda, sparked anger from African diplomats after he reportedly paralleled the arrival of an African group of diplomats to the sighting of a monkey in the vicinity.
An African diplomat who spoke to Capital News expressed frustration over inaction on the incident said to have happened on April 26 at the United Nations Office in Nairobi (UNON), Gigiri.
UNON’s silence on the matter appears to have angered a group of African diplomats said to have resorted to polling pressure on Kenya’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to demand action.
The African group accused UNON Director General Zainab Bangura of laxity while singling out Tigau’s actions as constituting a violation of the universal declaration of human.
It was not clear whether the African group which coalesces under a dean had issued a note verbal on the matter.
“Some of them have been quiet,” an envoy resident in Nairobi said Saturday.
Tigau is reported to have been chairing a meeting bringing together a section of European diplomats at UNON when he made the remark.
Kenya’s Foreign Office did not comment on the matter.