Another American diplomat bit the dust Friday when the ambassador to Kenya, Scott Gration, resigned under the cloud of a highly critical performance report by the State Department's Inspector General's office. State Department sources said it is the worst review of an ambassador's performance by the IG in several years. Gration was supposed to be one of the top three security advisors to the Obamanator, along with retired Air Force General Merrill McPeak and former Navy Secretary Richard Danzig. Nevertheless, Gration is just one of several high profile ambassadors to loose their comfortable positions after questions about their performance were raised. {01.03.12}Gration apparently rubbed his embassy staff the wrong way with a penchant for micromanagement and operation outside established protocols. Gration even when so far as to set up an office in an embassy bathroom in order to conduct official business on his own laptop computer beyond the notice of his communications staff. A staffer summoned to Gration's unconventional workroom was required to sit on the throne. He is alleged to have exhibited erratic, controlling, and sometimes bullying behavior: he ordered all tables adjusted to the same height, ordered all clocks recalibrated, and told his staff he would "shoot them in the head" if they did not follow orders, an undiplomatic hyperbole which generated a formal complaint from staff. Attrition rates in the Nairobi Embassy were staggering; some staff even accepted transfers to Iraq and Afghanistan, referred to as "shit holes" among veteran State Department hands, to get away from the Kenyan post.
Gration is a former fighter-pilot instructor who retired from the military in 2006. He became an Obama acolyte during an extended African trip with the then Senator. Apparently the smoothly glib Obama so impressed him, he changed his political affiliation. One pundit described Gration as "the most mystical believer" in the Obamacon. Gration's slavish admiration netted him the post of Special Envoy to Sudan, thus he began his second career as a diplomat. Many considered his approach to sensitive negotiations over the independence of South Sudan incredibly naive. He was transferred to Kenya in February 2011, after lobbying for the ambassadorial appointment. Clearly Gration's abrasive personality and unconventional work habits may have been compatiable with the cockpit, but they rapidly became a liability for the administration, adulatory relationship with the President notwithstanding. Kenya faces potentially violent upheavals during the prelude to the 2013 national elections, and is considered to be a key player in controlling the failed state of Somalia.