NAIROBI (Reuters) - The Kenyan foreign minister lashed out at Britain's high commissioner on Thursday after the diplomat told local TV that the government did not reflect the democratic will of the Kenyan people.
High Commissioner Adam Wood was speaking in a KTN interviewafter President Mwai Kibaki's disputed re-election at December27 polls triggered riots and ethnic attacks killing at least1,000 people and uprooting 300,000 more.
Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula said Wood's commentsshowed "total disregard" for diplomatic etiquette, and hethreatened to take unspecified action if the incident wasrepeated.
"The high commissioner is still hell bent to wreck theboat," Wetangula said in a statement.
"While we have acted with restraint, continued provocationwill not be tolerated further and the government will nothesitate to take appropriate remedial measures."
A spokeswoman at the British High Commission in Nairobisaid Wood was only reiterating the British government'sposition.
In the interview late on Wednesday, the UK ambassador citedirregularities in the presidential polls that were documentedby local and foreign election monitors.
"In view of these irregularities, we do not find that thegovernment that is presently constituted represents thedemocratic will of the Kenyan people," Wood said.
Kenya won independence from Britain in 1963. Relations haveoften been prickly since then, and the current crisis hasprompted government officials to sharply criticise Westernenvoys they accuse of acting like "colonial governors".
Last week, Washington said it had warned eight Kenyans theycould be barred from entering the United States on suspicion ofstoking the violence since the election.
(Reporting by Daniel Wallis; Editing by Giles Elgood)
