On Wednesday, January 2, 2019, President Trump’s nominee for the vacant post of Ambassador to Kenya was finally considered and confirmed by the US Senate, after a
Ambassador Kyle McCarter, whose preliminary appointment was made by The White House back on March 29,
In the White House press release, it was noted that McCarter “served as a field auditor, Missionary and International Director of Each One Feed One International, based in Lebanon, Illinois with an office in
Mr. McCarter, the 56-year-old founder of a Kenya-based charity, secured the post nine months after he had been nominated by President Donald Trump as the successor to Ambassador Robert Godec.
Prior to his appointment, McCarter was a state senator since 2009, serving southern Illinois.
Ambassador McCarter and his wife Victoria are conversational in Swahili, the official language of Kenya.
McCarter, along with his parents, founded Each One Feed One International, which helps orphaned and abandoned children, and also provides medical treatment for those with HIV and malaria.
McCarter began working with the charity in 1984. He and his wife Victoria lived and worked in Kenya for a year beginning in 1987 to help build a medical clinic. They resumed their work with the charity again in 2011.
Several Democratic members of the Republican-controlled Senate had expressed strong opposition to Mr McCarter’s conservative views on gay rights and his tweet on Election Night in 2016 suggesting that Hillary Clinton be sent to prison.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee cleared the nomination by a 12-9 vote last month. All but one of the panel’s Democrats opposed referring the choice of Mr McCarter to the full 100-member upper house of Congress.
No roll-call vote was taken on Thursday, with senators approving Mr McCarter’s nomination by a voice vote.
In a dramatic exchange at a Foreign Relations Committee session in July, Senator Tim Kaine challenged Mr. McCarter’s call for Mrs. Clinton to be imprisoned.
The senator had run for vice-president in 2016 on the Democratic ticket headed by Mrs Clinton, who has never been charged with a crime.
“How does a thought like that come into the brain of someone?” Mr Kaine asked Mr McCarter in regard to the tweet posted soon after Mr Trump’s victory. “It seems so contrary to the values of a democratic society.”
Mr McCarter offered an indirect apology for his remark, saying “It is one of those tweets you’d like to reel in but can’t.”
He also assured senators that he would not let his own political views intrude on his duties as ambassador.
“I will use my experiences in business, public service and philanthropy to build on the already strong bilateral relationship between the United States and Kenya,” he told the committee.
“I will continue to demonstrate the goodwill and generosity of the American people.”
