The publication of confidential diplomatic cables on the website Wikileaks gave ammunition to some African leaders who have complained, without previous proof, of U.S. interference in their country.
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Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe for example, learned from the cables that the U.S. is leading efforts to remove him from power.
 
In the leaked memos, former U.S. ambassador Christopher Dell wrote that the U.S. was taking a leading role to bring Mugabe down and that former colonizer Britain could not do the job because it was hamstrung by its colonial past.
 
“Thus it falls to the U.S., once again, to take the lead, to say and do the hard things and to set the agenda,” Dell said in a cable posted this weekend on the Wikileaks site.
 
As to Kenya, classified U.S. diplomatic messages called Nairobi “a swamp of flourishing corruption” and had little good to say about the current coalition government.
 
Kenyan government spokesman Alfred Mutua said: "We do not know the details of the leaked cables, but if what is reported is true then it is totally malicious and a total misrepresentation of our country and our leaders…. We are surprised and shocked by these revelations."
 
Mutua said the US's Africa envoy Johnny Carson had called Prime Minister Raila Odinga this week to apologize for the expected leaks.
 
Finally, the secret cables revealed that former Pres. Nelson Mandela was resolutely against the Iraq war, and that he believed President Bush ignored calls by the United Nations for restraint because the UN’s then-General Secretary Kofi Annan was black.

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