US affirms ties with Kenyans after mall attack

The United States top diplomat for Africa on Thursday affirmed ties with the Kenyan people but stopped short of voicing explicit support for President Kenyatta.

"We're working very, very closely" with Kenya's security services, Assistant Secretary of State Linda Thomas-Greenfield said in a teleconference with reporters.

She said FBI agents investigating the terror attack on the Westgate Mall were sent to Nairobi "to help the Government of Kenya".

Asked whether the US could have done something to prevent the Westgate attack and a recent massacre in Nigeria, Ms Thomas-Greenfield replied: "If something could have been done to stop those events, it would have been done."

"If we can stop terrorism," she reiterated, "we will do it."

The assistant secretary sidestepped a question from a Nation reporter about what effect the Westgate atrocity would have on the Obama administration's relations with President Kenyatta.

Ms Thomas-Greenfield noted that President Obama had called Mr Kenyatta to "express our condolences and offer our assistance to the Kenyan people."

"We will continue to support the Kenyan people as they deal with terrorism, as they have dealt with the fire at the airport," she said.

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But Ms Thomas-Greenfield did not address a query as to whether the US will now modify the "consequences" it had said would ensue if Kenyan voters selected a particular candidate for president -- understood to be Mr Kenyatta. She also did not say what exactly those "consequences" have amounted to.

The career diplomat was also non-committal on the US position regarding Kenya Parliament's vote to remove the country from the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.

She did not refer specifically to the Kenya cases before the ICC. But she did say that although the US is not a signatory of the treaty establishing the ICC, Washington works "closely with the member-states to ensure the ICC is able to carry out its responsibilities and its duties".

The assistant secretary, who took up the post following the retirement earlier this year of Ambassador Johnnie Carson, added that the US wants to "hear what African governments have to say about this".

That was an apparent reference to next week's African Union summit which is expected to consider a mass pull-out from the ICC's jurisdiction.