Smith Hempstone; U.S. Ambassador to Kenya

Mr. Hempstone was not above reproaching U.S. policy in the region and once sent a prescient, if impolitic, note to his superiors warning the Bush administration against sending a humanitarian mission to Somalia.

Smith Hempstone Jr. was born Feb. 1, 1929, in Washington, where his father was stationed as a Naval officer. He graduated from Indiana's Culver Military Academy and the University of the South.

After Marine Corps service during the Korean War, he spent four years in Africa as a fellow of the Institute of Current World Affairs. The institute had a long affiliation with the Chicago Daily News, and Mr. Hempstone became the paper's Africa correspondent in the early 1960s.

During that period, he wrote "Africa: Angry Young Giant," a survey of 26 countries; and "Rebels, Mercenaries and Dividends," about the attempted secession of Katanga, the mineral-rich southern province of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

He won a Nieman fellowship at Harvard University, wrote two novels and in 1966 became the Washington Star's London-based reporter, covering Europe and the Middle East.

He rose to editorial page editor but left in 1975 after disagreements with Joe L. Allbritton, the paper's new owner. He began self-syndicating his column, "Our Times," which at its peak ran in 90 newspapers.

In recent years, Mr. Hempstone faced a libel lawsuit stemming from his diplomatic memoir. He accused Moi and a top aide, Nicholas K. Biwott, of orchestrating the killing of Robert Ouko, a former foreign minister who fell out of favor with the president.

Moi later withdrew his suit, but Biwott won a substantial judgment from a Kenyan court in 2002. U.S. Embassy officials in Kenya have told Mr. Hempstone's family that they did not accept the court's jurisdiction but advised Mr. Hempstone not to return to Kenya.

Survivors include his wife of 52 years, Kathaleen Fishback "Kitty" Hempstone of Bethesda; a daughter, Katherine Hempstone of Baltimore; and a grandson.