Uhuru Kenyatta's Foreign Policy; More Assertive and Focused

President Uhuru Kenyatta will in the coming three weeks meet with the world’s top three nations. He will be hosted by US President Donald Trump at the White House on 27 August, before playing host to British Prime Minister Theresa May on 30 August. President Kenyatta will then be hosted by Chinese President in the first week of September. Speaking on the visits, Kenya’s Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Ambassador Monica Juma spoke on the importance of the three countries in relations to President Kenyatta’s Big Four Agenda. “America is one of our greatest supporters in the counterterrorism effort [], the discussions are strategic and valuable,” said Amb. Juma. She also spoke on the special relationship with the UK pointing out that Kenya has favorable balance of trade between it and its former colonial master.

Since the election of President Uhuru Kenyatta in 2013, Kenya’s foreign policy has been more assertive, engaging and strategic. In his first term in office, President Kenyatta forged a more Afro-centric foreign policy. This can be attributed to the International Criminal Court (ICC) involvement in Kenya and the subsequent efforts to lobby African states to defer the Kenya cases. President Kenyatta also made African diplomacy his key foreign policy objective in his first term in office. To show Kenya’s African focus diplomacy, the country fronted its Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohammed to contest the position of the African Union Commission. Despite her losing to Moussa Faki of Chad, it showcased Kenya’s ambition to cement her Afro-centric foreign policy.

After his reelection in 2017, President Kenyatta continued to commit to an Afro-centric foreign policy. During his inauguration on 28 November 2018, he underscored Kenya’s commitment to Pan-Africanism with a pledge to all Africans visiting Kenya to be eligible for a visa upon arrival. He also promised that all East African will be treated as Kenyans and they will be free to “work, do business; own property, farm and [..] and marry and settle in Kenya”.

President Uhuru Kenyatta with China's President Xi Jinping

President Kenyatta’s appointment of Amb. Monica Juma to head the MFA further reinforces his foreign policy ambitions. She is a career diplomat and an academic who has written on Kenya’s peace and security policies. Her entry into the MFA has brought scholarly rigor into Kenya’s diplomacy. She was instrumental in Kenya’s push to defer the ICC cases at the African Union – and has been described as an excellent behind the scenes operator.

Under President Kenyatta, Kenya has showed that it wants to take charge in regional and international issues. Through the five diplomatic pillars of Kenya’s foreign policy, President Kenyatta is going about strengthening Kenyan interests globally. The meeting with US President Donald Trump will further strengthen the trade ties between the two states. Kenya also remains America’s key ally in the region. The meeting with China’s President Xi Jinping in Beijing will also bolster trade and investments and enhancing manufacturing – which is one of the President’s Big Four Agenda.