As the Uhuru Kenyatta presidency nears the end, self-assessment is taking place with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) in the lead. While appearing to wake up from prolonged slumber, it stopped being a ‘Ministry of Strange Affairs’, and turned into a vibrant coordinator of Kenya’s multiple global interests. It managed to cut a niche for itself in a world that is realigning and discarding previous post-world war II and post-Cold War thoughts on what the world order should be.
MFA reassessment took place during an ambassadorial conference where a few hard truths were told. Auditor General Nancy Kathangu said the reason MFA and other ministries get ‘qualified’ reports from her office was because institutions ignore their own internal auditors. PS Macharia Kamau cleared the air on use of titles. In Kenya, he reminded the ambassadors, only the president qualifies to be ‘His Excellency’ or “Your Excellency’. For them, those titles apply outside, not inside Kenya.
MFA, Kamau asserted, is part of Kenya’s national security superstructure but it does not get due support and recognition. As PS, he is a board member of the National Defence College (NDC) where a senior diplomat is deputy-commandant. Foreign Service officers mix with military and police officers at NDC to learn national interests, decision-making, and strategy. Yet, unlike the military and the police, MFA does not recruit its own professionals, set its own standards, or own land to build an Academy. Acknowledging shortcomings, including conceptual and managerial ones, meant soul-searching as to the direction the country should take in world affairs.
That direction would build on Uhuru’s performance, which started in the 2013 election, with an ICC case hanging over his head, and it was rough. The Anglo-Americans led Western hostility against Uhuru but the Africans and anti-imperialists supported the right of Kenyans to elect who they wanted. On his part, Uhuru placed his hopes in the African Union. His appeal to the spirit of Pan-Africanism became the anchor to his foreign policy, what CS Raychelle Omamo called Neo-Pan Africanism. Besides galvanising Africans, Uhuru charmed his way into the hearts and minds of the leadership in previously hostile Western powers. He either muted or turned critics into allies.
Subsequent to Kenya not caving into every big power demand, other countries wanted to associate with its successes, which became reference points. Kenya then exported skills and talents. DR Congo, remarked Ambassador George Masafu, imported the ‘handshake’ principle of each side yielding a little bit in order to achieve political stability. Other countries and regional organisations, Kathungu noted, imported Kenyan auditors to clean up their books. And when he was Kenya’s ambassador to the United Nations, CS Omamo revealed, PS Kamau crafted what became the UN SDGs; others followed.
In looking for its niche in a realigning world, so argues Kamau, Kenya needs a fearless and principled strategy in its foreign policy. This calls for a balance in knowing when to stand up for something and when to yield without losing sight of the big picture. The fearless and principled strategy enabled Kenya to refuse to succumb to big power pressure and also reserved its right to tell them off when they messed up. This ability to resist pressure and tell off supposedly big powers has had global ramifications, thereby giving Kenya soft power leverage.
The ability to continue leveraging soft power, however, would need to turn MFA into an advanced thinking organisation. Omamo wants Kenyan ambassadors to be ‘strategic thinkers’ in their host countries and maximise what Kenya can get. It makes little sense, she believes, for all the ambassadors to act the same way when environments are so different. Ambassadors should therefore think deeply and acquire appropriate knowledge on how to get the best from each host country without being ‘took’. It calls for strategy-based diplomacy that Kamau calls “fearless and principled".
