Policy and decision makers must understand our immediate needs

Post-colonial Kenya is a country of wonders, full of internal contradictions, and always in search of something to distinguish itself from other countries. Among those things is the writing of great-sounding policy papers. It appears to be in the mood for another policy paper, mainly to stress William Ruto’s ‘bottom-up’ mentality/orientation. It will be neither the first nor the most impactful.

At independence, Kenyan leaders grappled with what to do about Kenya’s Mau Mau Revolutionary legacy and struggled to assure the West, in the raging Cold War, that Kenya was not Congo. Since there was a lot of talk about socialism as an antidote to Western dominance, President Jomo Kenyatta ordered the crafting of a policy paper on socialism. The team, led by Tom Mboya and Mwai Kibaki, produced a 1965 ideological mongrel calling itself ‘socialist’ while placing Kenya solidly in the capitalistic West.

Titled Sessional Paper Number Ten on African Socialism and Its Application to Planning in Kenya, the paper was neither African nor socialist. It served the purpose of trying to silence those, like Bildad Kaggia, who entertained Mau Mau ideals and retained socialistic inclinations. Having redefined socialism the Kenyatta way, it was the first paper on idealism in Eastern Africa.

It seemingly showed the way for Julius Nyerere in Tanganyika and Milton Obote in Uganda to issue their anti-capitalistic Azimio la Arusha in 1967 and Common Man’s Charter in 1969. That Sessional Paper became the subject of intense ideological debates in Kenya and within the region that occasionally translated into domestic political and regional diplomatic confrontations.

No other paper has had the same impact. The closest was Kibaki’s 21st Vision 2030 blueprint that was visible in two ways. These were major infrastructure developments and revolutionising education so much that the evidence showed up in the 2024 Gen Z uprising that questioned Ruto’s legitimacy. The need to legitimise Ruto through serious policy documents would explain the ongoing struggle to produce a defining paper on foreign policy.    

Ruto’s global image started badly with the Saharawi fiasco. Although National Security Advisor Monica Juma talks of his foreign policy as being ‘bold’, he is not doing well. His image is rather one of the scandals, claims of surrendering ‘sovereignty’ to foreign entities, selling or leasing strategic national assets, being insensitive to public concerns, Hustler Grandees displaying opulence in the midst of failure to meet basic health and education services, and appointing questionable people to policy-making positions. Instead of inspiring confidence, these erode public trust in his administration.

There is therefore failure to convince the domestic audience, as Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi admits, to support purported foreign policy objectives. Diplomat Tom Omollo, describing himself as Gen Z, agrees and notes that the real Gen Zs in his house are not impressed by Kenya’s foreign policy claims. To get out of the mess, Foreign Affairs PS Korir Singoei and Foreign Affairs Institute Director Lucy Kiruthu, besides Mudavadi, appear determined to start from scratch to produce foreign policy document. They organised a colloquium to tear into policy weaknesses and produce serious policy documents that Kenyans can own and identify with.

This called for deep reflection on the shortcomings and ways of escaping the rut. The basic purpose of ‘foreign affairs’, it emerged, was to be the country’s first line of defense in multi-faceted security ways. There is need to redefine threats to Kenyan security to include, besides the various known domains, the threat of dependency and lack of critical thinking.

The threat increases when misplaced people decide on policy out of ignorance and incompetence. Do the policy and decision makers know Kenya and its national interests? Do they know their counterparts outside Kenya and where core interests converge and diverge? Do they have competence to face geopolitical challenges in advancing and defending Kenya’s interests? If such people are joy-riding cronies, the country is in trouble.