State's response to Gen-Z protests sparks Kenya-US diplomatic tension

President William Ruto is received by the President of the United States of America Joe Biden at The White House, Washington, D.C for a technology roundtable on May 23, 2024. [PCS]

For the second time in about a decade, the relationship between Kenya and the United States is going through an apparently challenging phase, as Nairobi and Washington are today clashing on the interpretation of the recent deadly and chaotic protests.

While Kenyan authorities believe that the youth’s protests were partly financed by an American organisation, Ford Foundation, using local civil society groups whose aim was to topple a democratically elected government, the US sees them differently, lauding the role of both entities as “vital” in a healthy democracy and reminding Nairobi of the “importance of freedoms of assembly and expression as enshrined in the Kenyan Constitution.”

The two sides’ difference, however, seems to be running deeper than the use of protests as a means for change. There are other issues muddying the waters, according to Kenyan government sources.

Officials in Nairobi and Washington are not openly talking about any diplomatic disagreement, and there’s no obvious sign of a full-on row.

“I don’t think there have been serious differences worth talking about. It will just fizzle out if the protests end,” said Dr Kizito Sabala, an international relations and diplomacy expert. “If they don’t end then Kenya will be pressured to handle them much better.”  

Attempts to get comments from President William Ruto’s Press Secretary Emmanuel Talam, Spokesman Hussein Mohamed and Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Korir Sing’oei were unsuccessful, as all of them didn’t respond to messages sent to their phones. 

Something amiss 

Despite the reticence by officials on both sides, it’s apparently clear that something has gone amiss in the period between the date President Ruto was honored at the White House and the day youth-led protests erupted in the country last month.

Kenyan officials secretly talk of cold ties and blame the US for not being keen on fulfilling specific requests sent to Washington after Ruto’s visit last May.

The Kenyan requests, which were prepared by experts who studied the agreements between Nairobi and Washington, detailed what Kenya actually needed from the US, according to a source that asked not to be named because he was not authorised to speak to the Press.

Some government supporters believe that the US has tacitly supported the youth agitation, albeit mainly through civil society organisations.

On July 15, President Ruto accused the Ford Foundation, of sponsoring violence in Kenya and using the youth as a tool to achieve its objective, which he alleged was to create chaos in the country.

“The young people of Kenya are not available to conduct violence,” Ruto said. “They’re not available to have anarchy in our country. We do not have a spare nation. We’ve only one Kenya.”

Ruto wondered what the American organisation would benefit from causing violence in the country.

“We’re going to call them out and we’re going to tell them if they’re not interested in democracy in Kenya,” he said. “If they’re going to sponsor violence, if they’re going to sponsor anarchy, we’re going to call them out and we’re going to tell them they either style up or leave.”

On Thursday, the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged President Ruto to respect youth and civil society organisations and their contributions to Kenya’s development, according to the State Department spokesperson, Matthew Miller.

In a quick rejoinder, PS Sing’oei, said Kenya will “assure” its “citizens’ freedom of assembly and expression when exercised responsibly within the remit of our Constitution” a subtle but firm rejection of the US government’s framing of the protests by a leaderless youth as agitation for democracy.

Alarming jingle by the youth

The youth, who first started their activism online before pouring onto the streets, initially demanded the withdrawal of Finance Bill 2024 that proposed new taxes, but later escalated their demand into a call for the resignation of President Ruto whose official term runs until 2027. 

The Kenyan government was alarmed by the youth’s “Ruto Must go” jingle, which it saw as an attempt by foreign elements and their local collaborators to carry out a regime change in the country. 

One of the youth activists, Kasmuel McOure, a firebrand, said on Citizen, on Saturday night that there’s no need for peace in Kenya. 

“We don’t need peace right now. We have never needed peace for us to change this governance problem because we can have peace when there is corruption. We can have peace in the face of injustice. We can have peace when our women are getting raped,” he said. “What we are calling for is liberation because we cannot have peace until all of us are equal.”

McOure’s “cleanse first” — a euphemism for toppling Ruto — has spooked many Kenyans who, while they like good governance, don’t want their country to go the way of Sudan, Somalia and Libya, where revolutionaries overthrew their leaders, but failed to offer better alternatives, as their countries descended into chaos.

Kenya-Ford exchanges

The Kenyan government has written to the Ford Foundation asking for explanation, honing in on 16 non-governmental organisations, which it accused of spending millions of shillings in the two months that preceded the protests. 

“It is noteworthy that several of your Grantees below mentioned received a total of US$ 5.78 Million (approximately Kenya Shillings 752 Million) between April 2023 and May 2024 - with unexplained expedited funding amounting to US$ 1.49 M (approximately Kenya shillings 194 million) - over the last month alone,” Sing’oei said in a July 18, 2024 letter to organisation’s President Darren Walker. 

In a curious development, on July 22, Francisco Cigarroa, chair of the Board of Trustees of the Ford Foundation, revealed Walker’s plans to step down from the organisation by the end of 2025. 

Cigarroa said Walker, whose initiatives included advocating for constitutionalism and rule of law in South Africa and Black femme-led movements to advance change, “has guided Ford through some of the most challenging moments of our time.”

According to the organisation’s statement, Walker, who established Tech and Society programmes during his time, oversaw for more than a decade some of Ford’s most influential work, including inequality and social justice.

“I remain steadfast in my belief that the Ford Foundation is in the business of hope and in its future in pursuing a more just and equitable world,” Walker said.

Disrupting systems

Officially, the organisation, which on its website prides itself on “disrupting systems to advance social justice” and investing in “transformative ideas, individuals and institutions,” has denied the Kenyan government’s allegations.

“We don’t fund or sponsor the recent protests against the Finance Bill. We have a strictly non-partisan policy for all of our grant-making,” said the organisation, noting its “ongoing commitment to supporting work in support of Kenya’s development and Kenya’s leadership on an African and global stage.”

Dr Sabala said he doesn’t think President Ruto’s accusation against the Ford Foundation will “injure in any way the Kenya-US relations.” 

“It’s really a minor issue,” he said.

Uneasy relationship 

While Nairobi and Washington still applaud their good relationship, yet their official statements point to an uneasy bond, a stark departure from what their ties were just a couple of months ago. 

The US-Kenya relationship – touted as strategic since 2018 -- was supposed to be a model that could exemplify the US government’s reliability and how it deals with its partners in Africa, where the West is competing with Russia and China over the continent’s resources. 

Before the youth-led protests, the ties between Nairobi and Washington had appeared well and promising.

Last May, President Joe Biden hosted Ruto at the White House and the two leaders signed dozens of bilateral agreements that were expected to take the relationship to new heights.

In fact, Ruto was ostensibly the US’s darling not only in Kenya but in Africa, and Washington’s interest in him started well before he was declared the winner of the 2022 elections. Prior to the elections, Ruto, the then deputy president, visited Washington during his campaign and met with some US officials.

He was also a guest at the influential Center for Strategic and International Studies, where he talked about Kenyan Democracy and called the ties between Kenya and the US a “wonderful relationship.” At the time, Ruto accused his rivals – mainly former President Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga, the opposition leader -- of trying to reverse the Constitution, calling them “counter-reformists.”

US’s not typical Ambassador

The US Ambassador to Kenya Meg Whitman has also played a vital role in elevating Ruto after the elections.

Nahal Toosi, a senior foreign affairs correspondent at Politico, an American news outlet, wrote on May 22: “If you’re a US official on the phone with Meg Whitman and you’re wondering what Kenyan President William Ruto thinks about, it’s entirely possible she’ll say: “Let me call and ask him.”

“Minutes later, she might even conference Ruto into your call,” said Toosi, who wrote in his article that the “Whitman hasn’t acted like a typical diplomat” since arriving in Nairobi in 2022.  

On August 15, 20200, Whitman was at Bomas of Kenya -- the national tallying centre of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission – hours before the final results of the presidential election were declared to closely follow the results and ensure that Kenya had a peaceful outcome.

Politicians from the opposition coalition, Azimio, and their supporters saw Whitman’s presence at Bomas as an interference by a country they accused of favoring candidate Ruto, Raila Odinga’s rival.

Since that time, Whitman has become a household name in Kenya, with the opposition leader, Raila, at one time unloading on her and urging her “to leave Kenya alone.”

“Tell the rogue Ambassador Kenya is not the United States. Kenya is not a colony of the US,” Raila said, adding: “Keep your mouth shut. Otherwise, we will call for your recall to your country.”

Whitman has denied siding with Ruto, whom she called a “duly elected” president in a “fair and transparent election.”

“The Americans really do take pride in the fact we don’t take sides in elections,” she told Citizen TV’s JKL Live  in an interview.

President Ruto defended Whitman, saying she spoke of “facts.”

“She said the last election was the freest and fairest in the history of Kenya, which is also a statement of fact,” Ruto said.

Strangely, Whitman, who was by Ruto’s side during his recent trip to the the US, was mostly missing in action since the protests swept the country.

Nairobi’s disappointment

The Kenyan government seems disappointed by the US’s reaction to the youth protests, especially after protesters called for the removal of President Ruto, although many acknowledge that Kenya is too important to be abandoned to its own fate.

As new evidence emerges on a daily basis, it appears that there was more to the recent protests than was initially known, with security agencies now investigating the involvement of some Kenyan politicians in organising and financing protests. 

Stig Jarle Hansen, a professor at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences and a frequent visitor to Kenya, said the protesters’ call for the resignation of Ruto was “seen as a sign of destabilisation” in the West. 

“Hopefully, there will be reconciliation,” he said. “An unconstitutional ousting would be bad for Kenya, the country needs to follow its Constitution. The opposite tends to destabilise democracies.”

Michelle Gavin, a former senior Africa Director at the US’s National Security Council and former US Ambassador to Botswana, said Washington now has two options after the protests: Pull back or double down.

“It must do the latter,” said Gavin, who is a senior fellow for Africa Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, in an article on Foreign Affairs Magazine headlined “America’s Dilemma in Kenya”
“Kenya could prove to be a vital American partner in avoiding worst-case scenarios and helping reform the region’s institutional architecture,” she said. “But Washington must act to provide the country some real economic relief, conditioned on anti-corruption and human rights benchmarks, to show that the United States is serious about Kenya, not just enamored of Ruto.”    

Asked if the US’s response to the protests could mean that Washinton was rethinking its initial embrace of Ruto, Sabala, replied: “Yes. I think so.”

“The way the protests have been handled does not augur well for the standing of the US towards Kenya,” he said. “Kenya is expected to handle such issues better than it did.” 

However, any drastic policy change toward Ruto, a leader the US previously praised so much, is likely to harm Washington’s image in Africa more than the rule of Ruto, a resourceful man who will surely find other ways to survive in a multi-polar world. The US’s enemies would not definitely pass up an opportunity to portray Washington as an unreliable partner that turns its back on its friends in their hour of need.  

Reactions by the US and EU

The US Embassy in Nairobi waited for weeks — a time enough to depose a leader — before it finally issued its first statement on July 18, which said “Constructive engagement of citizens and civil society, aided by a free and independent media, is a pillar of democracy.”

In his Thursday statement, the State Department spokesman didn’t mention the call for Ruto’s resignation and cryptically Secretary Blinked reiterated during his call with President Ruto that “the United States stands with the Kenyan people as they build a more inclusive and prosperous Kenya.”

A State Department spokesperson had earlier told The Standard that the US was “alarmed at credible reports of police units engaging in violence and arbitrary detention of protestors, the journalists telling their story, and emergency responders coming to their aid.”

In its public statements, the US didn’t propose any solution to resolve the crisis created by the protests that have almost pitched the country into lawlessness.

By contrast, the European Union has adopted a tone that was markedly different from the US’s in a statement to The Standard, saying “the way out of the current situation is to exercise restraint on all sides, constructive dialogue and respect for rule of law.” The EU also urged an adherence to international standards by everyone, which, in essence, means the bloc doesn’t support any violent change of power in Kenya.

Although the European Union, like the U S said, it is “closely follows ongoing developments in Kenya,” its wording was pro-de-escalation, urging “all stakeholders to work collaboratively to address the root causes of the crisis” as a path out of the crisis.

“The EU believes in the strength and resilience of Kenya’s democratic institutions in navigating the current challenges,” said the 27-nation bloc. “We continue to engage with all relevant stakeholders, including the Kenyan government, to encourage peaceful and constructive dialogue.

The EU called on the government to carry out an “independent and thorough investigation” that is “in line with its international, regional and national human rights obligations.”

The EU allocated €324 million to Kenya between 2021 and 2024 to finance programmes, such as green transition, human development and digital inclusion, democratic governance, peace and stability.

Past clashes

In 2013, a similar clash over the direction of the country erupted between Kenya and the US when just a month before the elections Assistant Secretary of State Johnnie Carson warned Kenyans of the consequences of electing Candidate Uhuru Kenyatta and his running mate Ruto, both of whom were at the time facing charges at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

Hansen, said Ruto can retain his international image during and after the protests if he ensures that “Kenya does what separates it from neighbouring countries, seeks a consensus solution rather than focusing on pure (law) enforcement and use of power.” “He has to show a will of compromise,” he said.

Ruto’s broad-based Cabinet

Ruto has recently appointed Raila’s allies to his new Cabinet in a broad-based government that was formed after the youth agitation forced the dismissal of his first Cabinet, a move that has nearly torn Azimio, apart, but restored stability to the government. 

“It had to happen,” said Hansen. “While I do understand the worries about the new Cabinet, since it will weaken political competition, Kenya needs consensus.”

On Saturday, Raila said Kenya was at “at a critical juncture.” “We either move forward or we perish,” said Raila, who has called for a “constructive national dialogue” and relook at the Constitution.