What is our Foreign Policy?

When Kenya Promulgated the Constitution, the smiling visage of the Butcher of Darfur was right there next to the saviour of the nation, Kofi Annan, the former Secretary-General of the United Nations, who had done so much to bring this nation from the brink of civil war. The Civil Service, through statements by Amb. Francis Muthaura and PS Francis Kimemia, had all along created the impression that it was Salva Kiir, the First Vice-President of Sudan and the President of Southern Sudan, who had been invited. Indeed, Mr. Kimemia went out of his way to assure the nation that the reason why Wilson Airport had been shut down was so that the military aircraft flying during the ceremony would do so without interference. The condemnation of the international community was as swift as it was harsh. Even members of the Cabinet, including the Prime Minister, have condemned the invitation of Omar Hassan al-Bashir to the ceremony, stating that Kenya was in violation of international treaties it has signed in which it commits itself to meet its obligations, especially under the Rome Statute, to arrest and deliver President Bashir to the International Criminal Court at the Hague where he has been indicted on war crimes charges.

Whether Kenya should have arrested President Bashir has become the new political football between the two coalition partners and threatens to sour the euphoric mood engendered by the promulgation of the Constitution. It is moot that he would not have been invited if the Government of Kenya had not indicated that it would not arrest him. Indeed, Moses Wetangula (PNU, Sirisia and Minister for Foreign Affairs) attempted a mealy-mouthed explanation of why Bashir had been invited and why Kenya had failed to arrest him. Hon. Wetangula is a pugnacious politician who seems to think that all his critics are idiots and that they do not have a right to question his decisions as minister. He follows a path that had been charted by his predecessor, Raphael Tuju, who used his office to carry on his war with Raila Odinga, going to the extent of hiring ambassadors who had had a falling out with the ODM leader.

Ever since Mwai Kibaki became president in 2003, Kenya's foreign policy has seemed to be unclear and unfocussed. It is not clear what our strategic foreign policy objectives are and whether or not we are meeting them. Mr. Tuju was instrumental in re-focussing our foreign policy away from the West and towards engagement with our near-abroad as well as a deepening of ties with the People's Republic of China. At present, it is our relationship with China that seems to define our foreign policy. China has become one of our largest development partners, funding to a large extent President Kibaki's Government's infrastructure development programmes all over the country. Chinese companies are responsible for the construction of the thousands of kilometres of roads all over the country and the quality of their work or their speed cannot be gainsaid.

Diplomacy is war by other means and our diplomatic corps is engaged in a war of survival for this nation, ensuring that development partners and other parties are kept on an even keel in the national interest. For the moment, it is in the national interest to take advantage of the Chinese largesse because it comes with very few strings attached. Our previous engagements with the West gave us the disastrous Structural Adjustment Programmes of the 1990s that did so much to lay the Kenyan economy low and exacerbated the gulf between the rich and poor. However, despite this recent dalliance with the Communist regime, the European Union and the United States remain by far our largest trade partners. Until Kenya starts to sell flowers and other products to China in the same volumes as to the West, China's engagement with Kenya will continue to be one-sided with the Chinese getting the better end of the deal. 

Njenga Karume, as Minister of State for Defence was instrumental in deepening military ties with China, but still saw fit to continue allowing the British army Training Unit-Kenya to continue operating in Kenya. It is the same case with the United States; US Naval vessels still keep making port calls at the Kenyan Coast in their engagements with the militants in Somalia and the Horn of Africa. Indeed, at one time Kenya was considered the most preferred choice of the US Africa Command, before politics forced the Americans to locate it in Berlin, Germany.

It is always a risk to give any one foreign power so much leverage in the affairs of a country. Kenya should tread carefully with the Chinese. Our experiences with the West have taught us that when one foreign power exercises great leverage at the expense of others, the results are always in favour of the the foreigner than Kenya. The SAPs of the 1990s ensured that Kenya's economy failed to meet the needs or priorities of the country. The Chinese claim that they will not interfere in the internal affairs of the nations it deals with, but this also means that they will deal with dictatorships as well as democratic governments so long as their interests are addressed. That is why the Chinese have been instrumental in shielding Bashir from sanctions by the UN Security Council for defying the ICC. Kenya should take urgent steps to review its foreign policy, especially now that we have a new Constitution, in order that it shall never be held hostage to the demands of any one foreign power. Sooner, rather than later, it will be imperative to depoliticize the Foreign Office with a view to professionalising the diplomatic corps, ensuring that only the best and the brightest serve this nation's interests. Moses Wetangula, sadly, epitomises the rot that has permeated the service and it is time he was given the sack. Only then can Kenya successfully navigate the treacherous waters that are the international relations.