India’s special place in Kenyan diplomacy

India was among the early starters in Africa. As early as 1948, the country’s diplomatic mission was already fully operational in Nairobi, much earlier than any of the diplomatic heavyweights such as the US, Britain or China set up base in the city.

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The Indian mission at its creation, covered the entire East African region and was run by a commissioner. That post was occupied by Mr Apa Saheb Pant who was given special status by the colonial office because of the large Indian presence in Kenya.

But, at one time, the colonial government asked for recall of Mr Apa Pant because he was accused of supporting the country’s nascent independence movement. The Indian government refused to recall Mr Pant who was a close friend of both Jomo Kenyatta and Jaramogi Oginga Odinga.

In 1955, India played a key role in the first Asia-Africa summit that was held in Bandung, Indonesia with Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru delivering a speech that called for an end to colonisation. The country also arranged scholarships for Kenyans in the early 50s with fully paid trips.

India realised that after independence, Kenya will need trained manpower and at that time, there were no institutes of higher learning such as universities in Kenya.

The current Indian High Commissioner is Mr P.S. Randhawa. Speaking at his office on Harambee Avenue, Mr Randhawa, who has held the post since 2006, told of how during the Annan talks, he was reminded of the close friendship between Kenya and India when Raila Odinga told him of his father’s visit to India in the 1950s and how Mrs Indira Gandhi visited his father in Bondo.

Types of diplomacy

About India-Kenya ties, Mr Randhawa said: “Unlike other countries, we don’t have an agenda for Kenya. We would like Kenyans to have their own agenda.” The High Commissioner talked of many types of diplomacy saying “you cannot apply the same yardstick to everybody.

Europeans have an activist agenda that is based on the Charter of Rome while Chinese embassies primarily gather information around the world for processing by the Foreign Office.” Mr Randhawa said cooperation between India and Africa does not involve any comments on domestic issues. “We only talk about security issues, nuclear issues, global monetary system and facilitate exchanges between our countries.’’

Mr Randhawa told of a vibrant media in India with over 500 newspapers and periodicals published daily all over the country. Talking of disparities, he said that in Kenya, all the newspapers say the same thing “especially Agenda 4 reforms since the last elections.”

He adds: “After the post-election period, I expected the government to draw up a list of priorities to revive the Kenyan economy but nothing happened. We hear of Vision 2030 but how are you going to implement it?’’

In India, the High Commissioner said, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh has ordered a performance audit of every ministry after the first 100 days. But, he adds that Kenya has more literate people than India where out of a population of 1.2 billion only 65 per cent is literate compared to Kenya’s 74 per cent adult literacy.

The bad news is that in Kenya, there are more unemployed people than India. Says Mr Randhawa: “Kenya is yet to get rid of colonial mentality. People expect government to create jobs, in India, private sector creates more jobs.”

He adds: “Both India and Kenya are developing countries. We have a lot to learn from each other but, there is no short cut to success and India can share its experience of development with Kenya but we will not tell Kenya what to do.”

Henry Owuor is Diplomatic and Foreign Affairs Writer, Daily Nation