Economic diplomacy transforming Kenya into a global soft power

“Perhaps the post-colonial moment has passed.” This is how political scientist, Crawford Young, summed up his seminal essay that fretted “The end of the post-colonial state in Africa,” eroded by “the complex web of novel civil conflicts” in the 1990s, the rise of informal politics involving local societies and diminished role in service provision (African Affairs, 2004).

In a blissful sense, and in contrast to Young’s forlorn narrative, the recently concluded 14th Tokyo International Conference on African Development (Ticad) in Nairobi heralds the end of the thinking, cultural legacies and economic burdens which have defined Africa’s role in global geopolitics.

More than any other country in Africa, Kenya signifies the demise of the post-colonial order in Africa. This process started in the wake of the new Constitution in 2010 but more effectively with the rise of Kenya’s assertive foreign policy after Uhuru Kenyatta assumed power.

Two interlinked factors have sounded the death knell for the post-colonial order in Kenya.

The first is what the Kenyan academic, Bob Wekesa, recently celebrated as the country’s “soft power opportunity” (African Executive, July 19, 2016).

Wekesa alerted us to the openings that the UNCTAD 14 conference from July 17-22, 2016 presented in boosting Kenya’s soft power capital, famously theorised by the Harvard Professor, Joseph Nye, as the capacity to influence others through attraction or persuasion rather than coercion. In the post-Cold War era, soft power in Africa, as elsewhere, is linked to globalisation and regional integration.

In the past, Kenya has enhanced its soft power capital through peace mediations from Congo (1960s) to Uganda (1980s) to Somalia and Sudan in the new millennium. It is also a world leader in peacekeeping.

ECONOMIC DIPLOMACY

Second, Kenya has recently enhanced its “soft power hegemony” through its economic diplomacy, defined as the strategic use of wide-ranging economic tools and opportunities available to the state to achieve its national interest.

Since 2013, Kenya has projected its soft power through economic diplomacy, in turn, transforming the country into ‘a global soft power’.

There was the overt threat of diplomatic isolation and possible economic sanctions by Kenya’s traditional allies over the International Criminal Court cases facing the President and his Deputy relating to the 2008 violence. Upon election in March 2013 Kenyatta adopted economic diplomacy as a way of pursuing Kenya’s national interests in a hostile world. He created the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade as the instrument of his new economic diplomacy approach.

Economic diplomacy has taken three forms. First, Kenyatta and his deputy intensified trips to friendly countries and strategic events to mobilise development resources and economic opportunities. According to a recent study by the research company, East African Index (September, 2016), between April 2013 when Kenyatta assumed office and August 2016, he has made 56 trips covering 40 countries, ridiculed by opposition pundits as “tourist president.”

One of the most recent defences of Kenya’s investment in economic diplomacy is by Kenyan entrepreneur Chris Kirubi in an article titled: “Benefits of Kenyatta’s travel clear to all,” which traces Kenya’s odyssey from near “state failure” after the 2008 post-election violence to the triumph signified by the 10th WTO, UNCTAD 14 and TICAD IV conferences.

Second, and related to above, Kenyatta’s trips abroad have not only expanded Kenya’s access to global markets, technology and attracted foreign investors in a spectrum of areas, but also attracted a flurry of high-profile conferences and visits by influential leaders.
In July 2015, Kenya hosted the President of America, the world’s most powerful nation. Trade and investment deals were signed during the Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) held in Nairobi. Kenya closed last year by hosting the 10th WTO Ministerial Conference in December, which rekindled hopes of a new global trade deal.

In 2016, Kenyatta hosted Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose country agreed to help set up a cancer hospital, provide tele-cobalt machines for cancer treatment and support to Kenya’s agricultural and energy sectors.

INTELLIGENCE SUPPORT

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also visited Kenya in early July where he promised to provide intelligence support to combat violent extremism. His entourage of more than 70 business leaders struck deals worth KSh2 billion with the Kenya Chamber of Commerce.

And the TICAD summit in August brought 36 heads of state to Kenya, including the Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, who led a huge delegation of over 80 officials of Japanese companies. Nairobi was the first city outside Japan to host the sixth TICAD summit, which has in the past been held in Tokyo or Yokohama.

Third, Kenya has deepened its diplomacy and investment in regional and global multilateral institutions. In 2015, Forbes listed Kenya among the top 10 countries contributing the most to the United Nations, the only African country in this league of champions of global multilateralism, including President Barack Obama’s United States, India, Switzerland, France and the United Kingdom. Last year, Kenya contributed $445 million to the United Nations.

The top contributor is the US, which gave $1,277 million to the world body, followed by India with $800 million.

The economic benefits of economic diplomacy are clear. Kenyatta came from his trip to China on August 19–24, 2014 with concrete funding of the Standard Gauge Railway estimated to cost $3.8 billion.

In 2013, Japan’s Toyota Kenya opened an assembly plant in Mombasa worth Sh500 million while Honda Motorcycles Kenya Limited opened a motorcycle assembly plant estimated at Sh450 million.

Sixteen international hotels are expected to open doors in 2016 alone. Kempinsky, Radisson Group, Marriot Group, Hilton International, Dusit Hotels, Tune Inn Hotels, Movenpick and the Sheraton are some of the few of the brands that have or will be investing in Kenya.

African investors are also eying the Kenyan market. The coming of Dangote Cement, the Nigerian behemoth, heralds intra-African trade and investment as the trend of the future. Kenya’s leading homegrown companies like the Equity Group and the Kenya Commercial Bank are investing in Africa.

Prof Kagwanja is the Chief Executive of Africa Policy Institute