President Kenyatta’s visit will fashion future of Japan-Kenya relations

As President Uhuru Kenyatta makes his maiden trip to Japan from March 12-16, the Japan-Kenya relations are on a cusp of a major transformation.

Driving this policy shift is Japan’s new national security strategy and a distinct bend on “strategic use” of overseas development assistance to promote national (security and economic) interests, which may well shape Japan-Kenya relations for decades to come.

Kenyatta is part of 15 odd African leaders — including the African Union chairman Robert Mugabe — invited by Tokyo to attend the United Nations World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in the city of Sendai from March 14 to 18.

He will also open Kenya’s new embassy in Tokyo, address Kenyans in Japan, business forum and tour cutting-edge infrastructural projects such as the Tokyo Gate Bridge.

But Kenyatta’s real diplomatic business is likely to take place at the Kantei, the principal workplace and residence of Japan’s Prime Minister, at the dinner table with Premier Shinzo Abe.

Ideologically, the Kenya-Japan relation is a tale of two caged birds seeking freedom to fly.

They are rewriting and re-aligning their foreign policies to the harsh realities of a new uncertain multi-polar world haunted by the threat of terrorism and the return of the Cold War-era geo-politics — spawned by the challenge to the West by a rising China, a more militaristic Russia, a belligerent Iran and an assertive Africa.

RECLAIM THEIR SOVEREIGNITY

Recently, the two nations have adopted forceful foreign policies to reclaim and cushion their sovereignty. Upon re-election in December 2012 Abe, who earlier on served for a year as Prime Minister from 2006 to 2007, has popularised the notion of “active pacifism”.

Through this doctrine, Abe is aggressively rewriting Article 9 of Japan’s Pacifist National Constitution, which disallowed Japan from maintaining armed forces with war potential, only allowing the Japan Self-Defence Forces as “soldiers of peace”.

In July 2014, his government approved a reinterpretation of Article 9 to give more powers to the Japan Self-Defence Forces and to exercise the right of “collective self-defence” if one of its allies were to be attacked.

After re-election in December 2014, Abe is fast-tracking his plan to expand Japan’s active role in global security.

Similarly, upon election on March 4, 2013, Kenyatta inaugurated an assertive and Africa-centred foreign policy partly to challenge the role of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in Kenya.

In October 2014, he was forced to temporarily relinquish the presidency as a tactical move to “protect the sovereignty” as he appeared before a bench of three judges presided over by a Japanese national — Kuniko Ozaki.

But now the two birds are out of their cages, and are surfing the open skies of diplomacy and seeking each other out.

In Japan, the United States has approved Prime Minster Abe’s plan to rollback pacifism as a counter to China’s growing military might and manoeuvres in East Asia.

In Kenya, on December 5, 2014, the ICC dropped the case against Kenyatta, removing the threat of isolation and allowing him a free hand to market Kenya internationally.

Expectedly, development cooperation will continue to be the pivot of Japan-Kenya relations.

TURN IN FOREIGN POLICY

In Japan, Kenyatta will get a sneak peek of Japan’s technological progress as he takes a ride to the conference venue at Sendai in the Shinkansen (“bullet train”) cruising at a maximum of 320 kilometers per hour as part of a 2,388 km railway network inaugurated in 1964.

However, a strident security turn in Japan’s foreign policy is poised to take a pride of place in Kenya-Japan relations.

The grisly killing of a Japanese journalist, Kenji Goto, and another hostage, Haruna Yukawa, by Islamic State militants in February 2015 revealed Japan’s vulnerability to terrorism. It has also thrust to the fore Japan’s cooperation with Kenya on counter-terrorism and maritime capacity to counter piracy in the Indian Ocean rim.

An outraged Abe vowed “to make the terrorists pay the price,” but the hostage crisis is forcing Japan to boost its security capacity and partnerships as more Self Defence Forces personnel are deployed to Japanese embassies as defence attachés. In January 2015, Japan deployed its first-ever defence attaché to Kenya.

Also likely to emerge as an item in the dinner talks is Japan’s growing military presence in Africa.

In his speech at the United Nations in September last year, Abe unveiled his plan to enhance Japan’s role in UN-led peacekeeping operations in Africa.

Kenya’s and Africa’s support is key to Japan’s dream of securing a permanent seat in the UN Security Council.

Also poised to radically transform the Japan-Kenya relations is a new “Development cooperation charter” approved by Abe’s Cabinet on February 10 to replace the official development assistance charter that used to provide the guidelines for Japan’s aid policy for developing nations.

Significantly, the charter partly allows assistance to foreign armed forces, which was prohibited under the old ODA charter. Japan’s assistance will be tied to “national interests” with a special accent on “the strategic importance” of the recipient nations of its assistance.

Further, the charter commits Japan to provide assistance in non-military situations such as disaster relief. Critics of the new charter are wary that vague and ambiguous clauses in the document could be exploited by the government to expand assistance to foreign military forces.

The new charter will radically transform Ticad, whose central feature is the cooperation between Asia and Africa. In recent years, Japan has been forced to take heed of the criticism that Ticad reflects less “Africa’s ownership” and genuine “partnership” than it asserts. In principle, Africa will host the next Ticad (VI) Summit in 2016.

Last month, Kenya revealed its interest to host the prestigious forum.

But Nairobi has to get Gambia’s Yahya Jammeh to drop his bid to host the fete.

Prof Peter Kagwanja is Chief Executive of Africa Policy Institute and former Government Adviser.