President Uhuru Kenyatta draws up his list of nominees for ambassadorial and other diplomatic postings, attention is now keenly focused on the most strategic diplomatic stations which include Washington, Beijing, Abuja and the East African Community states.
Washington is on top of the pack with analysts saying that a new form of diplomacy in the US capital is critical for Kenya.
Despite all the talk about China’s role in Kenya’s economic growth, the United States remains the only super power and a key ally which no right-thinking government can afford to take casually.
According to data from the US Department of Commerce, Kenya is still among the top beneficiaries of trade between the United States and sub-Saharan Africa countries. However, although all seems to be well, several factors have had an adverse effect on the Kenya-US diplomatic relations.
Since the 2008 post-election violence, the US perception of Kenya has changed dramatically and the country’s image in Washington needs some sprucing up if any tangible results are to be expected through diplomacy.
The American system of government functions differently from that of many other countries. Kenya’s Foreign ministry must be cognisant of a commonly overlooked fact that, odd as it may seem, the US system recognises lobbyists more than ambassadors.
In Washington, many foreign governments regularly retain lobbyists, public relations experts and other organisations to represent their interests. Often, this representation is additional to any diplomatic presence such governments maintain in the US.
In some cases, it is the diplomatic mission of a country to Washington D.C. that hires lobbying firms to work on behalf of their government. Perhaps that explains why a country like Tanzania, which hitherto was never high on the list of official US relationships in Africa, is now dining at the high table with President Barack Obama.
It may also offer insight as to why Mr Obama found time to host Zimbabwe’s Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai at the White House and not a Kenyan Prime Minister or President for that matter.
According to a retired US government official, the Kenyatta administration must play its cards right to restore the country’s image.
Speaking to the Nation from Washington DC, Ms Daryll Dalley, a former Charge d’Affaires at the African desk, said that Kenya needed to deploy a combination of a seasoned envoy and masterful lobbyists. This can partly be achieved by tapping an official who is pragmatic and understands the workings at the US capital.
“The United States is vast and complex and is no place for a greenhorn. A strong envoy who knows the corridors of Washington would be the right choice for the job,” she added.
Whereas the former envoy to Washington, Mr Elkanah Odembo, is credited with, among other things, encouraging key American companies like General Electric and International Business Machines to set up shop and expand their operations in Kenya, his critics have claimed he only represented one wing of the grand coalition. He has, however, denied the claim.
The workings of the grand coalition made it extremely difficult for any envoy to push Kenya’s agenda in Washington. Mr Odembo recently admitted that his stint in Washington was marked by challenges occasioned by jostling in the government.
In a phone interview with the Nation, Mr Odembo said he could have achieved more had the two principals spoken with one voice from the onset. “It was awkward for me to represent divergent positions as the two principals pulled in different directions,” he said.
The ICC saga has not helped matters either.
Since independence, the embassy in Washington D.C. has had 11 occupants, the first having been Mr Burudi Nabwera, who was posted soon after the US established its embassy in Nairobi in 1963.
It is considered one of the plumiest civil service appointments and has often generated a lot of heat as politicians and other stakeholders jostle over who should be Kenya’s flag-bearer in Washington.
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