The scene where 28 people were killed by Al-Shabaab gunmen in Mandera on November 22, 2014. PHOTO | MANASE OTSIALO |
NATION MEDIA GROUP
On December 5, the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecution withdrew charges against President Uhuru Kenyatta.
This will go down in history as the most significant date in Kenya’s foreign policy this year.
But this landmark decision has not had a seismic impact on Kenya’s
resolutely Africa-centred and assertive foreign policy ideologically
undergirded by a strong nationalist and pan-African orientation.
The
December 5 decision was long coming. And after his acquittal, he vowed
to fight for his Deputy William Ruto and radio presenter Joshua Sang’,
who are still facing charges.
“As they say, one case down, two more to go,” said Mr Kenyatta on Twitter.
Regionally,
Uhuru’s message was echoed by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who
criticised the ICC for continuing with Ruto’s case despite an African
Union (AU) resolution that no sitting African Head of State or deputy
should be tried at the court.
THAWING RELATIONS
“I
will bring a motion to the African Union’s next session… I want all of
us to get out of that court of the West. Let them [Westerners] stay with
their court,” said the Ugandan leader.
With this, the ICC is poised to continue being a critical pivot of Kenya’s foreign policy into 2015 and beyond.
The
dropping of the case also marks the end of the ‘wait-and-see’ diplomacy
that major Western powers adopted after the 2013 election.
But the thawing of the frosty relations between Kenyan and major Western powers started months before the ICC case collapsed.
On
August 4-5, Uhuru was one of the guests of President Barack Obama in
Washington where he attended the US-Africa Leadership Summit. He and
Obama met for the second time on September 25, 2014 on the sidelines of
the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
The
Kenya-United Nations relations also improved dramatically. Between
October 29 and November 1, Uhuru hosted the UN Secretary General, Ban
Ki-moon, at State House, Nairobi.
Earlier on, Nairobi
had accused the UN Security Council of not taking Africa seriously
enough and humiliating the continent after the world’s most powerful
body turned down Kenya’s request for the deferral of the ICC cases in
2011 and in November 2013, voted down an African Union resolution
calling for the termination of the cases.
The Westgate
Mall attack on September 22-24, 2013, which claimed 67 lives,
highlighted the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Shabaab group in Somalia as a
mortal threat to Kenya and turned counter-terrorism and
de-radicalisation into core foreign policy issues.
However,
Al-Shabaab has benefited greatly from elite polarisation in Kenya,
which has prevented the emergence of a common approach to counter
terrorism.
Further, although Kenya has always been
perceived by the West as a partner in the war on terror, major Western
powers have not been fully comfortable with the incursion of the Kenyan
Defence Forces (KDF) into Somalia in October 2011 and its continued
presence in the country as part of the African Union Mission in Somalia
(Amisom).
From early 2014, Western powers seemingly
gave a tacit nod to a high-pitched opposition “security campaign” which
has reinforced internal elite political polarisation and emboldened
Al-Shabaab allies and cells in Kenya.
The opposition’s
campaign has mounted pressure on the government to pull out KDF troops
from Somalia, blaming its presence to escalating terrorist attacks on
the Kenyan soil.
Raila insists that the decision to
extend “Operation Linda Nchi” to the capture of Kismayo, the Somali
coastal town then under the control of Al-Shabaab, was not part of the
initial plans; neither was the decision to incorporate the Kenyan
military into the Africa Union Mission in Somalia.
Al-Shabaab
sympathisers have played on the growing insecurity relating to
terrorist attacks to force the government to kowtow to a softer
approach.
DIPLOMATIC ROW
Sadly,
travel advisories issued by Western countries have helped to highlight
and ‘internationalise’ Kenya’s insecurity, opening a new area of
diplomatic dispute.
A new diplomatic row with the West
over the new Security Laws (Amendment) Act 2014 is now shifting the
pivot of foreign policy from security to human rights.
On
December 23, the US issued a statement expressing “disappointed by the
very limited time allowed for debate and consultation on the Bill.
Frosty relation with the West has given China a firm toehold in Kenya,
bolstering the country’s “Look-East” policy.
Chinese
Premier Li Keqiang and his wife Cheng Hong made a high-profile visit to
Kenya on May 9 after President Kenyatta’s State visit to China.
Kenya has signed deals worth billions of shillings with China.
It is also our second-largest trade partner, with bilateral trade reaching Sh3.3 billion.
China
threw its weight behind termination of cases at the IVCC. But China is
yet to replace the West as Kenya’s main export market and security
partner.
Professor Peter Kagwanja is the Chief Executive of the Africa Policy Institute and former Government Adviser. pkagwanja@gmail.com
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