• The Strategic Partnership provides a fantastic platform for the UK’s relationship with Kenya, not just between governments, but between our businesses and our people too.
• Total trade between the UK and Kenya has grown to over £1.4bn. In the first quarter of this year the UK moved up to place as the third largest buyer of Kenyan goods.
Image: COURTESY
Susie Kitchens arrived in Nairobi in August 2017 to take up the position of British Deputy High Commissioner and Permanent Representative to the UN Environment Programme. As she leaves the country, the Star caught up with her to speak on her experience in Kenya and the relations between the two countries.
The Star: This is your second tenure in the EAC region, the first being Tanzania. How has been your experience in the region and in the respective states?
Kitchens: I will forever feel at home in East Africa, having spent 6 years working, raising my children and making life-long friendships here. The extraordinary resources of this beautiful corner of the world contribute to an uplifting sense of optimism, realised through the inspiring hustle culture.
Highlights from my years in Tanzania include the incredible international effort in tackling piracy in the Indian Ocean, government partnerships in channelling the potential of off-shore gas exploration into genuinely inclusive growth potential, and visiting the Zanzibar State House with HRH Prince Charles.
In Kenya, there have been many highlights, but some personal favourites include joining the Pwani and Lake Basin Innovation Weeks, joining Prime Minister Theresa May at the State Dinner hosted by HE President Kenyatta, meeting an actual spacewoman at the UN Environment Assembly, and running in Eldoret city of champions (haven’t met Eliud Kipchoge yet though!)
During your time in Kenya, you’ve been visible a lot in science, tech and innovations, largely through partnerships. Why this field and the partnerships approach?
Science has always been a part of my life. I studied Human Sciences as my undergraduate degree at Oxford University, before a Masters in Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. So it’s a personal passion towards which I have had the pleasure and privilege of dedicating a lot of my professional life in Nairobi.
I have directed much of my time into science, tech and innovation here because I believe this is an indispensable element of our modern partnership – one which looks to the future – with Kenya. It has borne fruit in recent decades; many people do not know but Mpesa was developed with UK seed funding. We have invested KES 13 billion into our science and research partnerships with Kenya over the past 5 years, which is paying dividends during COVID-19. We are supporting the next generation of engineers, innovators and entrepreneurs and have established a UK-Kenya tech hub to collaborate with the burgeoning tech ecosystem.
So I believe there is an exciting future in these partnerships. And it has brought me into contact with some visionary, brilliant, fun Kenyans over the last three years.
Still on partnerships, I understand you were behind the formulation of the UK-Kenya Strategic Partnership plan 2020-25, which was really long overdue. Would you talk to us about how this task and your expectations even as you leave Kenya?
It was very much a team effort, and the culmination of a huge amount of work on the Kenyan and UK sides.
The Strategic Partnership provides a fantastic platform for the UK’s relationship with Kenya, not just between governments, but between our businesses and our people too. We cannot and do not hide from our history, which includes painful episodes, but the signing of the Strategic Partnership by Prime Minister Johnson and President Kenyatta really anchors everything we do in the future. That shared history provides strong foundations, yet what excites me – and what I’ll miss – is the incredible potential this partnership has for the future. The Strategic Partnership allows us to focus our collective expertise, resources and leadership on the priorities that will deliver prosperity, security and sustainable green growth.
My expectations are that the partnership will continue to flourish, bringing together Kenyan and UK capability across the pillars of mutual prosperity; security and stability; sustainable development; climate change; and people to people – we have come a long way and there is much more we can do together.
Your biography shows some extensive background expertise in medicine and public health. How did you transition into economic diplomacy, with a good grasp of two fields? What picture do you draw of post-COVID economy/economic recovery?
My academic studies in public health feel particularly relevant now as the whole world grapples with the COVID19 pandemic. But in fact I have always drawn from these studies: understanding how government policies, social norms and individual motivations interact is fundamental in public health and relevant across so much of diplomacy and economics.
Working through the COVID situation will require responsive government policies that nudge individual behaviours and steer societies to healthier outcomes, whilst promoting economic opportunities and fostering growth potential. No government can predict how this will evolve, so partnerships that enable us to learn and collaborate are more important than ever.
I see a positive future post-COVID, but this is a key moment. We must invest heavily in a greener future, so that both our countries – and societies across the globe – build back better.
We are doing our bit as one of the biggest bilateral development partners in Kenya, supporting the health system, joint research studies, investing in entrepreneurs and businesses, keeping trade flowing, and much more. UK businesses are doing impressive work here too: Unilever with a mass COVID-19 awareness campaign; Kakuzi providing disinfectant equipment to improve hygiene in Muranga County; Waitrose donating KES 10.5 million to support suppliers in Kenya; and so on.
But it is for Kenya to chart its recovery from this crisis, grappling with these challenges like all countries are, and working with friends and partners to build back better.
COVID-19 also struck at a time when the UK was restrategising post-Brexit. What implications will these two developments have on UK-Kenya trade?
Total trade between the UK and Kenya has grown to over £1.4bn. In the first quarter of this year the UK moved up to place as the third largest buyer of Kenyan goods.
COVID-19 has been a huge challenge for global trade, exacerbated by the closure of airspace. But we have worked hard to keep cargo flights going, including for high value horticulture which has helped to protect Kenyan jobs and income, and kept UK supermarket shelves stocked.
Post-Brexit, we are working equally hard to ensure Kenya retains its duty free, quota free access to the UK market. A smooth transition to ensure this continuity, and guard against trade disruption, is a high priority in our relationship with Kenya.
UK businesses are renowned for quality, integrity and reliability: these are firm foundations for our future trading relations with Kenya.