What is the newfound love of the United States of America towards Kenya? This is a question on the lips of many experts in Kenya and, indeed, the wider Africa region as US President Joe Biden dangled carrots to entice his Kenyan counterpart during the latter’s just ended four-day state visit.
The much hyped fact that Ruto’s state visit to the US is the first for an African leader in 16 years was aimed at showing other African leaders to play ball in order to be accorded such a rare privilege. But truth be told, the US has been facing it rather rough in Africa over the last couple of decades and is playing catch up with other major powers.
US and Kenya have had a love-hate relationship for more than three decades after the superpower arm twisted the late former president Daniel Moi to allow multi party politics. As the US plays hard to get, countries like China and Russia have benefited from an open door policy with Africa, gradually entrenching both their diplomatic and economic interests in the continent.
The wise warn that when the deal is too good, think twice. Even as President Ruto disembarks from the US laden with bagfuls of promised goodies, questions linger whether this time the pies in the sky will concretize into real projects.
Over the years, many projects promised by the West have been non-starters, which is the main reason that former President the late Mwai Kibaki adopted the Look East policy to save the country the frustrations from Western development partners.
A Gallup report published in April showed that Washington’s approval ratings – which indicates a country’s soft power – slipped from 59 percent in 2022 to 56 percent in 2023, while China’s approval ratings rose from 52 percent to 58 percent over the same period. The report stated that the US was the only global power – including China, Russia and Germany – to lose its soft power across Africa in 2023.
This is the background against which Ruto was invited for the state visit. Kenya is an important partner in the East African region for any global power and a vacuum is bound to be filled swiftly by another better prepared partner. It is this position that the US is desperate to reclaim, which observers say has now been occupied by China.
Ruto has landed back in Nairobi with bagfuls of promised goodies in various sectors including education, health, democracy, security, trade and infrastructure worth at least $4.6 billion. Like similar lofty promises previously made by the US, Kenyans hope that these new ones will materialize and are not simply a ploy to divert the country’s attention from the gains made so far with China’s practical partnership.
In March, the US State Department requested $4 billion in the 2025 fiscal year to outcompete China. During a news briefing, Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources Rich Verma told a news briefing that the US must resort to "all the tools at our disposal" to counter China’s growing geopolitical influence.
On May 14, the White House published a document titled,” FACT SHEET: President Biden Takes Action to Protect American Workers and Businesses from China’s Unfair Trade Practices”, where it stated covertly that “China’s unfair trade practices concerning technology transfer, intellectual property, and innovation are threatening American businesses and workers.”
