Kenya has contracted American lobbying firm Continental Strategy PLLC to engage US policy makers.
Documents seen by Daily Nation show that Continental Strategy CEO Carlos Trujillo has filed the contract with the US Foreign Agents Registration Act (Fara). Mr Trujillo formalised the deal on August 6, 2025.
According to the Fara rules, individuals engaging in lobbying must disclose this on the US Department of Justice’s website. The filing shows Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Sing’oei Korir as the principal signatory on behalf of the Kenyan government.
The first quarter of the Trump administration has led to an explosion of lobbying, with states requiring support to navigate the administration’s stream of policy pronouncements and contradictions.
Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Korir Sing’oei.
Photo credit: File | Nation media Group
Continental Strategy has risen meteorically over the past two years due to its CEO’s proximity to the Trump administration.
According to Senate Lobbying Disclosure Data, Continental Strategy reported $6.5 million in lobbying revenues in the first quarter of 2025. This made it the 15th biggest firm by lobbying revenue.
Continental Strategy is domiciled in Florida (Trump’s home state) and has offices on K-Street in Washington DC. It was founded in 2022 by Mr Trujillo, a former ambassador and Florida State Representative and lawyers John Arrastia Jr, Anne Corcoran and Carlos Ignacio Suarez.
Mr Trujillo was an adviser to President Trump and a chief communicator for his 2024 campaign to attract the Latino vote to the Republican candidate.
He has been Trump’s envoy to the Organization of American States (OAS) and remains well connected within the circles of the Cuban-American community in Florida and among the bigwigs in the Republican Party.
When Trump won the presidency in 2024, many Floridian Republicans, including current Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Susie Wiles, Trump’s Florida political consultant, lobbied for a position for Mr Trujillo in the new Administration. Trujillo opted to remain at Continental Strategy.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Photo credit: Reuters
Managing partner Alberto Martinez was chief of staff to Rubio as senator, while partner Alex Garcia was the deputy political director for battleground states in the Trump 2024 campaign.
Katie Wiles, the daughter of Trump chief of staff Susie Wiles, is also a partner at Continental Strategy.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Jim Risch stated on his X handle that “Kenya plays a vital role in regional counter-terrorism and stability. But, as our newest Major Non-Nato Ally , Kenya's ties with China are troubling. Widened diplomacy with America’s greatest competitor is not an alliance – it’s a risk for the US to assess.”
President Ruto had stated that Kenya and China were not just trade partners, but co-architects of a new world order.
While getting closer to China, the Ruto administration also wants to keep the advantages it gained during the Biden Administration - when Kenya was the darling of Washington on the African continent. Contracting Continental Strategy is a step in this direction.
Continental Strategy will be tasked with negotiating a smooth landing for Kenya on tariffs as the African Growth Opportunity Act (Agoa) comes to an end next month, defending the Ruto administration amid human rights violation allegations, including extrajudicial killings, abductions, torture and repression of Gen Z protesters. Congress is already investigating the same.
Nairobi will be looking to have Kenyan policemen there get sufficient funding to complete their mission, even as the US looks to increase the multilateral regional involvement in Haiti via the OAS.
Kenya wants to avoid being in Trump’s bad books like South Africa, which has come under significant duress over alleged claims of genocide towards its white population, its alignment with BRICS and its suing of Israel at the International Criminal Court for its Gaza campaign.
The latest sanction from the Trump Administration has been to remove South Africa from the SWIFT system, a critical network for settling international financial transactions.
Lobbying contracts don’t come cheap. Similar deals by other lobbying firms run at about $2.1 million annually.
Back in 2015, the Kenya government agreed to pay another Trump-linked firm, Squire Patton Boggs $135,000 for a three-month campaign directed at the State Department.
In 2017, lobbying firm SPG executive chairman Robert Stryk and David Gacheru, deputy head of mission at the Kenyan embassy in Washington, signed a lobbying deal for Kenya to stay on Agoa. Kenya paid the firm $1.2 million for a full year of representation.
Time will tell if the latest lobbying efforts will be worth the cost. Johanna Leblanc, a Washington-based consultant, lawyer and lobbyist, said that “America First is relentless and uncompromising, even close US allies like Canada are struggling.
Unless President Ruto is willing to alter his relationship with China, Iran and other US adversaries, no policy change will come on the US side.”
