US Ambassador to Kenya Meg Whitman during the interview at the embassy in Nairobi on November 15, 2024.
Before us sits a relaxed, reflective, and at times defensive Meg Whitman. It is a Friday morning, two days after the billionaire announced her resignation as the US ambassador to Kenya, and she is looking back at her tenure that has attracted considerable interest.
She is the typical Meg Whitman: a woman of firm handshakes whose vast experience in public life is clear from her handling of even the most uncomfortable questions during the wide-ranging interview.
She had arrived in Kenya a few days before the August 2022 presidential elections won by Dr William Ruto of the Kenya Kwanza Alliance against Azimio la Umoja’s Mr Raila Odinga but months later she was at the centre of a storm for saying the voting, which was unsuccessfully challenged in court, was the freest, fairest and most credible. This prompted Mr Odinga to refer to her as a “rogue ambassador” who should be recalled if she did not shut up. Ms Whitman now thinks her words were “twisted” as she was only referring to the assessment of international observers.
“I didn’t say I thought that. I said it was ‘international observers,’” she says.
It would not be the last controversy Ms Whitman would stir.
During the interview with Nation.Africa, the reflective 68-year-old looks back at her two-year tour of duty in Kenya, which has seen her traverse the length and breadth of the country. She says she has visited 28 counties so far and held engagements with various leaders. So does she have any regrets about accepting President Joe Biden’s unlikely job offer to take up the diplomatic role in Kenya?
“No, not at all,” she says. “It has been a remarkable experience.”
Inevitably, she is forced to go on the defensive following criticism, especially on social media, that she did not speak up soon enough or loud enough at the height of the Gen Z protests that started in June as President Ruto’s administration was accused of violating human rights in its pushback against the largely youthful pro-reforms demonstrators. Her closeness to the President even as complaints about killings, abductions and arbitrary arrest continue has also put the ambassador in the spotlight.
“No embassy here (in Kenya) has done more than we have,” she says. “We do a lot of things in public, but we do a lot of things behind the scenes.”
It is a view many of her critics will not agree with as social media reaction to her resignation showed.
The wide-ranging interview with Nation Africa also touches on the issue of corruption, and she is blunt enough to say Kenya is neck-deep in the vice.
“[It is] a big challenge facing Kenya. There’s no question about it,” she says.
About her departure, she notes that it is standard practice for ambassadors who are political appointees to resign when a new administration is taking over in Washington. The Voice of America wrote in 2017 that it is usual for such to happen. It noted that when President Trump was first elected in 2016, he asked all political appointees in America’s diplomatic corps to resign by the day of his inauguration. Ms Whitman revealed in 2022 that she came to Kenya after being directly contacted by President Biden, who told her about the potential that Africa has because of its young population. Ms Whitman, a prominent corporate leader and politician, was a notable donor in Mr Biden’s 2020 campaign, donating $500,000 (Sh65 million) according to Forbes.
In an exclusive interview she had with us in September 2022, just a few weeks after her arrival and conclusion of a hotly contested election, she was enthusiastic about serving in Kenya. Her focus was on ensuring a conducive environment for American and Kenyan businesses and sorting out the visa mess at the Nairobi embassy that had attracted sustained complaints.
Some of the highlights of her tenure, as contained in her Wednesday resignation statement, include the US elevating Kenya as its first non-Nato ally in Sub-Saharan Africa. She also talks about successes in security, health and business apart from the emergency funding given to Kenya to deal with flooding.
Apart from her involvement in politics—including an unsuccessful attempt to be Governor of California in 2010 as a Republican candidate — Ms Whitman has headed various Silicon Valley investments. She was CEO of Florists’ Transworld Delivery (1995), eBay (1998), Hewlett-Packard (2011), Quibi (2018), among others. On Forbes, her net worth in September 2022 was $3.1 billion (Sh402.7 billion in today’s rates). As at Saturday, her real-time net worth was $3.8 billion (Sh493.6 billion).
As she departs, she is not certain at this stage what will become of the trade negotiations between Kenya and the US that were in the pipeline. One of them involves ongoing bilateral talks on the strategic trade and investment partnership (STIP) that was started by President Trump and President Uhuru Kenyatta in February 2020 but evolved to its current shape when President Biden took over. The other, which is continental, is the renewal of the African Growth and Opportunities Act (Agoa), whose programme is to expire in September 2025.
“I think things may take a slightly different turn, but may well go forward. It’s hard to know about Agoa. A lot of folks in Washington are trying to get Agoa done before the new president [takes over],” she says.
About the bilateral talks with Kenya, she says: “I don’t know whether that will get done by the end of this administration (in January 2025). I think we’ve got nine of 11 chapters done; we’ll see what happens. But in a new administration, that (trade talks) may move back to what it was before the Biden administration.”
Regarding investment by major US companies in Kenya, she says some investors have taken a wait-and-see stance after the protests early this year “so, that probably slowed things down a little bit”.
Below are excerpts from the interview with Nation Africa.
Why did you decide to resign now, rather than wait for the new administration to come in?
Well, as you know, when new presidents and new administrations come in, it’s customary that ambassadors submit their letters of resignation. And so, I decided to do it now because we have three young grandchildren. My husband has a job in the United States, and we need to get back and get settled and the embassy is in very good hands with (Chargé d’Affaires) Marc Dillard.
So, your resignation had nothing to do with the social media pressure and all the criticism?
No. I’ve been in politics a long time, so I understand how this works. And listen, I think (when) you pay attention to social media, you read it, they have legitimate ideas and concerns. But this is much more about the peaceful transfer of power: a new administration and a whole set of new ambassadors.
What would you say have been your achievements in slightly more than two years in Kenya?
First and foremost, I think my number one priority (when I came in in August 2022) was visas, because every Kenyan was saying it was taking two years to get an interview for a visa. That is now down to two months, which is fantastic for a non-immigrant visa. I have a couple of statistics because I asked my team to put these together because I really am quite proud of what they’ve done: 58,000 non-immigrant visa applications will be processed over this year, a 40 per cent increase over pre-Covid, and 10,000 immigrant visas in 2024.
And you know, our job is to facilitate tourism and to facilitate business. And I think we’ve done a good job there. Are we perfect? No. Is it a lot better than it was two years ago? Absolutely.
Number two, I think it’s changing the narrative on Africa and changing the narrative on Kenya. Remember when I came, I said when I was CEO, I spent one per cent of my time thinking about Africa and really didn’t understand the dynamic opportunities here. And that’s true for many businesses in America. I think through ‘Why Africa, Why Kenya?’, the State visit (by President Ruto in May), and the road shows that we went on when we took the President to Silicon Valley, I think the narrative is very much changed on Kenya and frankly the continent as a whole by extension.
The ‘Why Africa, Why Kenya?’ presentation was quite powerful, but also quite divisive. While you were marketing Kenya in a good way, there were those who thought you were whitewashing and sweeping under the carpet real issues affecting Kenyans and the business environment.
The debut of this was in March of 2023 at the American Chamber of Commerce.
I think what has changed a little bit on social media and elsewhere is given the (Gen Z) protests in June of this year, there has been concern about whether or not the American Embassy and I have spoken out as much as we might have. And what I’m going to tell you is no embassy here (in Kenya) has done more than we have. Secretary (of the State Anthony) Blinken has spoken three times to the President (Ruto). We’ve issued two of our own statements as I went around to universities. I’ve been to Kisii University and the (Technical) University of Mombasa and talked about police accountability. I also talked about abductions there— and that there’s much more to do around creating jobs, and creating opportunities for businesses, which will be in turn helpful to the youth. So I think ‘Why Africa Why Kenya’ was exactly right when we did it, and now is a slightly different time given what’s happened since June.
Despite all that, we are struggling to see major American companies make big investments in Kenya. For example, Moderna pulled out at the last minute. Why is that so?
Well, Moderna is, I think, quite a unique case. This was about making one vaccine — the Covid vaccine. And by the time they were ready to break ground here, the demand for Covid vaccines had gone down on the continent, and so it was not a responsible business decision to build a manufacturing facility when there was no demand for the product.
But they’re working on new vaccines, so they may come back when there is a broader opportunity, a broader portfolio of products.
So, which major American companies or investments have come in from your efforts?
Well, Coca-Cola, at the state visit, announced that they were putting a brand new $175 million bottling plant here in Kenya. Microsoft has partnered with G42 to build a one-gigawatt green data centre in Naivasha, which is all powered by geothermal (energy).
And then there are many smaller investments, whether that’s Kantegra or Black Ivy and Victory Farms. A lot of companies have now come to Kenya for the first time or expanded here. Probably the biggest growth area is textiles. Lots of companies do cut-and-sew operations here (in Kenya), but their demand is American companies— Walmart, Target, Levi Strauss, Figs and so on. All of them have come to understand the supply chain opportunities here for apparel, and there’s been roughly 25,000 new jobs that have been created there just in the last 12 months.
But some foreign investors have complained about the corruption and kickback culture in Kenya. Have you not encountered that sort of complaint?
Yes, I’ve been speaking a lot more about corruption in the last four or five months. Corruption is a big challenge facing Kenya, there’s no question about it. But what I tell American companies is that we operate under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which says American companies will not, cannot, and are not allowed to be involved in bribery.
At the very beginning, you tell them, ‘That is how we do business. And if the official or whoever doesn’t want the American company or the investment, then so be it.’ American companies have no tolerance for this kind of behaviour.
But more broadly, Kenya needs to grow its economy much faster and fighting corruption, continuing to improve the business climate and other measures are required. Kenya has got to grow its way out of the debt crisis.
Some of your comments— like the one on the 2022 elections— and your perceived closeness to President Ruto and his administration, haven’t gone down well, especially during the Gen Z protests and the period that followed. There are those who say the American ambassador and the American Embassy in Nairobi didn’t speak out soon enough and loud enough to condemn the killings, abductions and arbitrary arrests. What would you say to that?
Well, no Ambassador, no embassy has done more than the United States Embassy to speak out.
We put out our own statement (in June). Secretary Blinken has called the President (Ruto) three times. We had our Under Secretary for Human Rights come to visit, and she gave a press conference, met with the President, along with me. We’ve been very clear with members of government, Members of Parliament and the President himself about the need for accountability for the 60-odd deaths— which is really, truly horrible — as well as the abductions. And so, I think we’ve been pretty clear about how we feel about this.
(On the election comment) What I actually said is that many international observers and other people, said that [the 2022 election] is the freest, fairest election in Kenyan history. And the reason that’s important is that if you want foreign direct investment to come to Kenya, they need to understand that stability is a part of what Kenya offers. And so, I didn’t say I thought that. I said ‘international observers’. So it’s been twisted a bit and that was turned into a political issue because, of course, the opposition was protesting against the results of the election. But I stand by that statement.
There is the recent statement by the Western missions in Nairobi that the US embassy didn’t sign. Why?
We thought that there was a mixed message in that statement. There was the congratulations part of the message and then a statement on abductions and the killings. We thought that it was not appropriate to have a congratulations [message] paired with, if you will, an admonishment. And other like-minded embassies didn’t sign that particular statement.
On the question about your perceived closeness to President Ruto and his administration, some people think it’s uncomfortable because American ambassadors have traditionally meddled in Kenyan affairs, but in a way considered pro-people, not cosying up to elite politicians. What would you say to that?
I serve at the pleasure of the President of the United States, and my job is to work with duly elected leaders of the countries in which we are assigned. The duly elected leader was President Ruto. So, I have worked with him, I have worked with his Cabinet, and I’ve also worked with many Members of Parliament, and actually even more so with governors.
I’ve probably spent just five or 10 per cent of my time on the government here in Nairobi. I’ve been to 28 counties, met 28 governors, and that has been a really fruitful dialogue because every county is a little different— with different needs, and different opportunities. And so, I spend much more time out in the field than I do here in Nairobi.
Some think you’ve been more focused on the business side and ignored the human rights and governance issues. Is that a fair assessment?
What is a fair assessment is that I spent a lot of time on foreign direct investment and business. One of the root causes, I believe, of the [Gen Z] protests is not enough jobs for young people in Kenya. There’s about a million – you correct me if I’m wrong – but there’s about a million 18-year-olds every single year. And many of them do not get jobs that are befitting of their college or high school education. So, one of the things that I think can be most helpful to Kenya is changing the narrative on Africa, the narrative on Kenya, and bringing more jobs for young Kenyans in particular. That also happens to be my area of expertise, and so that’s important as well.
But since the protests in June, as I said before, we have spoken out quite forcefully around the killings, around the abductions, and when people like Boniface Mwangi are taken, you can imagine behind the scenes, we were at work there. And I think it’s important for Kenyans to understand that we do a lot of things in public, but we do a lot of things behind the scenes as well. And I think that combination of public and private is a very effective combination.
With the abductions going on, does it mean what you’re doing behind the scenes isn’t really working?
Well, we don’t run the country, right? We are a guest in your country. This is a sovereign nation. So, we can give our opinion. We can encourage, but it is up to the Kenyans to decide what this country wants to do. It’s up to the president, it’s up to your new deputy president, your new IG (Inspector General Douglas) Kanja, and they will make the decisions about how they want to handle this. We can give our point of view, but Kenya has to do it.
So, are you saying that the US has no leverage?
Well, we are a guest in your country. We have a long-term 60-year relationship that’s built on trust around health, trade, defence, counter-terrorism and so on. So, I think we’re respected in the country but this is Kenya, run by Kenyans.
What is your assessment of the Ruto administration?
I’d not like to wade into the politics of this. What I take away from my two-and-a-half years in this country, and I am not the first person to say this, is that Kenya has an incredible opportunity to truly be an economic powerhouse on the continent — to really be the Singapore of Africa.
Do you regret taking up this job?
No, not at all. It has been a remarkable experience. I’ve been in business, I’ve run for office [as California governor in 2010], I’ve been a philanthropist, and this has been one of the highlights of my career. It’s been an amazing experience: fun, fascinating, and I’ve learnt a lot and hopefully made a little bit of a difference along the way.
Would you consider coming back to live in Kenya?
Not to settle in Kenya, but I will stay involved in a couple of projects. There’s a couple of conservation projects that I’m very interested in: the Kenya rhino range expansion in Tsavo [and another project in Laikipia]. And then you might have read in the Wall Street Journal about our interest in the Nairobi National Museum and how to help that museum to be the defining museum of the origins of man anywhere. You know, every great city has a great museum. This could be the museum for Nairobi.
What message do you have for Kenyans as you leave?
Just ‘thank you’ to the people of Kenya, the government of Kenya, the business community, the philanthropy community and the civil society. Everyone has been incredibly welcoming and friendly and has been willing to teach me everything I have learnt thus far. So, it’s been a fantastic experience and I’m a big admirer of Kenya.
What next for you?
I don’t know. You know, I’ll get back to the United States, get my husband (Dr Griffith Harsh IV) settled into a new job. We have traded off our jobs over 44 years of marriage, and now it’s his turn. And so, I’ll get him settled in, and then we’ll figure out what I’m going to do next.
