Plot is thickening for non-career diplomats who will be seeking diplomatic jobs in future as stakeholders call for strengthening and introduction of stringent vetting mechanisms before handing such persons the coveted jobs.
Competency, integrity, merit, mandatory training on basic foreign relations etiquettes, foreign policy research and language and diplomacy awaits politicians who will be appointed to such jobs if MPs adopt various proposals made by stakeholders.
Led by Association of Former and Retired Ambassadors (AFRA), stakeholders have warned that reliance on patronage political appointments have led to the erosion of proper articulation of Kenya’s foreign policy in many countries.
The stakeholders who appeared before the National Assembly committee on Defence, Intelligence and Foreign Relations over the Foreign Service (Amendment) Bill, 2026 said the open-ended system where politicians with no diplomatic experience should be urgently addressed in order to protect Kenya’s foreign policy.
National Assembly building in Nairobi.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
The committee is currently undertaking public participation on the Bill which seeks strengthening professionalism and merit-based practice in Kenya’s diplomatic representation,”
Sponsored by Mwingi West MP Charles Nguna, the Bill seeks to amend section 20 of the Foreign Service Act in order to ensure that career diplomats get 70 per cent of positions in Kenya’s foreign missions while only 30 per cent is reserved for non-career diplomats.
The Bill also provides that the office of the High Commissioner, ambassador, diplomatic or consular representative shall be a State office in line with Article 260 of the constitution.
The former diplomats regretted that historical reliance on unpredictable patronage-based appointments has structurally undermined Kenya’s foreign policy implementation.
“A nation’s foreign policy represents its primary shield and sword in an increasingly volatile global environment. Codifying a legal limit balances legitimate executive political prerogatives with the imperative of merit-oriented institutional continuity,” the diplomats told the committee.
The former diplomats told the Nelson Koech led committee that political appointees lack functional training, resulting in longer orientation, frequent protocol errors and missteps that risk impairing strategic bilateral ties.
“Unregulated political allocation frequently converts overseas missions into dumping grounds for unvetted political actors leading to systematic institutional decay,” the diplomats said.
The diplomats want MPs to tighten the law to specify that a career diplomat must have at least 15 years of continuous service as a foreign service officer and has attained at least the rank of a minister Counselor.
“The law must explicitly state that the 30 percent allocation is not an open avenue for political patronage. All non-career nominees must continue to undergo rigorous vetting by parliament to verify demonstrable, exceptional expertise in international economics, corporate trade or international law,” the diplomats told the committee.
The International Relations Society of Kenya (IRSK) also called on the committee to ensure that the Foreign Service Academy plays an important role in training, leadership development, negotiation, economic diplomacy, foreign policy research and language proficiency for the politicians who will be appointed for diplomatic jobs.
The Society noted that effectiveness in advancing Kenya’s foreign policy heavily depends on the competence, experience, integrity and institutional continuity of those entrusted with diplomatic appointments.
“Professionalising diplomatic appointments is therefore a legitimate and important legislative objective,” the society told MPs.
If the Bill is enacted, Kenya will join other countries such as the United States, United Kingdom, Ghana, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Nigeria, Egypt, Singapore that have a structured formulae and balance on the allocation of diplomatic jobs.
In the United States for instance, the ratio is 70:30, where 70 percent of those appointed must be career diplomats while only 30 percent are drawn from the political class, United Kingdom (95:5), Ghana, Ethiopia, Tanzania also operate with the 70:30 ratio.
In Egypt, 98 percent of those appointed are career diplomats while only two percent are from the political class while Nigeria operates with the 65:35 formula.
Currently, Kenya’s Foreign Service Act has no parameters on the appointment of non-career appointees. Due to this lacuna, ambassadorial roles have become a dumping ground for political rejects.
Due to this, most politicians rejected at the ballot have over the years been given these jobs as soft landing grounds by the government of the day.
Some of these politicians don’t understand diplomacy and the country has ended up with persons who cannot articulate their foreign policy.
However, the new proposals if adopted by the House and assented into law by the President will offer a significant shift to this trend.
