The 60-year partnership between the US and Kenya was recently celebrated, with a focus on the breadth of the relationship across education, the digital and creative economies, and people-to-people ties.
Recently, the African Centre for the Study of USA (ACSUS) based at the Institute of Diplomacy and International Studies, (IDIS), University of Nairobi, under the able leadership of Dr Winnie Rugutt, in coordination with the USA Embassy in Nairobi and the Ministry of Foreign and Diaspora Affairs, organised a day-long celebration and commemoration of the 60 Years of US-Kenya Bilateral relations and Partnership, with the befitting overriding theme of ‘Reflecting on the Past, Inspiring the Future’.
The ceremony, which marked the culmination of a series of earlier seminars on diverse themes, was held at the Manu Chandaria Auditorium, University of Nairobi Towers.
It brought together not only representatives of the two friendly governments but also a wide range of Kenyan groups and individual beneficiaries of US support programs.
These included recipients of academic and educational scholarships, endowment funds and foundations, representatives from fintech, non-profit organisations, the digital and creative arts, justice and human rights, gender advocacy, and climate change activism.
Several university scholars and students, particularly from the IDIS, were also in attendance. The conference highlighted the breadth and depth of the US–Kenya shared values and partnerships over the past 60 years, extending well beyond official government-to-government relations, security cooperation, and trade and investment portfolios.
Discussions underscored key thematic areas such as the digital economy, the creative economy, and diaspora connections, as well as education exchanges, community-based support programs, and people-to-people ties.
The programme further emphasised the importance of socio-cultural networks that continue to enrich and strengthen the US–Kenya partnership. It is noteworthy that there are 4,500 Kenyan students in the US, Kenya being the third source for African students in the US, and over 8,000 registered Alumni today.
This write up should therefore be read within the context of celebrating the six decades of US-Kenya partnership, and as a critical overview and appreciation of the intriguing and intricate aspects of that partnership over the period.
An attempt to project how both the US and Kenya partnership will probably look like in the next 60 years is made, taking into cognisance the complexities, diverse and conflicting interests, and the dynamic, fast- evolving nature of the globalised world today.
How will the ‘partnership’ navigate and continue to ‘band-wagon’ together in this emerging international system, which some scholars have already unequivocally declared to be ‘multipolar’ with its attendant implications.
First, it is important to recall that the US-Kenya bilateral relations began in earnest in 1964 when Kenya had just attained its Independence. Globally, it was birthed during the peak of the Cold War.
The “Cuban Missile Crisis” of 1962, which had pushed the world closest to a nuclear “Armageddon” between the then two super powers, the US and the USSR had just been averted and resolved. In Africa, the waves of decolonisation were strongly blowing away European colonial powers, with more colonies gaining their juridical Independence.
Mountain-climber Kisoi Munyao, hoists Kenya’s flag on top of Mount Kenya, on Independence Day, December 12, 1963.
In Kenya, the struggle for Independence was long and arduous and had been waged against the oppressive British colonial government under the auspices and leadership of both the Mau Mau combatants and the nationalist freedom fighters.
And herein lay the first test for the future of the US-Kenya bilateral relations and partnership, because both the US and the Soviets were eyeing independent Kenya as an important ‘strategic regional ally’ which would be critical for their grand foreign policy schemes.
The US, for instance, had identified Kenya as a strategic country which would be critical in advancing its foreign policy of “containment” in the Eastern Africa region, which was increasingly sympathetic and turning towards the Soviet Bloc and Mao’s China.
On the other hand, in pursuit of its foreign policy of establishing “buffer-zones” and “encirclement” of pockets of imperialism in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, the USSR was actively involved in seeking influence and allies in Eastern Africa.
President Daniel Moi (left) bids farewell to President Nyerere of Tanzania at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.
And not long thereafter, Tanzania under Mwalimu Nyerere, Uganda under Milton Obote and Somalia under Siad Barre, all of whom had manifested strong inclinations towards the conceptual ‘East’, eventually espoused socialist orientations in their national public policy priorities, with Tanzania declaring its socialist path to development Ujamaa policy in 1967, while Uganda called its socialist version, the Common Man’s Charter.
And, in Kenya itself, the Cold War era political machinations and counter-efforts were evidently fierce, brutal and tragic. The newly formed Independence government, its Cabinet and the National Assembly, were almost split down the middle on ideological lines, with President Mzee Jomo Kenyatta and his core team leaning towards the West — read US and UK — while his vice president and later-in the-day political nemesis, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, openly embracing the Soviets and the Chinese.
Pio Pinto Gama, Jaramogi’s ally with socialist leanings, assassinated in 1965, was perhaps the first tragic casualty of the internal intrigues fuelled by the Cold War phenomenon within the Kenyan political “seesaw” game.
The flamboyant, articulate, President John F Kennedy-backed and popular in the US media, Tom Mboya, was another victim assassinated in July 1969. But not before he wittingly and successfully orchestrated the “clipping of the wings” of then Vice-President Odinga at the now historically famous “Limuru One” during the Kanu Delegates Conference, where Jaramogi, as the vice-chair, and all his lieutenants were shoved out of their positions in the ruling party Kanu.
Eventually, however, the pro-West clique of the political elite under Mzee Kenyatta won the political battle and consolidated power and influence with the full support of the various successive US and UK administrations.
