President William Ruto appears to be following in Second President Daniel Moi’s foreign policy footsteps with focus on regional peace, security and stability as well as peace keeping initiative.
President Ruto’s Annual Address to Heads of Mission and International Organisations at State House, Nairobi, heavily focussed on his interventions in peace and stability in the region, with particular focus on the DRC crisis.
The President said among the issues Kenya will prioritise in its engagement with diplomatic partners and international organisations is global peace and security alongside intra-African ties and economic diplomacy.
“Our approach to regional peace and security and prosperity is anchored in the belief that unity and integration are essential to unlock the full potential of East Africa, Africa and beyond.
“This commitment is reflected in our leadership withing regional organisations such as the EAC, IGAD and the AU,” the President told the diplomatic corps.
He said as the current EAC chair, Kenya is dedicated to advancing the community’s objectives by building on past achievements in strengthening intra-regional trade given its “immense potential” for growth and creating opportunities for jobs and enterprise.
He, however, noted Kenya is focussed on addressing security challenges withing the community.
“Beyond East Africa and the EAC, Kenya remains an active member of the AU, playing a key role in peacebuilding across the continent,” he said.
The President further noted that under his role as the champion for AU reforms, he hosted a retreat for AU heads of state and government on the subject, seeking to put in place steps to ensure the AU is better placed to address conflict resolution
Further, the President said, peace and security remains central to Kenya’s vision for a stable and prosperous region.
“Over the years, we have played a key role in mediating conflicts and addressing some of the most complex security challenges in our region. Kenya remains a reliable partner in regional and international peace and security efforts,” the President said.
RUTO PEACE EFFORTS
He delved into his efforts as the co-chairperson of the EAC-SADC joint summit on the DRC crisis, which he proposed as the EAC chairperson at the 24 extraordinary summit.
He has called for the cessation of hostilities and merger of Nairobi and Luanda processes to avoid overlapping mandates and to fruitfully solve the conflict diplomatically.
Ruto further highlighted his mediation efforts in South Sudan through the Tumaini Initiative, which he noted might conclude in a month or two, as well as in post- African Union Transition Mission in Somalia arrangements.
Ruto said he believes Sudan will be the next frontier in regional peace efforts following his meeting in July with Foreign Minister Ali al-Sadiq Youssif and discussed the “terrible situation in Sudan”.
Beyond Africa,Ruto said, Kenya is also contributing to global security through the Multi-National Security Support Initiative in Haiti, “demonstrating Kenya’s commitment to pan-African solidarity wherever it is needed”.
Following the outbreak of the Sudan war in April 2023, President Ruto was picked as the lead mediator of the IGAD Quartet alongside the leaders of South Sudan, Ethiopia and Djibouti.
However, Sudan military leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan rejected Ruto as the mediator, accusing him of harbouring Rapid Support Forces commanders in Nairobi, an accusation the Kenyan leader denied.
MOI PEACE EFFORTS
Ruto’s peace efforts in the region and prioritisation as a foreign policy objective reflect the stance taken by President Moi.
Moi was heavily involved in the Sudan and Somalia peace processes, with various mediation talks being hosted in Kenya during his administration.
Moi was instrumental in the striking of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement and later the birth of South Sudan.
He was also involved in the Uganda peace process in 1985, brokering a peace deal between President Milton Obote and Yoweri Museveni, marking one of the first instances of mediation by a neighbour in a civil conflict, popularizing the practice of African solutions to African problems.
“Moi’s mediation changed the rules of non-intervention that had guided the approach of the Organization of African Unity in domestic conflicts of states. It marked In reconciling Okello and Museveni,Moi invoked Uganda’s importance to the stability of East Africa and Kenya’s strategic interests in a peaceful solution,” Gilbert Khadiagala, Professor of International Relations, notes in his piece, Mediation efforts in Africa’s Great Lakes Region.
Just like Ruto is doing, Prof Khadiagala notes that Moi mobilized the stature of his office to provide leadership to the fractious and contentious Nairobi negotiations that began in September and ended in December 1985.
“Although Kenya’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs organized some of the sessions, the Nairobi talks largely bore Moi’s presidential imprint. The Kenyan media portrayed Moi’s mediation in Uganda as an opportunity to demonstrate statesmanship and pan-Africanist ideals,” he notes.
In DRC’s case — then Zaire — just like Ruto today, Moi in 1997 called on the Banyamulenge rebels to observe an immediate cease-fire and withdraw from the frontline to enable intensified diplomatic efforts to achieve lasting peace.
President Moi had been named chairman of trio composed of presidents Nelson Mandela and Paul Biya mandated to seek a solution to the conflict in eastern Zaire and the Great Lakes Region at a regional summit in Nairobi on December 16, 1996.
Despite being unpopular domestically as he retired in 2002, Moi had solidified regional peace and stability as a foreign policy agenda through his regime.
When Kibaki succeeded Moi, his foreign policy priority was economic diplomacy and infrastructure development. It is through this that he oriented towards the East through the Look East Foreign Policy to enhance trade and development cooperation with China.
While it is under Kibaki that Kenyan troops got into Somalia to defend itself from Al Shabaab terror threat — invoking Article 51 of the UN Charter — and continued the peace processes in South Sudan, the economy agenda was higher up on the list.
The Uhuru administration continued the infrastructure diplomacy and economic tries with international partners and prioritised multilateralism in foreign policy engagements.
It is under Uhuru that trade and infrastructure ties with China intensified, and with it the construction of the standard gauge railway, the Nairobi Expressway, Lamu port, Nairobi bypasses and other roads across Kenya.
