Time for Jubilee to tell the world its agenda

Concluding his article in a local Saturday paper on June 6, 'Why Kenya's Regional Powerhouse Status is under Serious Threat', Karuti Kanyinga stated that the energies required of the Jubilee Administration for regional leadership are being consumed by an inconsistency of development action and institutional corruption.

I see his viewpoint as an assertion on governance challenges rather than failures in external relations. May I point out that I do not hold brief to or for the administration. This is because without such a disclaimer, political affiliations have increasingly become a touchy subject in this country.

Nonetheless, I am pricked by incessant analysis of foreign policy based solely on the political issues of the day at the expense of other considerations such as overall statecraft. Focusing on incidents alone without reference to the widely available Kenyan Foreign Policy or the Draft International Trade Policy not only stifles perspectives in public discussions, but also scholarship in general.

Essentially, our analysis is buried deep in the issues concerning proceedings or controversy surrounding the International Criminal Court (ICC) cases, internal insecurity or otherwise and regional dispute resolution as is the situation in South Sudan or Burundi.

This is at the expense of expounding Kenya's general interest in the world. The question of Kenyan leadership cannot be addressed from the point of economic dominance or 'branding' as premised by Prof Kanyinga. This is because these are the very elements that breed suspicion from our neighbours whenever presented as Kenya's point of engagement. Kenya has to acknowledge that its relationships are interdependent in order not to convey hubris. Whatever leadership Kenya exudes must be on the merits of our pragmatic traditions.

That means actively participating in emerging issues and attaining necessary alliances for the good of the republic. In that sense it is only by exemplary actions or results in our pursuit of prosperity and progress, rather than common 'feel-good' nationalistic sentiments that toy with notions of hegemony, that the country becomes Primus inter pares - first among equals.

Kenya's attainment of any prominence should therefore be earned out of respect and the camaraderie of similar achievements with international friends to ensure coexistence. This is to be done while maintaining the standing of our citizenry, territory and government throughout the world. In that sense, the country's responsibilities demand an enhancement of trade, pursuit of growth and achievement of development as an ultimate stepping stone of African continental unity.

The current administration has pronounced itself on this quite clearly from its manifesto and speeches by the President, his deputy and Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary. However, while glaring challenges in some of these elements may reduce the standing of the country as pointed out by Prof Kanyinga, Government statecraft continually projects the country as a pragmatic republic.

In that sense, the mostly misunderstood character of neutralism is for the sake of national and regional unity. This spurs functional integration, while spilling over into peace beyond our geopolitical sphere of influence. However, a gap is felt whenever our domestic failings are compared against perceptions of successes by our neighbours. This results in a dearth of projection that leads to intellectual neglect of ongoing statecraft.

For instance beyond rumour and innuendo, our pundits have not informed the public as to what could have been the strategic value of President Uhuru Kenyatta's decision to continue negotiations on the Central Africa Republic (CAR) peace process during the period of the Garissa attack. Neither has anyone spoken to the ramifications of the reports in The East African that President Pierre Nkurunziza only takes President Uhuru Kenyatta's phone calls. Nor is anyone among our public intellectuals expounding on the importance of South Africa's apology to the continent by Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa. Especially at an event celebrating Madaraka!

Yet the Jubilee administration has now arrived at the point where it must provide a doctrine on how it wants to present itself to the world. This is considering the administration is the ultimate custodian of our external relations. By hosting the Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES), of which President Barrack Obama will be in attendance, the administration can begin to categorically outline the country's global outlook especially in relation to trade.

Also the hosting of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) ministerial conference later in the year would offer an opportunity to expound Kenyan external relations principles, policy, actions and strategy in terms of alliances, programmes or decision making. For instance, such an interpretation could expound precisely what Kenya means by its commitment to trade multilateralism. Such explanations should properly locate us within the competitive global order, especially within the context of our consolidation of developing institutions under the new constitutional dispensation.

My point of departure from the good Professor is to look beyond the country as represented by the administration or the current challenges faced by its citizenry. More specifically it takes the broader examination of the State in which government serves as its greatest instrument while the administration serves as chief operator of this machinery. This is because such an approach goes beyond thinking of matters solely as an issue of leadership.