Why Kenya avoided US visa restrictions

Professor Peter Kagwanja during an interview at Spice FM on January 23, 2026.

Kenya’s strategic position may have helped it avoid the recent visa restrictions imposed by the United States, governance experts now say.

Professors Peter Kagwanja and Alfred Omenya argue that Kenya’s continued exemption will depend on diplomatic maturity and political intelligence by the current administration as it navigates competing global interests.

Kagwanja, appearing on Spice FM on Friday, January 23, said Kenya is not inherently different from other African countries but benefits from its geopolitical importance.

“Kenya is beginning to become the commercial capital of Africa; perhaps it is beginning to become more important than Johannesburg,” he averred, noting that the country hosts United Nations offices as well as U.S. and British military bases, with France also seeking to establish a presence.

He added that Kenya’s growing economic influence has elevated its standing.

The governance expert also praised the East African country’s ability to maintain relations with both Western and Eastern powers, saying balancing the two blocs is not easy.

“What President Trump is basically trying to do is to champion American interests. The US has one of the largest embassies in Kenya serving much of the continent,” adding that Kenya was key to help US maintain its influence on the Indo-Pacific region.

Omenya, on the other hand, said Western countries are wary of a united Africa because of the continent’s collective voting power, which spans 54 nations.

“So far, Kenya has played its cards relatively well so that you can go to Trump and discuss Rwanda, and on the other side, you can sign agreements with China,” he said.

He however, warned that such positioning requires a clear focus on national interest and a high level of political intelligence. “Some decisions benefit the country, while others work against it,” he said.

Peter Kagwanja: Venezuela is said to hold about 30% of the world’s petroleum capacity. At its core, this is about resources. Trump appears to be championing a return to a 19th-century approach, which is essentially colonialism, and that is where the danger lies.#TheSituationRoom… pic.twitter.com/yEKFrJbXW8 — SpiceFM (@SpiceFMKE) January 23, 2026

Currency

On Kenya’s currency and global economic shifts, Kagwanja said the push against dollar dominance was inevitable, arguing that the US dollar relies heavily on external wealth to sustain its value.

“The zero dollarisation is a legitimate call for currencies to reflect the strength of their economies, and no currency is supposed to represent the whole world.”

He traced resistance to dollar dominance to Europe’s adoption of the euro, which he said has, at times, been stronger than the US dollar.

Kagwanja also said US foreign policy actions, including its approach to Venezuela and threats toward Iran and Greenland, reflect a broader shift away from multilateralism that began with Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.

He argued that the United States has historically justified military interventions through claims of collective security, democracy, and human rights, but is now retreating from that framework.

“America was the policeman of that order, and now it has exited by going to Venezuela, threatening Panama, Greenland, Iran, and many other countries in the world at a time when it is not the only global power.”

Omenya described Trump’s actions as potentially temporary but warned they could signal deeper shifts within the United Nations system. He cited US involvement in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, noting that while Washington is not bound by some resolutions, it remains one of the largest contributors and influences the direction of multilateral institutions.

“The current UN multilateral space is not one of equals,” said Omenya. “It is not an equitable space.”

Recent US withdrawals from UN bodies should prompt countries to reassess how global institutions operate and how gaps left by powerful states can be addressed, he added.

Last week, the Trump administration suspended the processing of immigrant visas from 75 countries. 26 of those are African nations, including Uganda, Tanzania, Nigeria, Ghana, Rwanda, Morocco, and Ethiopia, among others.