Ex-diplomats are Kenya's most undervalued advisory resource

Kenya has spent decades training diplomats, posting them to demanding missions and entrusting them with sensitive international negotiations. Yet when many retire, we behave as though their most useful years are behind them. This is an expensive way to discard national experience.

An experienced ambassador remembers more than the wording of a treaty. They understand why a clause was contested, whom to contact when talks stall, and which mistakes should never be repeated. Such knowledge matters when Kenya negotiates trade, debt, security partnerships, climate finance and foreign investment. Yet we have no consistent mechanism for drawing on this institutional memory.

Other countries offer instructive examples. Japan’s former ambassador to the United States Kenichiro Sasae went on to lead the Japan Institute of International Affairs, transferring diplomatic experience into policy research. Singapore’s former United Nations ambassador Kishore Mahbubani became founding dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. Fellow diplomat Tommy Koh likewise brought decades of international negotiating experience into teaching and public debate.

Egypt’s former foreign minister and ambassador Nabil Fahmy founded the School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the American University in Cairo. Sweden has drawn on former UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson in peace research, while Algeria’s Lakhdar Brahimi continued mediating conflicts, including in Syria, after holding high diplomatic office. Uganda’s Olara Otunnu carried his diplomatic experience into international advocacy for children affected by war.

The United States offers another example. Condoleezza Rice, former National Security Adviser and Secretary of State, returned to Stanford University and became director of its Hoover Institution. Her expertise in international relations, Soviet and Eastern European affairs, and the Russian language continues to inform teaching, research, public policy and strategic consulting.

This is personal to me. I served as Kenya’s ambassador to the Russian Federation, concurrently accredited to other Eurasian countries. Today, I teach at Moi University in Eldoret and research and write about Kenya–Russia relations, the Horn of Africa, education diplomacy and health diplomacy. My career and Rice’s are different, and I make no claim otherwise. But our experiences share a conviction: Diplomatic service and scholarship can reinforce each other, while younger generations benefit from lessons learned in practice.

Kenya already has examples of diplomatic expertise continuing beyond one appointment. Lazaro Sumbeiywo has contributed to peace efforts in South Sudan. Macharia Kamau has chaired an advisory group of the UN Peacebuilding Fund.

Monica Juma and Martin Kimani have taken on senior responsibilities in the UN system. If the international community recognises such experience, Kenya should find more systematic ways to benefit from it at home.

We need not establish another expensive commission. The Foreign Service Act, 2021, already provides for a Foreign Service Academy with responsibilities covering training, research and policy analysis. In August 2026, the Academy and University of Nairobi brought retired ambassador Kipyego Cheluget into public dialogue. That example could become a standing programme rather than an occasional event.

I propose a Golden Bench within the Academy: A carefully selected network of former ambassadors, senior diplomats, principal secretaries and experienced negotiators. They could mentor junior officers, document lessons from difficult assignments, review policy briefs before major talks, support universities and offer specialised advisory and consulting services where their expertise is relevant. It would also create a bridge between institutional memory and fresh policy thinking.

The programme must not become a comfortable retirement club. Membership should be merit-based, transparent and time-bound. Participants should declare conflicts of interest, protect confidential information and remain accountable for the quality of their advice. Serving officials must retain decision-making authority. Young professionals should be encouraged to question received wisdom. Experience deserves a hearing, not a veto.

The economic case is equally compelling. Former diplomats understand how political risk, investor confidence, regulatory expectations and international relationships shape major projects.

Their accumulated knowledge could help Kenya attract, negotiate and de-risk Dangote-scale industrial investments and European Union Global Gateway initiatives, including the Kwa Jomvu–Mariakani Road Upgrade, Nairobi’s Clean Bus Rapid Transit project and the Green Resilient Electricity System. They could also help policymakers navigate the complex workings of the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and other international financial institutions.

This is not a proposal to bring retired diplomats back to run the country. It is a proposal to stop losing what Kenya has already paid dearly to acquire. The State invests in their education, postings, language skills and years of negotiation. Why allow the benefits of that investment to disappear at the retirement gate?

Retirement should end an appointment, not a contribution. Kenya’s next generation of diplomats, public servants and scholars deserves access to those who served before them. A country that forgets its diplomatic lessons risks repeating old mistakes in new negotiations. The Golden Bench would not reward age or title. It would turn proven experience into a national advisory and consulting advantage.