Introduction—Kenya’s Foreign Policy: Equal Parts Past, Equal Parts Future

The objective of this chapter is to lay out the beginnings—rather than the foundations of Kenya’s foreign policy, dating back to before Kenya was a sovereign nation. We argue that Kenya’s foreign policy can it be discerned from the historical circumstances and analyzing the actions and reactions towards the various issues that the country has faced It can equally be derived from the decisions that leaders made, the expectations that citizens, elites and the global community hold, the (presumable) strategies and justifications that drove the actions and the consequences of these decisions and actions? Simply put, this monograph argues that it is possible to discern a foreign policy for Kenya as well as other countries. In this regard, Kenya has taken steps to articulate a foreign policy in recent years For example, in 2014, it inaugurated a foreign policy document—if issued by the Kenya Public Policy Research Institute—KIPPRA, rather than the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Elsewhere in this chapter, the sources of Kenya’s foreign policy are articulated, in part based on the 2014 document. The document’s 17 pages—not excluding blank pages, TOCs and pictures also articulates the pillars, philosophies, aims and policy objectives of the country’s foreign policy. But what can we glean from the analysis of both documents and especially actions taken by Kenyan elites in the foreign policy establishment? Does Kenya’s foreign policy differ from other major countries’ foreign policy, or can one assume that the realist argument of states’ interests being similar and invariable be accepted without comment, so that Kenya’s foreign policy is just like that of the UK or the US or China? The next pages detail the history, sources, strategies, decisions, impacts and consequences of actions Kenya has taken both consciously and as a reaction to other countries’ preferences, choices, and actions.