President Uhuru Kenyatta (L). US President Donald Trump (R) on Monday made phone calls to Nigeria and South Africa presidents, leaving out Kenya's. [Photo: telegraph.co.uk/AJ]US President Donald Trump on Monday made phone calls to Nigeria and South Africa presidents, leaving out Kenya’s Uhuru Kenyatta.
Reliable sources say Kenya has not been working on its diplomacy in the recent past.
A source in Washington DC says unlike Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa have been in contact with President Trump’s team.
“They’ve been in contact. Kenya hasn’t done that. Kenya’s Ambassador to the United States Robinson Njeru Githae has been away from the US capital city for some time,” the source, who sought anonymity was quoted by Nation.
Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed has been “preoccupied with her failed campaign” to become chair of the African Union Commission, reports the Nation.
CS Amina lost to her Chad counterpart Chad’s Moussa Mahamat in the African Union Commission chairperson elections held on January 30 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The loss was despite the government reaching out to 51 out of 53 African Union member states, and spending hundreds of millions of shillings travelling across the continent to lobby leaders to vote for Amina.
This was the first time President Trump was contacting African leaders since he was inaugurated on January 20.
However, a former African specialist at the State Department and currently a fellow at the Brookings Institution think tank, says Kenya still has time to rescue its failed diplomacy, since Trump’s administration is just a month old.
“South Africa and Nigeria being two largest economies on the continent have always had pride of place in US policy,” Witney Schneidman said, as quoted by the Nation.