Kenyan President President William Ruto. (Wikimedia Commons)
When President William Ruto strode into the UN General Assembly last month, he did so with the confidence of a man eager to brand himself as Africa’s “chief diplomat”. His speeches were long, his handshakes many and his hashtags trending.
But just as he tried to project himself as a continental statesman, US President Donald Trump casually lumped Kenya and Somalia in the same sentence as places America would no longer “police”.
That contrast tells us everything about the state of Kenya’s foreign policy. While Ruto is busy posturing and performing, the world still perceives Kenya as fragile, debt-burdened and politically unstable. The gap between rhetoric and reality has rarely been so glaring.
Kenya’s leadership has always aspired to punch above its weight on the global stage. From the days of Tom Mboya’s pan-African networking, through Jomo Kenyatta’s “wait and see” diplomacy, to Mwai Kibaki’s pragmatism and Raila Odinga’s continental activism, Kenya has positioned herself as a voice of Africa. Nairobi hosts the UN headquarters in Africa, regional offices for major multilateral agencies and countless international conferences.
But under Ruto, this legacy is being diluted into performance politics. Speeches full of buzzwords — “climate justice”, “digital economy”, “African solutions” — are marketed with hashtags and headlines, yet they are rarely matched by coherent policy or substantive follow-through. A foreign policy reduced to soundbites can not shield a nation from the hard truths of international politics.
This is why, despite Ruto’s endless proclamations, Trump could casually equate Kenya with Somalia — a war-torn state still struggling with basic governance. That perception matters. It shows that in the corridors of power, our glossy PR can not erase the image of a nation battling debt, corruption and political fragility.
One of the greatest contradictions in Kenya’s foreign policy is the attempt to project global leadership while sinking deeper into dependency. Every handshake with a Western leader, every trip to Beijing, every promise of partnership is tied to debt. Kenya’s ballooning external debt, now well past KSh 12 trillion, casts a long shadow over any claim of independence or influence.
You cannot posture as the “voice of Africa” while borrowing from China, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the Eurobond market to finance recurrent expenditure. You can not preach sovereignty in New York while your country’s fiscal space is dictated from Washington and Beijing. True diplomacy rests on credibility and credibility requires economic stability. Without it, Kenya’s foreign policy risks becoming a hollow performance.
Ruto’s approach to diplomacy also reveals a worrying personalisation of foreign policy. Kenya’s historical role in Africa, whether in peacekeeping in Somalia, mediation in South Sudan or climate advocacy, was built on institutional credibility. The ministry of foreign affairs, seasoned diplomats and collective leadership shaped Kenya’s voice.
Today, foreign policy is increasingly about Ruto himself, his trips, his speeches, his hashtags. This personalisation weakens Kenya’s ability to project long-term consistency. Policies are designed to feed into the president’s image rather than national interest. Handshakes replace strategy. Instagram moments replace negotiations. The result is a foreign policy that looks busy but achieves little.
Kenya’s leaders might convince domestic audiences that every handshake with Biden or Macron elevates us to the league of global powers. But the world is not easily fooled. Investors see the risk profile. Credit rating agencies see the debt. Aid partners see the corruption scandals. African neighbours see our political divisions.
That is why Trump’s throwaway comment matters. It punctures the bubble of self-praise. It reminds us that however glossy our PR, Kenya is not perceived globally as a stable, credible leader. We are still grouped with fragile states rather than emerging powers. Our obsession with hashtags can not change that.
What a real foreign policy would look like
Kenya urgently needs to reset its diplomacy. That reset must begin at home. A country drowning in debt, where corruption scandals erupt weekly, cannot command respect abroad. Economic stability, institutional strength and political maturity are the foundations of influence.
Second, Kenya must return to principle-driven diplomacy. Our role in Africa should not be reduced to Ruto’s personal ambitions. It must be rooted in real contributions: peacekeeping, fair trade, technology cooperation and climate action. These require policies, investments and alliances. Not just speeches.
Third, Kenya must practice humility. There is no shame in acknowledging challenges. Diplomacy is more credible when honesty guides it. Pretending to be “HQ of Africa” while struggling to pay debt instalments only exposes us to ridicule. Real respect comes from delivery, not declaration.
In the end, the danger of Ruto’s PR-heavy foreign policy is not just that it fails to convince the world, it also distracts the nation. While leaders chase photo-ops abroad, Kenyans at home struggle with joblessness, food insecurity and an unbearable cost of living. While we posture at the UN General Assembly, our hospitals lack medicine and our schools lack resources. Foreign policy can not be a substitute for domestic governance.
Kenya deserves better. We deserve a foreign policy grounded in reality, not rhetoric. One that recognises our strengths, addresses our weaknesses and builds influence through substance rather than spectacle. Until then, every flashy speech at the UN will ring hollow and every handshake will be remembered as PR rather than policy.
Kenya is not the “HQ of Africa”. Not yet. We can only earn that title by building stability at home and credibility abroad. For now, we remain the HQ of public relations, loud, restless and endlessly busy, but rarely taken seriously.
Gitobu Imanyara is a human rights and pro-democracy lawyer, former member of the Kenyan and pan African parliaments and publisher of the digital monthly www.theplatformke.co.ke.