CHAPTER TWENTY

PURSUING A PROGRESSIVE PAN-AFRICAN AND FOREIGN POLICY

The Challenges:

We live in a global village and in an era of rapid globalisation. Kenya is a member of the United Nations (UN), Commonwealth, African Union (AU), Common Market of Eastern & Southern Africa (COMESA), Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), World Trade Organisation (WTO), New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and the East African Community (EAC).

The decisions made in these regional and international forums have clear impact on the lives of Kenyans. Consequently, ODM Governments’ Foreign Policy must ensure that Kenya is both well positioned to derive maximum benefit from its interactions and relationships with all external partners, agencies, and institutions.

Kenya is a signatory to a number of international conventions and treaties but has yet to domesticate them. These treaties and conventions seek to enhance the human rights of various categories of persons including women, children, and other minorities. Their non-ratification and implementation fails to protect vulnerable people.

Being a member of various international and regional trade-related market friendly regimes, Kenya, like many developing nations, has borne the brunt of unfair trading regimes that confer disadvantages to our people.

Kenya is not satisfactorily represented in the high echelons of the various international organisations as compared to some other African countries. Hence as a nation we do not have sufficient leverage to ensure that negotiations which impact our lives are clearly articulated and our long-term interests promoted.

Kenya plays a pivotal role as a regional leader in peace building and conflict resolution without playing a role of “big brother.”

We live in an era of continuing regional insecurity and international terrorism, and therefore our Defence Forces have to be on full alert to defend our national integrity.

Our Commitment:

We will uphold and defend the territorial integrity and the new constitutional order of the Republic of Kenya.

We will actively promote Kenya in the world family of nations as a shining beacon of a country that remains united, secure, democratic and, thus, at ease with itself.

We will re-examine our membership of various international institutions and trading blocs to ensure that our interests remain paramount and fulfilled.

We will showcase Kenya as a beacon of peace, economic, environment and multilateral diplomacy.

We will ensure that our Missions abroad are geared towards promoting commerce as the new driver of our foreign policy.

We will maintain well-disciplined, trained, equipped and gender-sensitive Defence Forces that will assist regional and global security by way of international peace-keeping operations.

Your ODM Government will:

• Put Kenyan interests first.

• Promote peace, democracy, respect for human rights and commitment to social justice at home and abroad.

• Pursue a Pan-Africanist foreign policy.

• Accelerate greater integration within the East African Community on the basis of equity. We will intensify our efforts towards integration of economies and harmonization of our laws and practice among the EAC and the full implementation of the provisions of all common instruments for a common customs union.

• Aggressively market Kenyan companies and products in the lucrative markets within the EAC, COMESA, SADC and other member countries of the African Union.

• Welcome and co-operate with traditional and new development partners who are committed to assist Kenya within the framework of the Government’s set of priorities outlined in this manifesto.

• Strengthen relationships with Europe, the United States and Canada. We will also seek new ties with emerging economies in Latin America, Eastern Europe and Russia. We will further reinforce our trading relationships with the Middle East, India, China and the countries of South Asia and Australasia.

• Promote the resolution of any conflicts whether in the region or elsewhere and use our “good offices” to deliver long-lasting peace.

• Ratify, domesticate and implement treaties and conventions that promote the values and rights of Kenyans.

• Review and rationalise the various trade agreements to which Kenya is party. We will push in concert with other affected nations for the review of disadvantageous terms and agreements to ensure that Kenya’s interests are of paramount concern and safeguarded. We will unite with other developing nations to fight for better terms of trade.

• Ensure that constant and effective lobbying takes place within regional and international institutions to promote Kenyan citizens to occupy top positions.

• Lobby for control of the international arms trade as it fuels so many conflicts in our region, thus robbing the poor of personal security and the chance of prosperity. We will double our efforts to control and eradicate the flow of small arms within the region by strengthening border controls.

• Play a proactive role in regional and international environmental negotiations because pollution and

environmental degradation do not respect national boundaries. All countries need to work together to tackle climate change and protect the world’s environment for the future generations.

• Enhance the role of the Foreign Service Institute and build capacity so it becomes a premier institute in the region for training in diplomacy, peacebuilding and negotiations skills training.

• Ensure that the appointments to the Diplomatic Service are governed by the overriding principle of selection based on merit. It should sustain programmes to promote and deliver the principles of equal opportunities with a special emphasis on recruiting members from the under-represented groups such as women, youth, and individuals with disabilities.

• Ensure that our Defence Forces are best-equipped, well-trained and better-remunerated in order to defend our territorial integrity and provide national security against potential terrorist threat.