Kenyatta’s diplomatic chess moves

But while the adjustments in visa procedures are undoubtedly a blow to Kenya’s status as the diplomatic hub of the region, Japheth Awiti, an economist at the University of Nairobi, says that aside from a marginal increase in visa fees to cover the cost of transporting a British visa application between Nairobi and Pretoria, the greater effect of the British High Commissions’s closure of its visa office will be an indirect one of Kenya being viewed as a high risk country, which will in the long run impact negatively on the economy through decreased earnings from tourism.

His concern is one shared by many and at the Queen’s Birthday party in June, British High Commissioner to Kenya, Dr Christian Turner, diplomatically addressed the issue by narrating an allegory about the need for a buffalo and lion to work together, suggesting that despite rumours Kenya and the UK would continue to be strong partners.

The visa wars between Kenya and South Africa, Awiti says, are more likely to have immediate repercussions. Ultimately “South Africa would lose more if Kenya were to adopt a retaliatory policy since there are more South African-made products in Kenya than there are Kenyan products in South Africa,” he says.

He adds that South Africa’s tightening of its immigration laws ought to be seen within a context of the southern behemoth clamping down border controls against immigrants from SADC countries.

Frequent flyers
As implications of the altered visa procedures for Kenyans travelling to the UK and South Africa were sinking in, an international incident occurred in August that left egg on the face of the Kenyan government.

Eight European and African countries banned Kenya’s county assembly members from visiting them. The US, Rwanda, Israel, South Africa, Malaysia, Singapore, the Netherlands and Brazil lodged a formal complaint about the number, size and frequency of delegations visiting them supposedly as “development benchmarking” missions. One country stated outright that such visits did not offer any value to bilateral relations.