The 10th ministerial conference of the World Trade Organisation ended yesterday with analysts taking stock of what the country stands to gain.
Many commentators were unanimous that President Uhuru Kenyatta was the biggest winner as the meeting and other high-profile visits this year have been a stamp of approval for his administration.
But they were divided on the dividends that will accrue to the country.
This was the first such sitting to be held on African soil since it was formed 20 years ago.
US President Barack Obama’s three-day State tour in July - the first by a sitting US President in the country’s 52 years of independence, and that of the leader of the 1.2 billion-member Catholic Church Pope Francis last month, has gone a long way to fortify Kenyatta’s place as a regional leader.
President Obama had come for the Global Entrepreneurship Summit, and held high-level trade meetings that raked in an estimated Sh100 billion for African entrepreneurs and the signing of seven memoranda.
Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi are among the many dignitaries who have come to Nairobi in a list that has grown in the last half year.
“All these high-level visits are a stamp of approval at the international level of the Kenyan position in the community of nations. The President has cut an image of a good negotiator, and the fruits are good,” said International Relations scholar Prof Macharia Munene of the United States International University of Africa.
NO MEAN FEAT
Prof Maria Nzomo, former Kenyan permanent representative at the WTO and the United Nations, said holding such talks was no mean feat. “Convincing the WTO to hold its talks in a country is a huge diplomatic achievement.
It takes high-level negotiations and a belief by the world that your country is big, safe and conducive enough for it. That Nairobi is the first city in Africa to do that, is huge for us,” said Prof Nzomo, who is the director of the University of Nairobi’s Institute of Diplomacy and International Studies.
Prof Nzomo, who has also served as Kenya’s ambassador to Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Switzerland, attributed the new tidings on President Kenyatta’s powerful negotiation skills.
“Visits by President Obama, Pope Francis, Chinese and Italian prime ministers and now the WTO meeting in a span of less than a year is not a coincidence. It shows a president who is a good negotiator and a team of technocrats that are getting things done,” said Prof Nzomo.
The visits have also boosted tourism.
Mr Mohamed Hersi, the chairman of the Hotelkeepers and Caterers Association, said that tourism could not have been better, in a long time.
“The statement by the Pope that he feared mosquitoes more than insecurity was a complete endorsement of the safety of our country. When President Obama says he wants to come to Lamu to see the coast, it is a priceless endorsement, a huge thing for the industry,” said Mr Hersi.
But the biggest winner, analysts said, is President Kenyatta.
LUKEWARM START
While he was castigated that Kenya will be an isolated nation if he ascended to the Presidency, Mr Kenyatta has cut an image of a friend of nations while at the same time stamping Kenya’s place on the global map.
The high-level visits have given him what analysts say is a validation of what was a lukewarm start to his presidency in 2013 on the diplomatic front.
“The West was hostile to the President before the election, but his ability to mingle and push Kenya to a position where Kenya can no longer be ignored has been commendable,” said Prof Munene.
Kenya Tourism Board boss Muriithi Ndegwa cited the United Nations World Tourism Organisation conference in Mombasa in August, the Africa Travel Association annual world congress in Nairobi as well as the WTO ministerial conference as the landmarks in the re-definition of Kenya’s image.
Kenya was last week voted the leading safari destination by the World Travel Awards (WTA), another huge boost to the tourism sector.
“We have got to a point where not only travel alerts are lifted on our coastal towns, but we are also getting world leaders coming in their droves to Kenya. That is a vote of confidence on us and the tourism sector,” said Mr Ndegwa.
The tourism marketing body has launched a Sh100 million marketing campaign in the global Cable News Network (CNN) in its attempt to spruce up its image at the international level.
Prof Munene said though the benefits of the trips could not be directly traced to the common mwananchi, the advantages of such high-level visits were there for all to see.
“Like in the WTO, the delegates come to Kenya to spend money and that is a good thing. For President Obama, Pope Francis and the other leaders, Kenyans may not feel the benefits at once, but the advantages trickle down from the memoranda signed and the feel good mood that comes with hosting such high-level dignitaries,” said Prof Munene.
MARKET THE NATION
Mr Hersi said the coming of the dignitaries would go a long way in boosting the hotel and tourism sector.
He said that Kenya should use the visits and statements made during the tours to market the nation.
“We need to have banners saying: This is the land that President Obama came to and said he loves Lamu, or that we are the country where Queen Elizabeth was crowned (as Queen of England) and take full advantage of it as this is a priceless endorsement,” said Mr Hersi.
Queen Elizabeth was proclaimed the Queen of England while in Kenya after the death of her father George VI in 1952.
Prof Nzomo said that Kenya must re-define its place in the international scene, saying it had a huge advantage that lies untapped.
“We are regional leader in a lot of things, and we are not doing much to take advantage of that. This is the time to not only cement our place in history, but also in the world of diplomacy and international negotiations,” said Prof Nzomo.
But former Permanent Secretary Bitange Ndemo faulted Kenya and Africa’s approach at the WTO.
Prof Ndemo said that the continent was ill-prepared to negotiate, and the meeting might not achieve much.
“In Kenya, we don’t even know who our negotiators are, who appointed them, who they consulted, their negotiation strategy, the level of alignment of such strategy to our Constitution and national interest, their experience and their agenda,” said Dr Ndemo.
ENJOY BENEFITS
The scholar said it was impossible for Kenya and Africa to negotiate with nations they depend on for such basic things as basic as food, and had stuck to outdated agricultural practices.
Analysts were also quick to point out that even with all the endorsements, ultimately, it was up to Kenyans to put their act together and rid out such evils as corruption of they are to enjoy the full benefits of the windfall.
“Even if we had the best negotiators in the world, but then are dogged by corruption scandals one after another, no form of powerful negotiations can erase such ills,” said Prof Nzomo.
Just after President Obama left, reports of massive graft rocked government while Pope Francis described the vice as the “sugar that may make the country diabetic.”
Dr Samwel Nyandemo, who teaches economics at the University of Nairobi, said that while the high-powered delegations were a plus for Kenya’s economy, its effects might not be felt because of corruption.
“While the delegations are an economic and diplomatic plus, the feeling that there is high-level corruption in all levels of government scares away investors and may be our biggest undoing in this business boom we have,” said Dr Nyandemo
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