{President Uhuru Kenyatta\u2019s failure to officially receive newly appointed foreign envoys is causing anxiety in diplomatic circles, putting at risk billions of shillings in trade and investment from some of Kenya\u2019s most valuable partners, reported Business Daily.}<\/p>\n
At least six countries, including Zambia, Japan, Italy, France, Germany and Austria have been left in a diplomatic limbo in Kenya after the Foreign Affairs ministry suspended the accreditation of their envoys indefinitely, citing Mr Kenyatta\u2019s busy diary. <\/p>\n
The ministry has since advised new envoys posted to Kenya to delay their arrival until they are told of the President\u2019s availability.<\/p>\n
Though Mr Kenyatta\u2019s men have stuck to the busy diary narrative, the delay in accrediting the envoys is being seen as communicating a message to the affected countries.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhereas there is nothing common among the countries in the list, delay in accreditation has traditionally been used as soft language of rejection or a way of expressing that the matter is not a priority,\u201d said Macharia Munene, a professor of History and International Relations at the United States International University-Africa in Nairobi.<\/p>\n
Top Foreign Affairs ministry officials did not respond to queries on the matter but analysts warned that delay in accrediting foreign envoys could send wrong signals to foreign capitals that Kenya is not open for business \u2014 a position that could cost the country billions of shillings in missed trade and investment opportunities.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe cannot accept a situation where ambassadors are kept waiting without explanation. We have summoned the Cabinet secretary to appear before us next week and explain what is happening,\u201d said Bare Shill, the vice-chair of the National Assembly\u2019s departmental committee on Defence and Foreign Relations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe President must create time to receive credentials from ambassadors.\u201d<\/p>\n
Envoys are crucial in the negotiation of trade treaties, bilateral financing deals and other areas of mutual interest and are the ones who sign bilateral assistance agreements.<\/p>\n
Ochieng Adala, a retired career diplomat, said accreditation makes one an \u2018ambassadeur extraordinaire et pl\u00e9nipotentiaire\u2019 meaning she or he is the head of mission with full powers to engage the State on all matters.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithout accreditation, an ambassador cannot meet the President in a formal capacity, cannot host his country\u2019s national ceremonies such as Independence Day and is not empowered to sign and negotiate any bilateral assistance deals,\u201d said Mr Adala in an interview.<\/p>\n
The list of diplomats who are awaiting accreditation to assume office includes Tatsushi Terada of Japan and R\u00e9mi Mar\u00e9chaux of France.<\/p>\n
The gravity of the diplomatic impasse is underlined by the fact that three of the countries \u2014 Japan, France and Germany \u2014 are some of Kenya\u2019s leading creditors, accounting for almost a fifth or 18.5 per cent of total external sources of financing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{President Uhuru Kenyatta\u2019s failure to officially receive newly appointed foreign envoys is causing anxiety in diplomatic circles, putting at risk billions of shillings in trade and investment from some of Kenya\u2019s most valuable partners, reported Business Daily.} At least six countries, including Zambia, Japan, Italy, France, Germany and Austria have been left in a diplomatic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2000049003,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[99],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-11150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-greatlakesnews","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000049003,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton11150.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton11150.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton11150.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton11150.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton11150.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton11150.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000049003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11150"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=11150"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=11150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}