Kenyan Foreign and Security Policies

The Jomo Kenyatta Presidency and Legacy

Kipyego Cheluget, Stephen Wright

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2025
• eBook ISBN: 9798765165935
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: African Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Kipyego Cheluget and Stephen Wright evaluate the legacy of Kenya's first president, Jomo Kenyatta.

Following a nationalist uprising and brutal colonial repression, Kenya became independent in December 1963. With much of the agricultural land still under European settler control, Jomo Kenyatta promoted foreign and security policies to balance Kenyan, African, and settler interests, attracting foreign investment into the new country. Kenyatta's programs, however, favored the West and established a growing need for British and American security guarantees to sustain Kenya in an increasingly unstable Eastern African region. In this book, Cheluget and Wright show that despite the growing pressures within Kenyan civil society for diversification of policies and redistribution of economic wealth, Kenyatta consistently maintained pro-western policies until his death in 1978. This book is split into 3 parts. Part I discusses the growth of Kenyan nationalism, the end of the colonial era, and the birth of the Kenyan State. Part II considers the political economy and development strategies of the Kenyan State. Part III assesses the degree of continuity of the succeeding leadership portrayed from the Jomo Kenyatta presidency. Through this detailed analysis, the authors examine Kenyatta's policies and examine how successive Kenyan presidents have largely maintained his policies and venerated his legacy.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Part I: The Setting
• Introduction: Foreign and Security Policies in Africa
• Chapter 1: Building the Kenyan State
• Part II: The Jomo Kenyatta Presidency, 1964–78
• Chapter 2: Growth and Development in an Evolving Political Economy
• Chapter 3: Domestic Actors in Foreign and Security Policies
• Chapter 4: Relations with Tanzania and Uganda within the East African Community
• Chapter 5: Security and Stability in Wider Eastern Africa
• Chapter 6: Expanding Trade Opportunities and Forging Security Partnerships
• Chapter 7: Policy and Reputation in Africa and International Organizations
• Part III: Legacies and Post-Kenyatta Foreign and Security Policies
• Chapter 8: In Jomo Kenyatta’s Footsteps: Daniel arap Moi, 1978–2002
• Chapter 9: Kenyan Foreign and Security Policies in the Twenty-First Century
• Bibliography
• Index
• About the Authors