By Leonard Wanyama
A Wikipedia page has recently been developed detailing all the countries President Uhuru Kenyatta has travelled to since assuming office. Critics were quick to paint him as being more concerned with serial gallivanting than anything else.
However, it seems the idea of finding out whether the people the President travels with are productive enough has not caught on with the intelligentsia.
Over the past decade or so, the idea of business delegations has grown ever since former president Mwai Kibaki initiated economic diplomacy as a pillar of Kenyan foreign policy. Across the continent, trips by various private sector individuals have become an important feature in how countries participate in bilateral or multilateral engagements around the globe.
In his early days in office, President Jacob Zuma faced similar criticism to Kenyatta’s. As much as it was said out loud that his family members used the opportunity for foreign travel to pursue personal interests, the same is said in Kenya albeit in hushed tones.
Nonetheless, it would be important to not only know where a president and his delegation went, but also how much Kenya gains in dollar, euro or shilling terms from such journeys in real if not projected terms.
Otherwise the debate will remain embarrassingly myopic. It will retain a tabloid focus on which a minister fixed his girlfriend into the retinue instead of discussing productivity in action. It will set state interests against domestic concerns from all kinds of constituencies instead harmonising them to attain growth and development. Public accountability is a must in any event.
For the private sector, business delegations should be taken as a prime opportunity to not only pursue profits and but also to contribute to development. Obviously at a time of myriad presidential travel and hosting of state visits, such occasions offer a chance for the country’s merchant class to not only showcase their potential but also to engage with visiting officials.
With this in mind, business delegations should be formed both locally when distinguished guest arrive, and when the country’s top diplomat is invited to various forums.
The benefits of forming business delegations are mainly in relation to engaging trade as an avenue for a country’s development. As a major opportunity to build prosperity, business delegations get into occasions where they can create further understanding between government leaders and officials on existing relationships between countries, including their productive respective sectors.
Such groupings also have the opportunity to interact and network at various platforms or social events as a team with their respective governments so that they can complement each other.
This can be through developing linkages with other business people, participating in set activities, quantifying results of on-going initiatives and offering a record of events to the general public. This also helps the citizenry to understand issues of the day beyond the inconvenience of traffic jams by guests, or the squandering of money by avaricious usurpers to the noble profession of diplomacy.
However, engaging in the formulation, management, and coordination of business delegations has its own challenges. For starters, harmonising actions or plans between government and private sector organisations is not easy.
Both get caught up in the petty, unnecessary politics of who leads or serves at the point person. This competition is unhealthy and results in a sluggard-like projection of a country and its officials.
Second is that there is a general lack of resources for activities other than travel. Indeed before, during and after delegations, there should be organisation of meeting, development of document, publishing of reports and reviews of one kind or the other that should help to inform policy.
However, there is little human capital focused in this regard, let alone the finances to facilitate this by either the private sector or government.
On account of this, there has also be very little strategic thought in planning of trips. These are, on many occasions, created on the whims of individuals or a hurried spur of the moment. This puts participants in situations where they have no briefing and little reconnaissance of the context in which they are set to engage.
Furthermore, this then allows for the poor representation that constitutes such delegations that tend to practice nefarious absenteeism, which then captures attention of the gutter press and veers the public from important matters.
Possible models
Private sector should therefore explore different models that are not only beneficial to them but also helpful to public discourse about what is going on with the country’s trade, commerce or economic diplomacy. A small number of widely respected business leaders can be openly selected to accompany the president. This can be either one or two people who will not raise eyebrows when criticisms of nepotism emerge.
An openly constituted but small targeted business delegation could also serve the same function if slightly more individuals are needed to be effective. These could probably be state-sponsored. Nevertheless the business community could also act proactively to form independently funded large business delegations that accompany the president or help host state guests.
They could even travel to destinations of commercial interest then invite the president from their country of origin, the host head of state or government and other neighbouring executives if resources allow. Broadness of ideas contemplated for action, however, can only be achieved if groups such as the Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM), Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA) and the Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KNCCI) among others create coordinated business objectives on the issue of economic diplomacy.
Writer teaches International Relations at the Technical University of Kenya. Twitter: @lennwanyama
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