Paul Kibiwott Kurgat, a scholar-diplomat with expertise in foreign policy, security studies and international affairs
Kenya is approaching an important national planning moment. Vision 2030 is nearing the end of its horizon, while debate is already turning to what should come next. The emerging idea of Vision 2060 offers an opportunity to think beyond election cycles and ask a larger question: what kind of country should Kenya become over the next three decades, and how will we finance that ambition?
The answer cannot be found in domestic planning alone. Kenya’s development has always been connected to the international system.
Infrastructure, export markets, investment, technology, climate finance, security partnerships and development capital are all shaped partly by foreign relations. This means foreign policy must be treated not as ceremonial diplomacy, but as a practical instrument of national development.
The Constitution of Kenya, 2010 provides the starting point. Any long-term vision must respect the sovereignty of the people, public participation, equity, accountability and sustainable development.
A post-2030 national vision cannot be written by a small group and presented to citizens as a finished product. Experts must do the technical work, but Kenyans—including counties, young people, the private sector, civil society, academia and the diaspora—must have a genuine opportunity to shape the outcome.
Kenya already has a diplomatic foundation on which to build. The Kenya Foreign Policy of 2014 organised our diplomacy around five pillars: peace, economic, diaspora, environmental and cultural diplomacy.
Sessional Paper No. 1 of 2025 goes further. It places stronger emphasis on economic and commercial diplomacy, science and technology, digital diplomacy, climate and blue-economy diplomacy, global governance and a more citizen-centred foreign policy.
That evolution is timely. If Kenya wants to become a high-income, industrialised and globally competitive society, our embassies must increasingly become centres of economic intelligence and opportunity.
They should identify markets for Kenyan products, attract credible investors, broker technology partnerships, support Kenyan companies abroad, connect universities and researchers, protect diaspora interests and open doors for skills and labour mobility.
Success should therefore not be measured only by the number of diplomatic engagements or agreements signed. We should ask what those engagements delivered at home. Did they expand exports? Create jobs? Bring technology into Kenyan industries? Improve energy security? Increase farmer incomes? Strengthen health systems? Secure climate finance? Remove a trade barrier?
This is what I call “Diplomacy for Development.”
The emerging Vision 2060 debate also raises the possibility of a catalytic African investment framework—an “African Marshall Plan.” The phrase should not mean copying post-war Europe or waiting for a foreign benefactor. Africa must own its priorities. Such a framework should mobilise African institutions, development banks, private capital, diaspora resources and strategic partners around bankable projects in food security, energy, transport, industrialisation, health, digital infrastructure and research.
It must also complement, not compete with, the African Union’s Agenda 2063 and the African Continental Free Trade Area. Kenya should use its diplomatic reach to help build regional markets, integrated infrastructure and value chains that make African economies stronger together.
But foreign policy cannot become more sophisticated without knowledge. Universities, foreign-policy scholars, think tanks, retired diplomats, professional associations and diaspora experts should be brought systematically into policymaking. The Foreign Service Academy can become the bridge between government and this wider knowledge community.
Academia should help Kenya anticipate geopolitical change, artificial intelligence, climate migration, energy transitions, future trade routes and global financial reforms. Scholars can also provide independent evaluation and preserve institutional memory when governments change.
Before Vision 2060 is finalised, Kenya should first undertake a transparent review of Vision 2030: what worked, what failed, what remains unfinished, what became too expensive, and what lessons should guide the next generation.
A national vision must survive individual presidents and political parties. Its purpose should remain steady while its methods are reviewed every five years as technology, economics and geopolitics change.
Kenya’s next great vision 2060 must succeed and domestic ambition be matched by professional diplomacy abundant in Kenya, constitutional legitimacy and intellectual depth. The real test of foreign policy is not how visible Kenya is abroad, but whether Kenya’s global relationships produce measurable improvements in the lives of its people.
The author is a scholar-diplomat with expertise in foreign policy, security studies and international affairs, based at Moi University, Eldoret.
