NAIROBI, Kenya Aug 28 \u2013 The government has dismissed reports suggesting irregularities in its decision to hire a U.S.-based lobbying firm, saying the deal is both legal and standard practice for governments across the world.<\/p>\n
Prime Cabinet Secretary and Foreign Affairs CS Musalia Mudavadi said Thursday that the engagement is meant to push Kenya\u2019s trade, investment, and security agenda in Washington, where competition for influence is \u201cintense and highly structured.\u201d<\/p>\n
He explained that the contract complies with Kenyan law and the U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), which requires full public disclosure of such agreements.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust as one media outlet accessed these records to create its headline story, so too can any other interested parties freely obtain these publicly available documents,\u201d the statement noted.<\/p>\n
Kenya says the lobby firm will focus on securing favorable trade deals with the U.S. after the expiry of AGOA, and on rallying support for Kenya\u2019s leadership of the Haiti security mission. <\/p>\n
The government also sees the move as a way to attract investment, promote tourism, and strengthen ties with the large Kenyan diaspora in America.<\/p>\n
Mudavadi stressed that hiring lobby firms is not new, noting that every Kenyan administration since independence has done the same. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis initiative does not replace conventional diplomacy but complements it by providing additional channels to engage stakeholders in a complex policy environment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The government insisted the contract is transparent, not extravagant, and a \u201cstrategic investment with guaranteed returns\u201d that will directly benefit Kenyans.<\/p>\n
The government had faced criticism after it contracted Continental Strategy LLC, to provide government relations and advocacy services in preparation for President William Ruto\u2019s upcoming state visit to the United States, where he is expected to hold talks with U.S. President Donald Trump.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NAIROBI, Kenya Aug 28 \u2013 The government has dismissed reports suggesting irregularities in its decision to hire a U.S.-based lobbying firm, saying the deal is both legal and standard practice for governments across the world. Prime Cabinet Secretary and Foreign Affairs CS Musalia Mudavadi said Thursday that the engagement is meant to push Kenya\u2019s trade, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-120491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120491\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}