Jump to navigation

Kenya

Ruto bids for Emirati gold

The President seeks to bolster the economy through new loans and trade deals with the UAE, while navigating diplomatic pressures and shifting alliances

President William Ruto has pinned his government’s economic hopes on new loans and trade with the United Arab Emirates, as he seeks alternatives to Chinese financing.

Last week, Ruto cancelled a press conference in Nairobi organised by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the Sudanese militia led by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo ‘Hemeti’, following diplomatic pressure from the United States (AC Vol 66 No 2, Washington’s sanctions block Hemeti’s war message). Hemeti’s main supporter is Abu Dhabi.

The US sanctioned Hemeti and seven UAE-based companies for supplying cash and weapons to the RSF. Despite aligning with Washington on the RSF, Ruto’s standing with the UAE remains unaffected.

On the same day, Ruto was in Abu Dhabi signing a trade deal expected to substantially boost agricultural exports to the Emirati state. The deal also aims to open up services markets in finance and technology. It was one of three free trade pacts signed by the UAE. 

More than trade, Ruto is hoping to finalise a US$1.5 billion loan with the UAE, as well as financing to extend the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) which currently connects Nairobi to Mombasa.

Kenya had wanted the SGR project, which was financed by loans totalling 476bn shillings ($3.6bn) from China’s Exim Bank, to extend to Uganda and South Sudan. However, the completed track only reaches Naivasha, an agricultural hub in the Rift Valley, close to 500 kilometres from the Ugandan border.

The Kenya Railway Authority is one of the most financially precarious among the country’s parastatals. Despite regularly running services at or near full capacity since its launch in June 2017, the Mombasa-Nairobi line remains loss-making (AC Vol 64 No 7, Ruto gets the freight train blues). The terms and secrecy of the SGR contract with China have faced significant criticism in Kenya.



Related Articles

Ruto gets the freight train blues

The Mombasa-Nairobi trains are full, but repaying the debts on the loss-making railway is stretching the state treasury

Many see the new Standard Gauge Railway from the capital to the coast as a disaster for public finances but that has not stopped Kenyans from enthusiastically using...


More unga than chungwa

A year after the flawed elections, much of the fire has gone out of the once radical opposition Orange Democratic Movement. Odinga, the firebrand ODM leader, held a meeting for his constituents in Nairobi’s Kibera’s slum to thank them for voting for him. He yelled the rallying cry ‘ODM!’, expecting the crowd to respond as it used to ‘Chungwa!’ (Orange!), the party colour and symbol, but they roared back ‘Unga!’, the maize flour that makes up the staple diet of ugali.

Politics is now taking second place to overwhelming concerns about the economy. Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s Orange Democratic Movement had promised lower rents and food prices, but its...


Musyoka's message

Foreign Minister Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka's swing through Washington and London last week reinforced the aid-for-security cooperation trade-off dominating Kenyan policy. President Mwai Kibaki's government will get military training...


Bringing it all back home

The International Criminal Court’s offer to hold the trial of William Ruto in East Africa could be an astute compromise

The announcement by the International Criminal Court on 3 June that it could try William Ruto, Kenya’s Deputy President, in East Africa rather than at the Hague appears...