Why Kenya is turning back the time on Britain

Economic and historical ties between Kenya and Britain run deep.

The Kenya’s colonial master has been a relatively major player in the intercontinental trade flows despite its recent outrageous decision to exit European Union (EU), infamously christened, Brexit.

Recent activities between Kenya and UK are however, casting greater focus on business partnerships opined at reshaping bilateral relationships and the overall view of dealings between Kenya and one of Europe’s leading economy.

The opportunities for the two economies to utilize historical ties and current political initiatives to boost enterprise are vast, and many British firms are taking notice, keen to seize any available break in the vicinity.

Observers watching the going-ons since Brexit referendum in 2016, think African countries with strategic clout and collective bargaining acumen such as Kenya, are beginning to take advantage of the complex and indeed intricate situation to broker favorable trade and investment deals rather than have terms dictated to them, as has been in the past – which is akin to what Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta has been up to during his recent trip to England.

This year’s Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting which came to a close on Friday in London, was a clear attempt to both solidify and expand the UK’s network of influence with historical allies in a post-Brexit world.

Kenya stands a great deal of profiting from the uncertainty in Britain to export its produce such as flowers and tea as well as the prospect of UK negotiating from a position of weakness rather strength in what would greatly benefit Uhuru’s big four agenda. The Big four agenda is capital intensive which requires huge investments the country is unable to get from its major single financial partner, China.

Collectively, Kenya more than never could broker a game-changing deals that reshapes UK-Kenya relations, whose wheel of momentum was put to motion in May last year when Kenyatta met UK’s Prime Minister Theresa May and sought a pact to guarantee Kenyan exports access the UK market on a duty-free quota-free basis in the wake of UK leaving EU.

With hundreds of UK companies in Kenya today valued in the trillions, Kenya’s other key sectors like tourism is bound to benefit from such improved corporations. The UK is Kenya’s third largest and most important export destination after Uganda and the United States and the leading source market for Kenya’s tourism sector.

With the ongoing romance between Kenya and the UK, investors’ appetite for projects in geothermal power generation and housing are bound to get wetter.

Some of the UK companies operating in Kenya include Diageo, Quantum Power, Tullow Plc, Arch Emerging Markets, Barclays, Finlay, TLG Group and Denham Capital among others. The UK is a leading investor in Kenya with at least 220 British companies operating in Kenya running business valued at more than 2.7 billion Sterling Pounds and employing 250,000 people.

Trade volume between the two countries is in excess of Sh133billion per year while before 2016, statistics show that UK was Kenya’s number one source of international tourists for almost a decade.