Investing in Kenya’s People: Valuing the Benefits of the U.S.-Kenya Relationship Chapter 4 (Part 2 of 3)

Finding 14: U.S. governance sector-focused assistance helps Kenya create the right incentives for its elected officials to improve how they deliver services and respond to citizen concerns.

Kenya’s Vision 2030 calls for the country to “move to the future as one nation” and overcome a legacy of political division and preferential access to services along ethnic or religious lines (Masakhalia, 2011; Wanjobi, 2014). Under President Uhuru Kenyatta, Kenya has committed to ensuring greater representation of diverse voices (e.g., political ideologies, ethnic groups) in decision-making, strengthening civil society, improving transparency, and facilitating constructive political dialogue, among other initiatives.

The United States and Kenya share a common interest in promoting good governance and strengthening democratic institutions that are inclusive of all Kenyans. Over the past two decades, the U.S. government has conducted 37 technical assistance programs and channeled over USD 257 million into activities to support and improve Kenya’s governance practices (see Figure 15). Between 2014 and 2018, the United States directed approximately USD 19.6 million annually to activities related to democracy, human rights, and governance.

Governance interventions, by nature, take many years to bear fruit, but Kenya has already made important strides forward. The country has created space for a growing diversity of political voices. Historically a one-party state (1982-1991), Kenyans formed 17 new political parties between 2000 and 2009, and more than 14 parties have been registered from 2010 to the present. Meanwhile, citizens have had greater opportunities to exercise their voices at the ballot box, as there has been a steady increase in the level of free and fair elections over the past decade, according to the Bertelsmann Transformation Index for Kenya (BTI, 2018).

Competitive elections and diverse political representation create powerful incentives for elected officials to improve access to services and respond to voter concerns (Sen, A. 1999; Mehrotra, S. 2008). Therefore, we would expect to see higher levels of access to services and citizen satisfaction with the government in line with Kenya’s growing political diversity and practice of free and fair elections.

In this respect, it is encouraging to see Kenyan households reporting increased access to clean water (a 15 percent increase) and electricity (a 40 percent increase) between 2000 and 2017, according to the World Bank (WDI, n.d.). Kenyans’ optimism about their government’s ability to reliably deliver these essential services and overall confidence in their government officials are also on the rise. Recent waves of the Afrobarometer survey suggest that almost 70 percent of Kenyan citizens perceive the government’s response to public demand for electricity positively in 2018, up from only around 45 percent in 2008. Similarly, yearly rounds of citizen surveys conducted by Gallup World Poll indicate that the share of citizens who have confidence in Kenya’s national government has also gone up, from 25 percent in 2009 to nearly 70 percent in 2019.

Kenya still has a long journey ahead to deliver on its Vision 2030 commitments. Nonetheless, the country has come far in terms of creating political space through a growing diversity of political parties and the practice of free and fair elections. This political progress also appears to correspond with improving access to critical services and growing confidence of citizens in their government to respond to their needs. There are many factors that likely contribute to Kenya’s success in realizing its good governance commitments, but it is fair to say that the United States has been an important partner in this effort in supplying critical financial and technical support.

Finding 15: U.S. agriculture sector-focused assistance helps boost Kenya’s rural productivity in order to increase incomes and reduce inequality.

As Kenya positions itself to become a rapidly industrializing middle-income nation by 2030, modernizing its agriculture sector to increase crop yields will be essential to not only ensure the country’s food security, but also improve rural livelihoods. The United States has been a major financial and technical assistance partner to Kenya’s agricultural sector, through both its bilateral and multilateral assistance programs (see Figure 16), as well as through microloans, grants, and technical assistance from U.S.-based organizations and individuals.

Nearly three-quarters of Kenya’s population rely on agriculture for either all or part of their income (USAID Kenya, n.d.). Agriculture is also a large revenue generator for Kenya’s economy: it generated 34 percent of the country’s GDP in 2018, up from 22 percent in 2008. [29] Notably, this does not reflect a shrinking economy, by any means, as Kenya’s overall GDP experienced a steady growth rate of 5.15 percent on average during this same period. [30]

Meanwhile, incomes per capita have steadily risen from roughly USD 1,050 in 2008 to about USD 1,400 in 2018 [31] and income inequality has declined since the 1990s (Table 4). Although many factors could contribute to rising incomes and declining inequality, the fact that the vast majority of Kenya’s population relies on the agricultural sector for their livelihoods makes it likely that at least some of these gains are due to increases in agricultural productivity and associated revenues.

U.S. assistance has helped Kenya boost its agricultural productivity in several important ways. One emphasis of U.S. assistance has been on introducing improved agricultural techniques, such that farmers are able to generate higher crop yields and minimize disruptions due to climate-related shocks. This creates a dual benefit for Kenya in both strengthening food security through more stable supplies of staple crops—a priority following the 2011-2012 East African drought—as well as helping farmers minimize the risk from a potential loss of income. A second emphasis of U.S. assistance has been in increasing access to global export markets for smallholder farmers. Trade agreements like AGOA have provided a helpful enabling environment for Kenyan farmers to boost their incomes.