No, Mr Ruto, standing up for African agency does not mean America first, By Redi Tlhabi

The issue is politically explosive because many Kenyans see the arrangement as shifting the health risk from the United States onto Kenya.

This week’s protests in Kenya, directed at the controversial plan by the United States to establish a 50-bed Ebola quarantine facility at the Kenyan Air Force base in Nanyuki, Laikipia County, for Americans who may have been exposed to Ebola in neighbouring countries, reinforce that perception.

Protests erupted this week against a politically explosive plan to establish Nanyuki, Laikipia County for Americans who may have been exposed to Ebola in neighbouring South Africa this week, as one of Africa’s most visible champions of a new foreign policy language. During his 2024 state visit to Washington, an emboldened Ruto told me that Kenya was “not looking East or West, but looking forward.”

It is an appealing phrase. It suggests an Africa that refuses to be trapped in old Cold War binaries — an Africa confident enough to pursue its own interests rather than choose between Washington, Beijing, Brussels, or Moscow.

But foreign policy is not measured by slogans. Sometimes it requires making difficult choices.

Lately, Kenya’s choices have raised uncomfortable questions about whether it is genuinely pursuing African agency or merely repackaging old patterns of dependency and divide-and-rule politics.

The contradiction was already visible during South Africa’s G20 presidency. For decades, African leaders complained that global institutions excluded African voices. When Africa finally secured its first G20 presidency, led by South Africa, one might have expected enthusiastic support from across the continent.

Instead, Kenya downgraded its participation, sending a diplomat rather than senior political leadership to a moment of profound significance for Africa. Countries from every corner of the globe dispatched heads of state, foreign ministers, and other senior cabinet members. Kenya did not.

The issue is politically explosive because many Kenyans see the arrangement as shifting the health risk from the United States onto Kenya. Protesters argue that if Americans are exposed to Ebola, they should be quarantined in the United States rather than in East Africa.

It felt suspiciously as if Kenya was prioritising its special relationship with Donald Trump’s administration in Washington — which shunned the Johannesburg summit — over a collective African position.

“We are not America’s quarantine zone.”

This week’s protests in Kenya, directed at the controversial plan by the United States to establish a 50-bed Ebola quarantine facility at the Kenyan Air Force base in Nanyuki, Laikipia County, for Americans who may have been exposed to Ebola in neighbouring countries, reinforce that perception.

The issue is politically explosive because many Kenyans see the arrangement as shifting the health risk from the United States onto Kenya. Protesters argue that if Americans are exposed to Ebola, they should be quarantined in the United States rather than in East Africa.

The protesters’ opposition to transferring sick people to places where they can infect others is backed by no less an authority than Donald Trump. During the last major Ebola outbreak in 2014, Trump was scathingly critical of the Obama administration for bringing infected people back to the United States.

These were Trump’s words:

“How incompetent are our leaders allowing these Ebola infected people to come into our country with all of the problems and danger entailed! The US cannot allow EBOLA infected people back. People that go to far away places to help out are great — but must suffer the consequences!”

Redi Tlhabi is a South African journalist, producer, author and a former radio presenter.