Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has arrived on a working visit to Kenya‘s capital of Nairobi, where he is scheduled to meet with the country’s leadership including President William Ruto.
Moscow’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced Lavrov’s arrival in Nairobi on Monday morning, without giving further details on the visit. The Russian embassy in Nairobi in a tweet said this would be “a very fruitful week for Russia-Kenya bilateral relations”.
President Ruto has skipped Nigeria’s Bola Tinubu inauguration slated for Monday. He instead sent Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi to represent him in the ceremony which is also being attended by retired president Uhuru Kenyatta.
Lavrov’s visit comes days after Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba made an African tour last week. The last time that Lavrov visited Kenya was in 2010. Lavrov’s current visit to Kenya is the Russian foreign minister’s fourth trip to the African continent in the past twelve months.
Last July, Lavrov visited Egypt, Ethiopia, Uganda and the Republic of the Congo. Six months later, in January, the minister went to South Africa, Eswatini, Angola and Eritrea, and in February he visited Mali, Mauritania and Sudan.
Russia has been on a charm offensive throughout the continent in order to strengthen ties following Western countries’ isolation and devastating sanctions.
“Happy to see Minister Lavrov in friendly Kenya,” the Russian Embassy in Nairobi tweeted on Monday.
Moscow has been eager to re-establish previous Soviet connections with African states and to buy influence on the continent as an alternative to perceived “self-interested” colonial powers such as the United Kingdom and the United States.
Russia has expressed an interest in increasing commerce with Nairobi in recent years, despite large gaps in data on Africa and near entrenched influence from new players like as China as well as its traditional foe, the US.
Russia is Kenya’s fifth-largest customer of tea, but the Ukrainian conflict has reduced the value of beverage shipments to Moscow by Sh1.1 billion. Russia is a major supplier of iron and steel, wheat, fertilizers, paper and board, copper, and oil to Kenya.
Russia is the world’s biggest wheat exporter, with Ukraine coming in fourth, and the product is the third-most eaten food in Kenya, trailing only milk and maize.
According to UN Comtrade, a collection of international trade information, Kenya’s wheat and meslin imports from Russia in 2021 were worth Sh12.6 billion ($106.37 million).
Kenya’s relationship with Russia has however dipped in the last one year since Moscow invaded Ukraine. Nairobi has consistently sided with Western countries in condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at the UN.
In November last year, Kenya joined 93 other countries in supporting a UN resolution calling for Russia to compensate Ukraine after invading it in February.
The non-binding resolution A/ES-11/L.6: ‘Furtherance of remedy and reparation for aggression against Ukraine’ by the UN General Assembly reflected the enduring indifference to African countries in condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But it did show significant support for Ukraine in seeking compensation and depicting Moscow as an aggressor in the war.
Ninety-four countries including Kenya, Ghana, Somalia and Djibouti voted to have Russia “bear the legal consequences” of its invasion of Ukraine, including recompensing for lost limbs, deaths or destroyed property.
“We had serious reservations on aspects of the resolution which were reflected in the outcome of the vote in the high number of abstentions and ‘no’ votes,” said Kenya’s ambassador to the UN, Dr Martin Kimani, in a note explaining Kenya’s vote.
“Despite this, we voted yes because it is the right thing to do. Ukraine has a sovereign right to make claims for damages and loses incurred by virtue of conflict.”
