ABSTRACT
EU interaction with countries of the ACP-group is usually guided by regional and country strategy papers. The last Kenya-EU strategy paper in 2007 was to set the framework for cooperation for 2008-2013. Asked about a new strategy paper during an interview in Nairobi in March 2014, a diplomat involved in the negotiations responded with a smile on his face: ‘We are working on it’. Further probed as to when it would come out, he clarified (still with a grin on his face): ‘When it is finalized!’ In June 2014, a new National Indicative Programme for the time period 2014-2020 was eventually signed between the Commission and the Kenyan government. The delay in deciding on a new strategy paper and the vacuum of directions for future cooperation is indicative of wider ruptures in Kenya-EU relations that have not only emerged but intensified with the new Kenyan administration under President Uhuru Kenyatta that came to power in March 2013. This rupture follows roughly a divide between Kenyan perceptions of European paternalisation and patronage on the one hand, and European perceptions of Kenyan corruption and poor governance on the other. I would argue that both are true.
