Securitization of Foreign Aid in Africa: A Case Study of Kenya

This research is considered timely because although the key donors have continued to advance foreign aid into to Kenya, there exists little economic development in the country. With three years to the deadline of achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the country is less likely to achieve any of them. Evidently, Kenya is increasingly becoming a terrorist target especially after the Kenyan Defense Forces (KDF) ventured into Somalia to fight the Al Shabaab. Increased foreign aid and joint security exercises with foreign security outfits raises concern on whether such actions are beneficial to Kenya’s development or they foster foreign actor’s interests. Though this study does not single out insecurity as the singular cause for the subordination of aid policies to security agendas of most donors, it appreciates the centrality of security as a growing facet of development policy and underscores key impacts to this development. Therefore, the central thesis of this study is to identify and analyze the effects of securitization of foreign aid in Kenya and by extension Africa. The study seeks to understand the nexus between development and security and the effect it has had on foreign aid disbursed to Kenya. The work identifies the patterns of economic growth in Kenya since her independence and traces some of the emerging trends of foreign aid securitization across time by different actors. The interests of the actors involved are also assessed against a backdrop of security concerns. Importantly, the impacts of securitizing foreign aid in Kenya are analyzed.