Promoting Kenya’s National Interests through Strategic Communication: Challenges and Opportunities
Authors: Mugo William 
Published: February 2024

Purpose: Throughout history, nations have sought to protect, promote and advance their national interests. Countries use various elements and instruments of national power in pursuit of those national interest. These includes military, diplomatic, economic and information. Like other nations, Kenya employs these instruments in various ways. Strategic communications, forms a key element of the information aspect of national power. Despite the importance of strategic communications in the pursuit of national interests, this paradigm has not been fully acknowledged nor been substantially leveraged on. This study therefore had the key objectives of determining the role of strategic communications in selected case studies in promotion of national interests, examining the role of strategic communications in promoting Kenya’s national interests and identifying opportunities and challenges of strategic communications in promoting national interests.

Methodology: This study adopted a pragmatic research methodology. Both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies were adopted. The qualitative research offered the usual narrative information collected through interviews. While information acquired through questionnaires and interviews offered quantitative data necessary data on the role of strategic communication in promoting Kenya’s national interests. Being a cross-sectional research study, the researcher used interviews for gathering data, and questionnaires for data collection. This study used purposeful sampling to    choose 86 respondents in ‘Job Group’ ‘P’ and above from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Internal Security and National Administration and the Ministry of Information Communication Technology and Digital Economy based in Nairobi. The quantitative data gathered from the questionnaires was coded, edited, organized, and analyzed with the assistance frequency tables, whereas the qualitative data obtained from the open-ended questions of the interviews is thematically analyzed in accordance with the research objectives.

Findings: The findings reveal that the Government of Kenya has attempted to institutionalize strategic communications in various Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs). This study further shows that if well capacitated, coordinated and provided with requisite leadership, these institutions provide opportunities that would be useful in the synchronization of the instruments of national power. The study identified various opportunities as well as challenges encountered in the utilization of strategic communications in promoting Kenya’s national interests.

Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: This study was informed by Institutional and Realism theories. The Institutional theory has been identified as one of the most prominent theoretical perceptions of organizational and management research while Realism is considered a longstanding theory, critical in understanding social phenomena from different perspectives. The study recommended the entrenchment strategic communications in the National Security Council (NSC) by setting up an office of strategic communications and coordination under the NSC. Moreover, there is need to ensure implementation of the National Communication Policy and Strategy while ensuring harmonization through a whole government approach that can lead to policy coherence.