Kenya and the UAE are strengthening their ties as Nairobi prepares to sign a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with Abu Dhabi during the upcoming state visit of Emirati President Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Foreign Office announced on Thursday.

Nairobi has intensified its engagements with senior government officials to finalize the Kenyan draft document ahead of the bilateral agreements. 

This comes just weeks after Musalia Mudavadi returned from Abu Dhabi, where a Joint Commission for Cooperation (JCC) between the two countries took place.

Top diplomat Musalia Mudavadi has been engaging with officials from various Kenyan government institutions in preparation for the first Emirati state visit to Kenya in forty years.

“The CEPA Agreement will provide the necessary foundation for Kenya and UAE to expand and deepen trade and investment ties and will underscore the strength of the growing bond between the two countries,” read an X post from the Office of the Prime Cabinet Secretary after Thursday’s meeting.

Kenya-UAE relations have accelerated significantly since President Ruto took over from Uhuru Kenyatta in September 2022.

The agreement, set to be signed at a yet-to-be-disclosed date, aims to build on the growing economic and trade momentum between the two countries and create new opportunities for economic cooperation.

Diplomatic relations between Kenya and the UAE began in 1982 when Kenya opened its embassy in the UAE, with the UAE reciprocating by establishing a mission in Nairobi in 2012. 

The first state visit by a Kenyan leader to the UAE was made by President Daniel Moi in 1980, which was reciprocated in 1984 by the late Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the UAE’s founding father. 

Former Presidents Mwai Kibaki and Uhuru Kenyatta also made state visits to the UAE.

The UAE, seeking to expand its geopolitical influence, is increasingly asserting its presence in the Horn of Africa and across the continent, challenging the dominance of established players like the US and the BRICS nations, including India, Russia, and China.

Over the past decade, the UAE has emerged as one of the largest investors in Africa among GCC states and is the fourth-largest global investor in Africa, following China, Europe, and the United States.

According to real estate consultancy Knight Frank, in 2018 alone, the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development financed more than 66 projects in 28 African countries, valued at $16.6 billion.

Between January 2016 and July 2021, the UAE invested $1.2 billion in sub-Saharan Africa, accounting for a staggering 88 percent of the GCC’s total investment in the region during that period.

Currently, Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, and to some extent Doha, are competing for strategic influence and trade across the continent. 

When Addis Ababa finalized a sea access agreement with Somaliland, a breakaway region of Somalia, Abu Dhabi had already exerted considerable influence in developing and expanding the Berbera port, highlighting the UAE’s strategic interests in the Horn of Africa.

Analysts noted that Abu Dhabi’s influence was evident when the deal was signed. In May 2016, DP World, a maritime trade conglomerate based in Dubai, entered a $422 million deal with the government of Somaliland to transform the port into a key regional trade hub.

In Kenya, the UAE is also interested in carbon markets, while in neighboring Tanzania, DP World won a bid in late 2023 to upgrade and operate part of Dar es Salaam port.

These developments highlight the UAE’s substantial commercial and security relationships in East Africa.