The Implications of Geopolitical Re-alignmentsin East Africa on Governance

Executive Summary

The growing restiveness in the Eastern Africa (EA) states has underscored the impact of geopolitical realignments on governance. The Eastern African states tend to be more vulnerable to geopolitical realignments because of the region’s geostrategic location and their pliability to external influence. These vulnerabilities have impacted governance and public service delivery in regional states. Notably, the protests in Kenya are a reflection of the domestic governance and service delivery challenges that states across Africa are facing due the realignments. In EA, geopolitical rivalries and self-interests have hampered integration and cooperative initiatives, instead pushing states towards alignment with external powers thus entangling themselves in the new Cold War. One notable implication is the pervasiveness of external influence and ideas on domestic policies and governance. The West, especially the US is finding it difficult to balance the tension between an interests-based and values based foreign policy amidst China’s approach of non-interference in the internal affairs of African
states. The focus on values such as democracy, good governance, human rights, and anticorruption among others have put the US and Western allies in the position of neocolonial interference in African affairs, thus making China more popular in the continent because it does not emphasize such values. The net effect is that service delivery and governance decisions become unfavorable to the citizens as external actors ignore governance issues while focusing on self-interests. If not mitigated, this state of affairs will degenerate into proxy wars and destabilizations, internal revolutions, violent conflicts, interstate tensions, and subsequent regional instability. The brief notes that the region’s vulnerability to geopolitical influence affects the rule of law, democracy, economic and security governance, and the general service delivery by states. It recommends that regional states should diversify diplomatic relations to avoid aligning with one power at the cost of the other, prioritize public participation and homegrown solutions, while strengthening regional integration to enhance their common approach towards external geopolitical actors.