Kenya and US Officials Open Trade Talks Amid Protest by Farmers

Trade representatives from Kenya and the United States have begun the negotiation round of the proposed bilateral trade agreement.

The four-day talks, which follow the round of conceptual discussions held in Washington, D.C. in February, commenced in Nairobi on Monday amid protests from Kenyan smallholder farmers.

The Kenyan negotiating team is headed by Trade Principal Secretary Alfred K’Ombudo while Assistant US Trade Representative for Africa Constance Hamilton is leading the US side.

The teams are engaging on 11 pillars of the proposed US-Kenya Strategic Trade and Investment Partnership (STIP), including agriculture, anti-corruption, digital economy, environment, climate change, transparency, good regulatory practices, MSMEs, workers’ rights, and youth and women participation.

STIP seeks to replace the more-than-two-decade-old African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa), which expires in September 2025. AGOA gives Kenya and 40 other sub-Saharan African countries duty-free and quota-free access to the US market for over 6,000 products.

Last week, Kenya Small Scale Farmers Forum (KESSFF) demanded that the Kenyan government halts ongoing trade negotiations, claiming the deal favors America and that they have not been involved.

 “We are particularly concerned with the agricultural chapter being opened for negotiations with the American government,” KESSFF said in a statement.

“We note that an agreement between a developing country like Kenya and a country that is one of the top agricultural exporters in the world is likely to have a significant impact on Kenya.”

The forum explained how Mexican farmers were impacted after signing an agricultural export deal with the US.

“Studies on the impact of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) on the agricultural sector in Mexico show that NAFTA destroyed Mexico’s agricultural sector, flooded Mexico with cheap agricultural imports, and led to the displacement of two million farmers!” the lobby said.

“The result is an uneven playing field that leaves poor farmers in poorer countries worse off while large agribusinesses reap the benefits of agricultural trade liberalization,” it added.

The US exported goods worth Sh93.43 billion to Kenya last year while buying merchandise valued at Sh76 billion from Kenya.