Kenya deepens ties with Morocco, hold first joint cooperation commission
According to Kenya's newly inaugurated embassy in Rabat, the meeting successfully laid the groundwork for a forthcoming ministerial session to be held in Nairobi, marking the first official bilateral commission since Kenya opened a permanent mission in the Maghreb kingdom earlier this year.
Kenya is quietly recalibrating its North African diplomacy, deepening ties with Morocco months after abandoning its decades-long support for Western Sahara's independence.
A delegation led by Josphat Maikara, Director General for Political and Diplomatic Affairs, was in Rabat this week for senior-level consultations ahead of the inaugural Kenya–Morocco Joint Commission for Cooperation (JCC) scheduled for October 1–3, 2025, a clear sign of Nairobi's growing pragmatism and strategic alignment.
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According to Kenya's newly inaugurated embassy in Rabat, the meeting successfully laid the groundwork for a forthcoming ministerial session to be held in Nairobi, marking the first official bilateral commission since Kenya opened a permanent mission in the Maghreb kingdom earlier this year.
The warming ties underscore Nairobi's full endorsement of Morocco's Autonomy Plan, which it now describes as the only viable and sustainable framework to resolve the Sahara dispute.
This shift came after Foreign Minister Musalia Mudavadi's May 2025 visit to Rabat, where both countries issued a joint statement recognising Morocco's sovereignty and pledging to "cooperate with like-minded states" in advancing the plan.
The move represents a significant departure from Kenya's historical alignment with Algeria and the Polisario Front, long seen as the continent's last anti-colonial cause.
Algeria's military-backed regime continues to bankroll and host Polisario's leadership, sustaining its separatist agenda.
For Morocco, the diplomatic thaw with Nairobi is a vindication of its reintegration into the African Union in 2017 after a 30-year hiatus, a move that has steadily expanded Rabat's influence across sub-Saharan Africa.
For Kenya, it is a calculated bet: aligning with Morocco offers access to North African markets, investment opportunities, and strategic partnerships—without the ideological baggage of the Cold War-era alignments that once defined African diplomacy.
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