Cabinet approves Kenya’s diplomatic expansion to Vatican, Copenhagen, and Hanoi
The Cabinet on Tuesday approved the establishment of a resident embassy in the Vatican City, a move aimed at deepening engagement with the Holy See and strengthening partnerships in education, health, and humanitarian work.
Kenya is widening its diplomatic reach with plans to open new embassies in the Vatican City, Copenhagen, and Hanoi, in what officials describe as part of the country's "global, moral, and development diplomacy."
The Cabinet on Tuesday approved the establishment of a resident embassy in the Vatican City, a move aimed at deepening engagement with the Holy See and strengthening partnerships in education, health, and humanitarian work.
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The Vatican, home to the Roman Catholic Church, plays an outsized role in peace-building, climate action, and global development.
Kenya's new mission will bolster collaboration with Catholic development agencies that already run more than 7,700 schools and 500 health facilities across the country.
The decision reflects a deliberate expansion of Kenya's diplomacy toward actors of moral authority rather than traditional geopolitical power, aligning with President William Ruto's Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda and its focus on social development.
Until now, the Vatican has been covered through Kenya's mission in Rome, which is also accredited to the Holy See.
In the same sitting, the Cabinet approved new embassies in Copenhagen, Denmark, and Hanoi, Vietnam, signalling Nairobi's intention to diversify its diplomatic network beyond traditional Western alliances.
The new embassy in Denmark will become Kenya's second in the Nordic region after the mission in Stockholm, Sweden, which covers the Nordic and Baltic states.
The Hanoi mission will be Kenya's fourth in Southeast Asia, joining existing embassies in Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, and Jakarta.
Its opening also comes months after a Kenyan national was sentenced to death in Vietnam for drug trafficking — a case that highlighted Nairobi's limited consular presence in the region.
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