WASHINGTON–U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) on Tuesday authored an op-ed for Foreign Policy arguing that countering Russian and Chinese influence in countries like Kenya will require the U.S. to dedicate more resources to fighting corruption and promoting good governance. Murphy made the case that the U.S. risks undermining the effectiveness of other forms of assistance, including humanitarian aid, investments in economic development, and security assistance, if we fail to support the people and institutions dedicated to ensuring their government is accountable to its people. As a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, Murphy traveled to Kenya in August to engage with key stakeholders on issues related to the U.S.’ relationships on the African continent, including deepening economic partnerships, U.S. support for humanitarian aid, and the Kenyan-led Multilateral Security Support mission in Haiti.

“I traveled to Kenya amid the demonstrations this summer with CARE, an international humanitarian agency that delivers emergency relief and executes long-term international development projects,” Murphy wrote. “We felt Kenyans’ frustration everywhere we traveled. Nearly every conversation found its way back to the issue of governance. This sentiment was especially noticeable among young people. According to the Ichikowitz Family Foundation’s 2024 African Youth Survey, nearly 60 percent of young Africans want to leave their home countries, one of the main reasons being corruption. Even in Kenya—which has a good democratic tradition, political stability, and impressive economic growth—people we spoke to described how too many of the country’s resources are lost, stolen, or wasted by corrupt or incompetent government officials.”

Murphy outlined how U.S. adversaries have exploited the corruption and poor governance in Kenya, leaving the country with failed foreign-funded projects and crippling debt: “Over the last 15 years, leaders in Kenya have financed major infrastructure projects by taking out loans from Chinese banks to pay Chinese construction companies. Many of the projects were of poor quality. Some never even materialized, such as a nearly $5 billion rail project that has become the target of criminal corruption investigations and remains unfinished seven years after construction began. The deals often included payoffs to government officials, who continued taking on more loans from China, the World Bank, and others to finance payments on the original debt. Kenya’s debt liability has since ballooned to $80 billion, and China is now the country’s largest bilateral creditor.”

Murphy argued for more resources and personnel to help the United States better support efforts to eliminate graft and bribery in Kenya and across Africa: “It’s time to get serious about fighting corruption in every country—whether it is a democratic nation, an authoritarian state, or something in between. If you total the amount of money the U.S. State Department spends annually on protecting democracy and fighting corruption abroad, it’s about $3 billion—which is what the Defense Department spends every two days. And, frankly, that $3 billion pales in comparison to the billions of dollars China, Russia, and other adversaries spend every year to undermine these fragile democracies. To tackle corruption more effectively, the United States must do two things. First, we need to increase our budget for democracy programs from $3 billion to at least $5 billion so we have more resources focused on governance. Second, we need to create a new category of foreign service officers dedicated to fighting corruption abroad so that every embassy has at least one staffer dedicated to protecting the rule of law from attack.”

Murphy concluded: “On a continent as dynamic as Africa, U.S. funding priorities are inevitably pulled in many directions. But we risk undermining the long-term effectiveness of other parts of our assistance packages if we fail to prioritize programs to support good governance and combat corruption. Corrupt environments stall economic growth and feed instability. Achieving key U.S. foreign-policy objectives such as checking the influence of China and Russia, expanding our network of global partners, and serving U.S. small businesses and workers is impossible if we don’t do a better job helping partners such as Kenya to strengthen their governance structures.”

Read the full op-ed HERE.

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