Sport diplomacy as a driver of regional cooperation and integration in East Africa.

Abstract

The correlation between sports and politics is a long and intriguing one. Human history, from antiquity, demonstrates that sport has always been exploited by the ruling elite to provide a utility ‘beyond the game’. Sports has been a useful tool for promoting regional cooperation and integration. Sports diplomacy is a term used to refer to the efforts of the state that involve the use of sports to promote national interests. Kenya’s foreign policy is anchored on five interlinked pillars; peace diplomacy, economic diplomacy, diaspora diplomacy, environmental diplomacy and cultural diplomacy. The cultural diplomacy pillar seeks to promote the use of sports diplomacy by recognizing the role of sports personalities in promoting Kenya’s national interest. This is a deliberate effort to use sports diplomacy in order to realize Kenya’s foreign policy objectives. Kenya’s foreign policy objectives include promotion of regional integration amongst others. This proposed study examined how Kenya uses sports to promote its regional cooperation and integration within East Africa. The study applied Liberalism Theory. The study employed mixed methods research design. Using Purposive and Snowball Sampling techniques, the study used interview method to collect primary data. Secondary data was also used. The data was then be sorted and analyzed to enable the researcher to make generalizations about correlations of the study variables. The study covered 2010-2019.