Kenya
I decided to go to the official government homepage of Kenya because I was curious to see how an African country deals with public diplomacy and what “brand” they are trying to get across on it. By the look of the website, it seems that the Kenyan government is trying to get across an idea of centralization and organization, because the website really tries to show a stable country. It shows the laws and policies as well as other health care , education, business and many other important factors in the country. I would assume that this necessity in showing stability and organization stems from the history of disorder found in African Nations, so the Kenyans want to show that they have a strong government and nation just like other strong governments and nations in the world. I would also think that having a strong government would increase tourism (There is a section of the website that talks about going to Kenya to visit) so they are trying to get that message across as well. Another interesting bit of information is how many of the pictures of people seen on the website are smiling and having a good time. The government wants the world to know that the people are happy and the nation is strong (and if the people are happy then, by extension, tourist could also be happy in the country). Also, the country is a “soft power.” And the military isn’t even touched upon in the website (or maybe I am missing it). I guess whether they have a strong military or not doesn’t matter in terms of their public diplomacy. No one wants to think of the army or possibilities of war, and the Kenyans know this so they chose to leave it out and show the positive aspects of their nation.
http://www.kenya.go.ke//index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=4
-Andrew
