On May 20, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev welcomed Kenyan President William Ruto to Astana, marking the first-ever official visit by a Kenyan president to the country.
Kenya doesn’t have an embassy in Kazakhstan – though it now plans to open one – and Kazakhstan opened its embassy in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, only last year.
Of the Central Asian states, Kazakhstan has the largest diplomatic footprint in Africa, with embassies now in six countries (Algeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Morocco, and South Africa). Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan all have a single mission each in Africa. The latter two are in Egypt, while Kyrgyzstan opened an embassy in Ethiopia last year. Turkmenistan does not have an embassy anywhere in Africa.
Kazakhstan has had observer status in the African Union since 2013 and earlier this year Kyrgyzstan received that status.
It’s been an unusually busy 2026 in Central Asia-Africa relations, with Kyrgyzstan the most active player by far.
