Nation Branding

One of our key mandates of the Agency is to have an integrated mechanism for building and enhancing the Country’s image and national identity and rallying its citizens behind it. 

The Agency is tasked with the responsibility of identifying and refining the key attributes of Kenya that contribute positively to the image and reputation of the Nation and to enhance these characteristics and create an authentic and credible brand for the country that establishes our uniqueness in the global arena. 

Some of the key programs aimed at establishing an authentic brand for the country include: 

The Made In Kenya Brand Mark: This is a distinct and unique mark placed on locally manufactured products and services to help identify and authenticate them on local and global markets. Apart from creating competitiveness for locally produced products, it is also meant to ensure that producers take the responsibility of producing quality finished products for the local, regional and global markets.  

Public service Branding: Public Service is a crucial element of transformation in line with Vision 2030 and the image of the country. The actions and attitudes of Public Servants contribute to the country’s ratings as a destination and also shape public perception of government’s performance. Vision 2030 envisages “an efficient, motivated and well-trained Public Service as one of its major foundations”. 

In light of this, the Agency has developed a Public Service Branding Manual to unify the image of the entire public service and address prevailing challenges that paint public service as slow, vague, non-committal, and in the process enhance public service delivery. 

 This program focuses on embedding the concepts of branding and customer care into the management of Public Service. The objective is to ensure that the Public Service, which is the face government, projects the right image. 

The initiative thus seeks to: 

• Brand and position Public Service as a top corporate citizen. 
• Provide brand identity for communication in the Government. 
• Support foundations of Vision 2030 in the development of the Public Sector. 
• Articulate who the public service is and what it stands for. 
• Redefine a poorly defined and undifferentiated Public Service brand pictured as slow and incompetent  
• Build employees’ trust and pride, while encouraging them to act as ambassadors.  
• Meet the needs of an informed public who expect timely, efficient and fair access to information and service.  
   

Make it Kenya: The ‘Make it Kenya’ is an international campaign that the Agency launched to position Kenya as the destination of choice for trade, tourism and investment globally.  

This remains Kenya’s positioning statement for international markets intended to inspire pride in Kenyans while also luring business interests in Kenya and an assurance to the international community that Kenya is ready for visitors and business opportunities. 

The “Make It Kenya” therefore calls upon all tourists and investors to make Kenya their destination of choice for all their needs including investment opportunities in the country to increase the country’s competitiveness on the global stage. 

Buy Kenya, Build Kenya (Fashion Fridays Challenge): The Agency has been at the forefront in developing the textile and cotton industry, which are key sub-sectors in the Big 4 Development Agenda under the manufacturing sector. 

The Agency launched a comprehensive online campaign dubbed ‘Kenya Fashion Fridays Challenge’ to drum up support for Kenya’s vibrant fashion industry. The initiative is aimed at rallying Kenyans to wear authentic Kenyan-made brands and designs as a break away from the official corporate attires to replace the usual casual Friday dress down.  

The main goal of this initiative is to have all corporates take up the challenge and have their employees wear authentic Kenyan-made fashion brands. This is not only meant to enhance national pride but will also in the long run boost the entire manufacturing value chain, including the cotton and textile industry.    

Many corporates have so far taken up the cue in support of the initiative. The Agency continues to engage key stakeholders to push this initiative further that will in the long run promote local fashion designers, tailors, cotton ginneries, leather tanneries, and the entire value chain. 

Citizen Engagement Programs: The Agency has been involved in various initiatives in an effort to change citizen’s attitude and behavior change towards Kenya, the brand. The main objective is to foster national pride, patriotism and social cohesion.  

The Agency thus partners with stakeholders in various sectors to promote a positive country brand narrative and cause an attitude change towards the country brand. 

Some of the past activities that the Agency has been involved in include: 

• The National Youth Summit that the Agency undertook through County Forums in all the 47 Counties 
• ‘Sitarusha Mawe’ initiative in Kisumu mobilizing young people to be peaceful after 2013 general elections. 
• ‘Mambo mseto’ initiative across counties in partnership with Citizen TV. 
• Youth forums held across all the Counties to promote entrepreneurship, Leadership and social cohesion 
• Great Debaters Contest to disseminate Kenya national values in high schools 
   

Branding Kenya through Sports: Kenya is sporting nation widely known on the global map as the ‘Home of Champions,” thanks to its glowing track record especially in track events. 

Athletics is Kenya’s forte as numerous runners have earned the country medals at the grandest stages across the world. Kenya also prides in producing other excelling sporting categories like Rugby, Cricket, swimming, safari rally racing, amongst others. 

The Agency has in the past partnered with several sporting bodies including Athletics Kenya and Kenya Rugby Union to market Kenya globally.