Kenya, unlike neighboring Ethiopia and the third African nation to join after South Africa, one of the founders, will not be joining BRICS in the near future.
The 15th meeting of the countries that want to create a parallel market to stop the hegemony of the dollar, held in Johannesburg (Brazil, Russia, India, China and precisely South Africa) sanctioned the entry of Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates into the group.
Present for Kenya was the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Alfred Mutua who issued a rather neutral and evanescent statement on his X Twitter profile, "Kenya has become a major player on the international stage because of our pan-African spirit, democracy and push for an equitable international financial system that supports people's development and frees nations from the yoke of debt slavery."

The fact of the matter is that the "debt slavery" the Brics are talking about is the abandonment of the U.S. currency and the possibility of creating a single currency that can compete and not force less wealthy countries to be driven.
Kenya's position has always been one of wait-and-see, although William Ruto has repeatedly expressed his support for U.S. and European Union economic initiatives, and when Russian President Vladimir Putin invited African heads of state for an economic summit in Moscow last month, Ruto was conspicuous by his absence, choosing to send a parliamentary delegation. Just as in Johannesburg these days, despite the presence of African heads of state such as Tanzania's head honcho Samia Suluhu, he preferred to delegate to Mutua.

On the other hand, last May 29, he welcomed Moscow's Foreign Minister Serghej Lavrov with a delegation headed right to the Johannesburg meeting, declaring at the end of the meeting that Kenya and Africa are counting on friends like Russia in the creation of a new UN Council architecture, while the press headlined that "Kenya-Russia relations are getting stronger." Recall that Moscow remains the largest exporter of grain to Nairobi and that maize meal is the country's major livelihood.

Ethiopia, on the other hand, had no doubts, as it had already made the formal application to join, and saw it accepted with official status as of January 1, 2024.
"This is a great moment for Ethiopia," wrote President Abiy Ahmed Ali, "today the leaders of Brics approved our entry into this group. Ethiopia is ready to cooperate with all for an inclusive and prosperous global order."
According to Ethiopia, South Africa and Egypt, who are also ready to convince other African nations, by joining the Brics, African economies will be able to benefit from the dynamics of the group's major economies and reap the benefits for their development, especially through trade.

What the Brics countries are leveraging for Africa is infrastructure projects, which Africa desperately needs to grow its economy. After China, India also recently surpassed the U.S. as the number of infrastructure projects under development or execution worth more than $25 million.
Currently, China has the largest number of infrastructure projects in Africa. Having helped, between 2000 and 2020, African countries build more than 13,000 kilometers of railways and more than 80 large-scale power plants. But it is clear that the African infrastructure gap cannot be filled by Beijing alone; there is a need for the active participation of other Brics members.

Far be it from us to add to the partisan chatter and economic-social parochialism, rampant in the media. We care about the fate of Kenya, and the entry of two major African powers like Ethiopia and Egypt makes it clear that, whichever way it goes, the African continent is not yet able to survive on its own internal market. The free trade agreement among the African Union countries had deluded, but without, for example, roads, railways, ports and airports, pipelines for transporting raw materials and so on, it will never be possible to achieve, let us not say economic independence, but at least a single currency and a good percentage of commercial autarky.
In the meantime, Kenya, hoping for everyone's help and that no one will be offended, is doing like the stars of the miners: it is just watching.