NAIROBI, Kenya — President Donald Trump has nominated seasoned career diplomat Henry Wooster to serve as the next United States Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Kenya, the White House announced on June 1, 2026, transmitting the nomination to the U.S. Senate for confirmation.
Wooster, a Virginia-based career member of the Senior Foreign Service holding the distinguished rank of Minister-Counselor, brings over three decades of diplomatic and military experience to what analysts consider Washington’s most strategically critical mission in Sub-Saharan Africa.
“Henry Wooster, of Virginia, a Career Member of the Senior Foreign Service, Class of Minister-Counselor, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Republic of Kenya,” the White House said in its formal nomination document.
If confirmed by the Senate, Wooster will end an 18-month diplomatic vacuum in Nairobi. The post has been managed in an acting capacity by Chargé d’Affaires Susan M. Burns since the resignation of former Ambassador Meg Whitman in late 2024, following Trump’s re-election. Whitman, a tech billionaire and Biden political appointee who had publicly criticized Trump, stepped down as her position became politically untenable under the new administration.
Wooster’s résumé is built on experience in some of the world’s most volatile hotspots. Most recently, he served as Chargé d’Affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, navigating one of the Western Hemisphere’s most unstable political environments. Before that, he served as U.S. Ambassador to Jordan from September 2020 to July 2023, managing complex Middle Eastern security alliances and major refugee crises. He also previously served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, Deputy Chief of Mission in Paris, and held postings in Islamabad, Moscow, Baghdad, and Tbilisi. Before joining the Foreign Service in 1991, he served as a U.S. Army officer, including a stint with Special Forces.
He holds a Master of Arts from Yale University and a Bachelor of Arts from Amherst College.
Wooster’s confirmation, if granted, will place a hard-nosed career diplomat at the helm of a mission facing mounting pressures — from deepening counterterrorism cooperation against Al-Shabaab, to revitalizing trade under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), to managing geopolitical competition from China and Russia across the region. His arrival also comes ahead of Kenya’s highly anticipated 2027 general elections, a period during which Washington traditionally monitors governance and electoral integrity closely.
The nomination is part of a broader White House reshuffle spanning multiple regions, with new ambassadorial picks announced for Brazil, Colombia, Egypt, Jordan, Indonesia, and several African nations including Equatorial Guinea, The Gambia, and Sierra Leone.
The nomination now moves to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for review before a full chamber confirmation vote.
