President Donald Trump has nominated Henry Wooster as US Ambassador to Kenya. His name has been sent to the Senate for approval.
“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,” White House says in a document sent to the US Senate for his approval.
Amb Wooster has been serving as the Charge d’affaires at the US Embassy in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
He served as a US Army officer before joining the Foreign Service and holds an M.A. from Yale University and a B.A. from Amherst College.
According to his official biography, prior to his appointment in Haiti, he was the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs.
He also served as Ambassador to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan from September 2020 to July 2023 and before that as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Maghreb and Egypt.
His other past assignments include: Deputy Chief of Mission in Paris, Chargé d’Affaires at US Embassy Amman, Political Counselor at US Embassy in Islamabad and the Director for Central Asia at the National Security Council.
He also served as Foreign Policy Advisor to the Commanding General, US Joint Special Operations Command, Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Iran, Director of the Office of Iranian Affairs, Deputy Director of the Office of Provincial Affairs, Embassy Baghdad, Special Assistant to Deputy Secretary Jack Lew, Deputy Director, Office of Iranian Affairs, Iran Desk Officer, Political Officer, Embassy Moscow, Executive Officer, US Mission to NATO, Desk Officer, the Office of Russian Affairs, Consul, Embassy Port au Prince, and Political Officer, Embassy Tbilisi.
Amb Wooster has been nominated alongside Nick Oberheiden for the Arab Republic of Egypt, Stanley Brown for the Republic of Equatorial Guinea and Stanley Brown for the Republic of Equatorial Guinea.
Others are: Laurence Socha for the Republic of The Gambia and Daniel Travis for the Republic of Sierra Leone.
If approved, he shall succeed Amb Meg Whitman, who concluded her term in 2024.
Susan M. Burns, the Chargé d’Affaires, has been acting as the head of mission and top United States diplomat in Kenya since then.
