KALONZO & MARENDE

Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka has challenged Americans to match their desire for deeper partnership with Kenya with more action, development assistance and trade.

Concluding his visit to the US Sunday, Mr Musyoka argued that one way the Americans will help Kenya deal with her development challenges is by first- tracking her application to access the Millennium Challenge Account funds , just like the Bush administration did for neighbouring Tanzania. The East African nation received over 700 million dollars from the MCA.

On Saturday, the VP announced that Kenya is set to benefit from millions of dollars from the US Government through the MCA and increased investment funding through the United States Agency for International Development (USAid).

This followed a meeting between Vice- President Kalonzo Musyoka and senior officials of the US State Department in Washington led by Donald Yamamoto, the principal deputy assistant secretary.

The Millennium Challenge Corporation is a bilateral development fund established by the US Government in 2002 and put into operation in January, 2004.

Countries that participate in the MCC are selected on a competitive basis through a set of 17 indicators designed to measure their effectiveness in ruling justly, investing in people, and fostering enterprise and entrepreneurship.

The focus of the MCC is to promote economic growth in recipient countries; it puts the emphasis on good economic policies.

On Sunday, the VP also pressed for the lifting of travel advisories the US has issued to its citizens travelling to Kenya. He said some tourists interpret the advisories to mean Kenya was an unsafe place to visit , yet the reality on the ground is that no tourist has been targeted in Kenya.

This comes in the wake of news from the United Nations that Kenya’s capital Nairobi has been upgraded to level one headquarters just like New York, Viena and the Hague.

The VPPS said the interest shown on Kenya by members of several think tank groups and columnists as well as editors of leading newspapers in the US capital demonstrate the strategic importance of Kenya in the region At every meeting between Mr Musyoka and American politicians, senior governments officials , business executives or during a high profile presentation at the New American foundation, one message came through- Americans and Kenyans need to forge closer and mutually beneficial ties, it said.

Speakers in key meetings spoke of co-operation on tackling security concerns, increase in direct foreign investments, development assistance and trade between the two countries.

And participants at the forum where Mr Musyoka and House Speaker Kenneth Marende made presentations attest to this renewed interest by the Americans on Kenya. Those who showed up include a senior executive of Cocacola, representatives of the World Bank , Human Rights Watch , the State Department, Rand Corparation, IMF, International Republican Institute (IRI), the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and representatives of European and South American Embassies.

Predictably some of the burning questions revolved around the resurgence of extremists around East Africa and the Horn of Africa region.

But others wanted to know the condition of Kenya’s investment climate . Their questions centred on infrastructure and the upgrading of the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport from level two to a level one facility. This they said would enable goods to be flown directly from Nairobi to major American cities.