Tuesday, August 5, 2014

President arrives in Washington D.C for the US-Africa Leaders Summit

BY JIBRIL ADAN
WASHINTON, D.C , 4 AUGUST 2014 (PSCU)
President Uhuru Kenyatta has arrived in the U.S for the US-Africa Leaders Summit.
Less than an hour after arriving in Washington, D.C after a 14 hour flight from Doha, Qatar, President Kenyatta went straight to attend an event held to honor a former American ambassador to the United Nations.
The event, Gathering of Pan-African Leaders was held at the Mayflower Renaissance Hotel to honor Ambassador Andrew Young who for decades championed for key partnerships between the US and Africa.
Young is a pastor, civil rights leader and former congressman, ambassador and mayor and the first country he ever visited in Africa was Kenya.
In an article he published in theUSA Today on Monday, Young said, “Forty years ago, I went to Africa for the first time. Traveling to a World Bank meeting in Kenya with George Schultz (former US Secretary of Labor), who served as Treasury secretary during the Ford administration, we saw a view of Africa that had not been previously imagined.”
Since that visit, Young has championed closer partnership between Africa and the US.
Besides President Kenyatta, the event, which included a dinner was attended by other leaders who included President Paul Kagame of Rwanda and former US President Bill Clinton.
President Uhuru and Clinton chatted for more than 20 minutes after Clinton gave an opening address where he called for more partnership between Africa and the US.
The President’s visit will focus on strengthening ties between the US and Kenya in trade, capital investment, infrastructure, energy and security.
The President is scheduled to hold a number of high level meetings with Chief Executives of major US companies that are keen in investing or expanding existing investments in Kenya.
He is also set to meet a select group of businesspeople who have Kenya-specific investment proposals at a forum convened by the Kenya Private Sector Alliance, the Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the US Chamber of Commerce.
Investment opportunities for US companies in Kenya’s mega infrastructure projects, newly discovered petroleum deposits and power generation initiatives will be focused on during the President’s visit.
Prior to the President’s visit, several ministerial level meetings have been going on that have dwelt on power and infrastructure development and investments in health.
On Monday, Cabinet Secretaries Michael Kamau (Transport), Davis Chirchir (Energy and Petroleum), Henry Rotich (The National Treasury) and James Macharia (Health) spoke at a forum organized by the Corporate Council on Africa (CCA).
CCA represents major US companies including General Electric, Coca Cola, IBM and others.
Cabinet Secretaries Amina Mohamed (Foreign Affairs and International Trade) and Adan Mohamed (Industrialisation and Enterprise Development) attended a meeting at the World Bank where an extension of the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act were discussed.
Kenya has been championing a seamless renewal of the AGOA agreement.
On Tuesday, President Kenyatta will join other visiting African Heads of State for a schedule of events where they will be joined by US President Barack Obama.
Obama will later host the leaders to a dinner at the White House.
Ends.
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