Written by
Faridah N Kulumba
Africa-Press – Kenya. The President of the United States of America Joe Biden, on 14 October 2021, hosted Kenyan counterpart Uhuru Kenyatta at the White House in Washington.
Kenya is a major African player on the world geographical stage – as evidenced by the U.S President Biden’s decision to meet President Uhuru, Biden’s first in-person talks with an African leader since becoming president.
Both Presidents believe that it is essential to address key regional and global challenges, Biden noted, by VOA.
Bilateral remarks
According to the White House the two Presidents discussed their shared commitment to defending democracy and human rights, advancing regional peace and security, and accelerating economic prosperity through climate-smart solutions and the use of renewable energy.
The two leaders discussed democracy and human rights issues as well as security, economic growth, climate change and the need to strengthen financial transparency and accountability to domestic and international financial systems.
The White House also revealed in the statement that the pair “underscored the need to bring additional transparency and accountability to domestic and international financial systems and to advance peaceful resolutions to the conflicts in Somalia and Ethiopia.”
In Kenya’s next-door neighbor, Ethiopia, war has raged in the northern Tigray region for nearly a year. The conflict has killed untold numbers of people, the death toll itself is a subject of contention. The United Nations estimates the war has plunged 5.2 million people into a humanitarian crisis and more than 63,000 fleeing into neighboring Sudan.
Donations and pledges
The two nations are continuing their shared fight against Covid-19, the U.S has donated 2.8 million doses of vaccine to Kenya as part of the 50 million doses donated to the African Union. And during the meeting Biden announced that they were making an additional historic one time donation of 17 more million doses of Johson and Johnson vaccine to the AU, and that they will be sending some more of these by the end of the year to Kenya.
U.S-Kenya Relations during the Biden Administration.
The relations between the two nations are likely to improve more during Biden’s presidency, similar to the close ties enjoyed during the tenures of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
This is partly fuelled by the belief that U.S presidents belonging to the Democratic Party, such as Obama, have always given more resources in terms of aid and grants as well as special programs focusing on Kenya.
