Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta arrives at the White House for a group
dinner during the US-Africa leaders summit in Washington DC on August 5,
2014. AFP PHOTO | BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI
By EDITH HONAN, Reuters
In Summary
- Uhuru has been touting the country as a resource-rich hub of innovation, talking up the benefits of East African integration and detailing vast plans to improve the country's shaky infrastructure.
President Uhuru Kenyatta, in Washington this week to
court Western investors, has sought to downplay a spate of violent
attacks tied to militants in neighbouring Somalia and their impact on
Kenya's economy.
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"Yes, we may have pockets where we have problems - which we
know and are focused on how to address. But the rest of the country is
actually trouble-free," Kenyatta told Reuters in an interview on
Thursday from a hotel overlooking the White House.
Kenyatta, the son of Kenya's founder who was
elected last March to lead East Africa's biggest economy, has been
touting the country as a resource-rich hub of innovation, talking up the
benefits of East African integration and detailing vast plans to
improve the country's shaky infrastructure.
But he has also been plagued by questions about security.
Last September, Somali-linked Islamist militants
attacked Nairobi's Westgate mall and left at least 67 people dead. This
summer has seen a spate of killings, mostly along Kenya's coast,
prompting several Western nations to warn their citizens against travel
to parts of Kenya.
In June, after two attacks left 65 people dead on
the coast, Kenyatta dismissed claims of responsibility by the al Shabaab
militant group, instead pointing the finger at rivals he described as
"hate-mongers," though he did not name anybody.
"Look, we know that al Shabaab played a part,"
Kenyatta said on Thursday. But he again suggested that "local networks"
in Kenya were also involved in an effort "to help achieve a petty
political agenda."
Al Shabaab has said its attacks are intended to
punish Kenya for sending troops to Somalia to confront its Islamist
fighters. Kenyatta has repeatedly said he had no intention of removing
Kenyan troops from Somalia, saying that would only be done when the Horn
of Africa nation, which has been without a functioning government for
more than two decades, is stable and can secure its borders.
Kenyatta has mostly kept a low-key profile at this
week's US-Africa Business Forum, a three-day summit meant to showcase
America interest in improving trade and investment on the continent. But
he said he believed the gathering had helped make American businesses
aware of opportunities in Africa.
Although Kenyatta said he hoped to attract
investors in the power, resource extraction and technology sectors, he
said Kenya was meanwhile working to make the country more hospitable to
business, in part by making it easier to move goods.
Asked to name his top three infrastructure
priorities, Kenyatta said he aimed to double the country's road network,
expand its rail sector and complete a second container terminal at the
Indian Ocean port of Mombasa - the biggest in east Africa and the
region's trade gateway.
Kenyatta added he would like to see completion of a
second port in Lamu, north of Mombasa - part of a $25.5 billion
regional infrastructure project aiming to link landlocked east African
nations to the sea - as well as a new passenger airline terminal in
Nairobi.
"It may not be complete within five years,"
Kenyatta said of the five projects, "but if Kenyans give me an
opportunity for a second term they should be complete by the end of my
second term."
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