Obama visit signals better diplomatic ties with US

Politics and policy

US President Barack Obama waves as he and First Lady Michelle Obama board Air Force One prior to departing from Air Force Station Palam in New Delhi on January 27, 2015. AFP PHOTO | PRAKASH SINGH  

By CHARLES MWANIKI, cmwaniki@ke.nationmedia.com

In Summary

• Mr Obama’s visit for the 2015 Global Entrepreneurship Summit will be the first by a sitting US President to Kenya, but his fourth on the continent.
• The impending visit was announced on Monday at a joint Press conference by State House spokesman Manoah Esipisu and US Ambassador to Kenya Robert Godec.

US President Barack Obama’s plan to visit Kenya in July has offered the clearest indication yet of the continued warming of US -Kenya relations.

They had sank to their lowest depth in March 2013 with the election of Uhuru Kenyatta as Kenya’s president while he faced crimes against humanity charges at the International Criminal Court at The Hague.

Mr Obama’s visit for the 2015 Global Entrepreneurship Summit will be the first by a sitting US President to Kenya, but his fourth on the continent.

Mr Obama last visited Kenya, his father’s home country, in 2006 when he was a senator. The impending visit was announced on Monday at a joint Press conference by State House spokesman Manoah Esipisu and US Ambassador to Kenya Robert Godec.

The visit comes in the aftermath of the termination of the case against Mr Kenyatta at The Hague, which was seen as one of the reasons Mr Obama skipped Kenya during his last tour to Africa in mid-2013 when he also visited neighbouring Tanzania.

“President Obama will visit Kenya in July 2015 for bilateral meetings with President Kenyatta and to attend Global Entrepreneurship Summit 2015,” said Mr Esipisu.

The summit brings together entrepreneurs in Africa and the world, connecting them with leaders of business, international organisations and governments. Ahead of the 2013 elections, the then Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson had warned Kenyans that ‘‘choices have consequences’’ in an apparent reference to the candidature Mr Kenyatta and his running mate William Ruto— now Deputy President - who were facing charges at the Hague.

READ: US President Barack Obama to visit Kenya in July

Mr Carson’s statement was taken to mean that the election of Mr Kenyatta would see the US distance itself from close contact with the new administration.

However, the relations have warmed allowing Kenya to increase its trade with the US, which saw exports to Kenya more than double last year. 

Kenya imports from the US rose 165.3 per cent to $1.5 billion (Sh137.46 billion) from $594.5 million (Sh54.4 billion) in 2013, according to data from the US Department of Commerce.

Kenya has in the past decade increasingly looked East for trade and project financing as relations with Western powers cooled.

Major infrastructure projects such as the Standard Gauge Railway and Mombasa port expansion now financed by China and Japan.

The US has been trying to claw back lost ground on the continent, and under Mr Obama’s tenure it has rolled out the $20 billion Power Africa initiative which aims to provide funding for renewable energy production in Africa.