AFRICA-OBAMA/KENYA Kenya’s president says Obama visit will focus on security, trade links

Record ID: 146433

  • Title: AFRICA-OBAMA/KENYA Kenya’s president says Obama visit will focus on security, trade links
  • Date: 21st July 2015
  • Summary: NAIROBI, KENYA (JULY 21, 2015) (REUTERS) NAIROBI STATE HOUSE BUILDING KENYAN PRESIDENT UHURU KENYATTA WALKING TO PODIUM PRESIDENT KENYATTA KENYAN GOVERNMENT COAT OF ARMS (SOUNDBITE) (English) KENYAN PRESIDENT, UHURU KENYATTA, SAYING: "We have been working in very close collaboration with American agencies in our fight against terror and I am certain that that is an agenda
  • Embargoed: 5th August 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Kenya
  • Country: Kenya
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA6ZQNZM11KJYA5SLU77MFHTN96
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: President Uhuru Kenyatta said on Tuesday (July 21) that improving security cooperation and trade links between Kenya and the United States would top the agenda when U.S. President Barack Obama visits the east African nation later this week.
    A key Western ally in the battle against the spread of militant Islam out of Somalia, Kenya's security agencies receive training and equipment from United States, Britain and Israel.
    Yet over the past two years Kenya has suffered a series of major attacks by Somali Islamist group al Shabaab, including a massacre in April of 148 people at a Kenyan university near the Somali border.
    The violence has hurt Kenya's tourism industry, vital to east Africa's biggest economy, and has piled pressure on Kenyatta to improve security.
    Obama's two-day visit is due to start late on Friday (July 24).
    "We have been working in very close collaboration with American agencies in our fight against terror and I am certain that that is an agenda that we will further strengthen during this particular meeting. Strengthen our partnerships, strengthen our corporation because it is our common objective to ensure that not only Kenya, but the whole world is free from those who would wish to impose negative views on the rest of society," said Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta.
    Obama's visit to his father's homeland to co-host the Global Entrepreneurship Summit with Kenyatta has been touted by Kenya as global recognition of the economic strides Kenya has made in the past decade.
    Kenyatta said he wants more American companies to work with Kenyan firms in the energy and health sectors, as well as infrastructure development.
    Kenyatta added that establishing direct flights between Kenya and the United States will also be on the agenda as the lack of such a direct transport link was hurting business and tourism.
    He told a news conference that he hoped Obama's visit would help Kenya obtain the U.S. regulatory status required for direct flights there.
    "We're very keen and hopeful that some of the few pending issues that remain outstanding will be resolved so we can get the CAT 1 status that is necessary for us to be able to have direct flights between Kenya and the United States," he said.
    U.S. officials have previously cited concerns about security measures at Nairobi's main airport as the reason why the U.S. regulator has not allowed direct flights to Kenya.
    "Both countries have been keen to see us re-establish direct flights between our two countries because clearly, direct flights go a long way towards easing business and movement of both goods, the kind of exports that we also want to do. The movement of business people, the movement of tourists, direct flights make and simplify that whole process," added Kenyatta.
    But Kenyatta was dismissive when asked if he planned to discuss gay rights in Kenya.
    "It's definitely not on our agenda at all. We as a country, as a continent, are faced with much more serious issues which we would like to engage the US and all our partners with. We need to deal with the issues of poverty, improved health for our people, better education, better roads, these are the key focuses, better security, these are the key focuses of our partnership and these are the things that are important to us as Kenyans," Kenyatta added.
    Obama hailed last month's U.S. Supreme Court decision to allow same-sex marriage but in Kenya and other African countries, where more socially and religiously conservative views prevail, few agree with him.
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