President Uhuru Kenyatta will next week visit Kingston for bilateral talks with Jamaica Prime Minister Andrew Holness, State House has said.
The two leaders and their respective delegations are expected to discuss and explore opportunities for enhanced bilateral relations between Kenya and Jamaica, a press statement to media houses by State House spokesperson Kanze Dena-Mararo said.
Kenyatta and Holness last met in June last year at the G7 Summit in Quebec, Canada, where they discussed athletics, agriculture and trade.
On boosting trade between the two countries, President Kenyatta and Prime Minister Holness agreed that Kenya could export its tea and coffee to Jamaica and in turn import peanuts from the Carribean country.
President Kenyatta also pledged commitment to work with Jamaica in ensuring the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP) speak with one voice and is not splintered along continent lines.
The two countries are yet to exchange diplomatic missions but Jamaica has an honorary consul in Kenya.
During their meeting, they also explored codeshare for Kenya Airways to connect to Kingston which is three hours from New York.
President Kenyatta also cited the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP) saying: “We must strive to speak in one voice. We are weaker when splintered.”
The ACP is an organisation created by the Georgetown Agreement in 1975. It is composed of 79 African, Caribbean and Pacific states, with all of them, save Cuba, signatories to the Cotonou Agreement, also known as the “ACP-EC Partnership Agreement” which binds them to the European Union. There are 48 countries from Sub-Saharan Africa, 16 from the Caribbean and 15 from the Pacific. Like Kenya, Jamaica is also a member of teh Commonwealth Nations since 1962
