President William Ruto will on May 23 pay a state visit to the United States, White House has announced.
In a Statement on Friday, White House said President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will host President Ruto and First Lady Rachel Ruto for the visit, which will mark the 60th anniversary of U.S.-Kenya diplomatic relations.
The high-level visit, the first of the kind by an African leader to the White House since 2008, will also “celebrate a partnership that is delivering for the people of the United States and Kenya”.
State visits are considered to be the highest expression of friendly bilateral relations between two sovereign states, and are characterised by an emphasis on official public ceremonies.
“The visit will strengthen our shared commitment to advance peace and security, expand our economic ties, and stand together in defense of democratic values. The leaders will discuss ways to bolster our cooperation in areas including people-to-people ties, trade and investment, technological innovation, climate and clean energy, health, and security,” the statement said.
In addition, White House said, the visit will affirm US strategic partnership with Kenya and further the vision set forth at the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit: African leadership is essential to addressing global priorities.
Reacting to the invitation, President Ruto said the visit will provide an opportunity for the two governments and nations to celebrate 60 years of diplomatic relations, which began at the dawn of Kenya’s independence from colonial rule, and the birth of a free, open, democratic sovereign nation.
“I look forward to engaging with President Biden on a broad range of matters of mutual interest to our nations, not just in terms of sectors of economic, political and diplomatic spheres of endeavour, but also with respect to our shared commitment to the fundamental values which define the strong policy convergence and robust strategic alignment of our enterprises, peoples and governments,” Ruto said.
He added that Kenya views the state visit as a high profile opportunity to articulate a new era of dynamic partnership aimed at transforming trade and investment, green energy and climate action, digital technology and innovation, health and human development, peace and security as well as multilateralism and collective action to deliver shared prosperity for Kenya, Africa, the Global South and the entire world.
The visit follows that of Prime Cabinet Secretary and Foreign Affairs Minister Musalia Mudavadi two weeks ago and that of Defence CS Aden Duale a week ago.
The highest level of the presidential visit further cements Ruto’s Look West Foreign Policy orientation since he came to power in September 2022.
This will also be the third state visit by a Kenyan president after those of President Daniel Moi (February 19–22, 1980) and Mwai Kibaki (October 5–7, 2003).
Other than attending the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit in August 5–6, 2014, retired President Uhuru Kenyatta toured the US on two separate working visits in August 25–27, 2018 and February 6, 2020.
