Ambassador Guo Haiyan arrived in Nairobi on Tuesday to take up her post as the new China envoy to Kenya and Permanent Representative to the United Nations Environment Programme and UN-Habitat.
Guo was received at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport by staff at the China Embassy in Nairobi, Foreign Affairs ministry Deputy Director-General of the Asia and the Pacific Directorate Amb Jane Makori and representatives of Chinese companies and Chinese-funded institutions in Kenya.
“On behalf of the Kenyan government, Ambassador Makori extended a warm welcome to Ambassador Guo on her new appointment and said that the Kenyan government attaches great importance to its relations with China and is willing to fully support Ambassador Guo in performing his duties and work with China to promote new development of Kenya-China relations,” China Embassy said in a statement published on WeChat.
The statement further said Ambassador Guo noted that she was honored to serve as the Chinese Ambassador to Kenya.
She succeeds Amb Zhou Pingjian as the 18th Chinese envoy to Kenya.
As the new Chinese Ambassador to Kenya, she said she is ready to build on the work of her predecessor and work together with people from all walks of life in Kenya to deepen pragmatic cooperation, promote people-to-people exchanges, and work together to build a closer China-Kenya community with a shared future.
“China-Kenya friendship has a long history, bilateral relations are developing rapidly, and cooperation in various fields has yielded fruitful results. President Xi Jinping and President Ruto have met for two consecutive years, which has pointed out the direction for the development of bilateral relations,” the statement added.
Prior to her posting to Nairobi, Amb Guo was the China ambassador to Guyana until December 2024, having been posted there in October 2021.
Guyana President Irfaan Ali commended the envoy for her “extraordinary contribution to promoting Guyana-China friendship and pragmatic cooperation”.
