NAIROBI – Kenya and the Czech Republic are set to formalize a Defence Cooperation Agreement with Cabinet approval.
This emerged on Monday during bilateral talks between Defence Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale and Czech Ambassador Nicol Adamcovà at the Defence Headquarters in Nairobi.
Duale said Kenya and Czech have been strategic partners in different sectors of the economy, majorly in trade, but noted the two countries have also enjoyed warm relations in defence cooperation.
Czech Armed Forces have had joint training, which Duale said is key in knowledge and skills transfer, since 2009.
“To broaden these already tight ties, we explored the expected gains upon approval of the draft Defence Cooperation Agreement (DCA) between our two countries, which will encourage joint operations in counter-terrorism, cybercrimes, training and defence research development,” Duale said.
Duale said the draft Defence Cooperation Agreement, which has been negotiated, now awaits approval by the Cabinet.
The agreement will further enable Kenya and the Czech Republic to partner in the defence industry, military medical services, joint defence welfare and disaster response.
Moreover, the two leaders observed that there exist numerous areas of possible future cooperation in the space sector, cyber security and green energy.
The envoy said they reviewed defence and security cooperation, noting that the two states are trusted and valued partners in “the complex and complicated world of today”.
When presenting her credentials to President William Ruto on September 1, Ambassador Adamcová said her pririties would be on mutual cooperation in research, development and innovation in digitization, cyber security, energy sector, space technologies, water management, agriculture and wildlife and biodiversity protection.
Present at the deliberations was Col. Duncan Keitany, Col. Operations at the Defence Headquarters.
