Prime Cabinet Secretary and Foreign and Diaspora Affairs CS Musalia Mudavadi will travel to Namibia on Sunday for the Mid-Term Review meeting on bilateral issues in Windhoek, where he will push for various interests for Kenya.
Through a statement by Communication Director jacob Ngetich, the OPCS said Mudavadi will among other engagements hold talks Namibia Vice President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah and Minister for International Relations and Cooperation Peya Mushelenga.
During the trip, Mudavadi will push for increased collaborations, including reviewing several business and diplomatic protocols and the Namibian establishment of a Diplomatic Mission in Nairobi.
In these talks, Mudavadi will sign various MoUs that are ready for signing. These include MoUs on a Bilateral Air Services Agreement initiated in 1993 and reviewed and re-initiated in 1999, and on Ports matters.
Others at different stages include an MoU on science, technology, and productive innovation between Namibia Airports Company and Kenya Airports Authority, a trade and investment agreement on reciprocal promotion and protection of investments and agriculture, livestock, water, forestry and fisheries.
The Foreign Affairs will also pursue direct flights for Kenya Airways and seek to secure a fifth freedom landing by KQ that is provided for SADC member states.
He will also push Kenyans to leverage the experience and expertise of the Namibia marine sector, including the blue economy.
TRADE RELATIONS
The visit will also seek to promote trade ties, whose balance of trade favours Namibi by up to Sh11.16 million.
According to Mudavadi office, Kenya exports an average of Sh106.31 million worth of goods, while it imports goods worth Sh117.76 million from Namibia.
Kenya’s exports to Namibia include medicament for reducing pain, syringes, electrical equipment, radar apparatus, automatic data machines, petroleum products, clothing, water and roses. Namibia’s exports to Kenya, on the other hand, include table salts, unwrought zinc, alcoholic beverages, molluscs, ethanol and clothes.
There is still potential for tea and coffee exports for Kenya and benchmarking and cooperation in livestock keeping, blue economy, beef and water dam building, and water conservation.
“Although Namibia has a relatively small population, thus making it a small market for retailers, it is rated the 26th most important new market for retailers, and the second most important in Africa after Botswana, per the Global Retail Development Index 2013 by AT Kearney,” Ng’etich said.
In his visit to Nairobi in May, Minister Mushelenga said Namibia would benefit from Kenya’s experience in agriculture, particularly tea and coffee, health, information and communication technologies and skills development through knowledge exchange between universities.
Both countries are signatories to the Africa Continental Free Trade Area(ACFTA), which they have ratified for health and education.
They are also members of the COMESA-SADC-EAC Tripartite Free Trade Area which is meant to accelerate economic integration for the people of the Eastern and Southern African region.
DIPLOMACY
Mudavadi will also seek to have Kenyans take advantage of the robust diplomatic relations and visa-free protocols to invest in the cereal sector.
The Prime Cabinet Secretary will follow up with Namibia on its promise to give Kenyan business people five-year multiple-entry business visas.
This is following Kenyan investors’ concerns about the issuing of business visas to explore investment opportunities in Namibia.
Kenya and Namibia have signed MoUs on visa abolition, technical cooperation in health, the recruitment of health personnel, cooperation in aviation training, diplomatic training, and cooperation in the field of youth affairs.
Mudavadi will also lobby for the candidature of former Prime Minister Raila Odinga for the AU Commission Chairperson position in the February 2025 elections.
