Since mid-last year, there have been a number of high profile visits in the country, each one of them coming with different intentions or reasons from another. Have any fruits been bored by these visits that keep going on and on?
Such visits started off mid last year when the President of the United States (POTUS), Barack Obama toured the country. The main reason for President Obama’s visit was to grace the 2015 Global Entrepreneurship Summit that was being held in the country. Apart from that, He also met with leaders from the government business and civil society.
This trip was meant to act as a reinforcement of the United States commitment to expanding economic growth and trade, thus strengthening democracy on a global scale, and investing in the next generation of African leaders. As a fresult of his visit, agreements of up to 1.2 trillion were struck between the American Government and Kenya
Documents show that National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich and US Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker signed a memorandum on a series of mega deals that have created a new economic development partnership that will see investments in the Lamu port, an oil pipeline, power plants, urban commuter rail and highways, and various projects in the health and tourism sectors.
Four months after POTUS visited the country, Pope Francis also made his first ever visit to Africa, and among the countries that were scheduled to be visited, Kenya was among them. The pope spent a total of 3 days in the country. During his visit, the Holy Father tackled issues of peace, inclusivity and tolerance.
The World Trade Organization (WTO) later on, in December had its 10 Ministerial Conference in Nairobi. Among the main issues that were being discussed included agriculture, cotton and issues related to least-developed countries. These included a commitment to abolish export subsidies for farm exports, which were stated as the “most significant outcome on agriculture” in the organization’s 20-year history.
Have there been any results from the conference? Has the agricultural sector, which was the key area of discussion improved? We had a lot of expectations on this, but there is nothing that has proved to be as a result of WTO being held in the country for the foist time in history.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel visited the country early this month. He became the first Israeli Prime Minister to visit sub-Saharan Africa in almost 30 years. Netanyahu began his four-day tour that will encompass visits to Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda and Ethiopia, in what he has described as Israel’s attempt to “return to Africa in a big way.
The main reasons for his visit were among them, leading a business forum with the Kenyan President. Israel is also expected to launch a $13 million development package for African states, which will include assistance in the sectors of agriculture, health and domestic security.
All these visits signify that Kenya is increasingly playing an important role in the global arena and it is also a measure of the growing confidence that the international community has shown in Kenya. one thing to be noted is that, despite the high expectations that the country expected from the visits, it looks like there is no impact that is being felt at all, thus the question still remains to be, should such high profile continue taking place?