US President Joe Biden welcomed Kenyan President William Ruto to the White House on Thursday for a state visit, pledging new partnerships on technology, security and debt relief to the leader of one the Africa’s strongest democracies.
Washington views the visit as an important step way to deepen relations with African nations at a time when Washington’s focus has been on wars in Ukraine and Gaza.
“We may be divided by distance, but we are united by the same democratic values,” Biden said while highlighting that the two countries are celebrating 60 years of partnership. “Today, as we begin the next decade of our partnership, we’ve launched a new initiative to bring our country’s companies and communities closer together,” he said.
Ruto responded, “Today, as we celebrate our past, we are optimistic about our future. By undertaking this state visit, we will have the opportunity to discuss and to have a conversation about building global partnership and leadership.”
President Joe Biden is leaning on the highest trappings of American diplomacy this week to boost ties with the East African nation, including designating Kenya a major non-NATO ally – the first in sub-Saharan Africa, and hosting a sunset state dinner on the White House South Lawn.
Biden offered praise for his Kenyan counterpart, including for Kenya’s leadership on “a historic African green industrialization initiative” as he welcomed Ruto to the White House for the visit.
“Together, the United States and Kenya are working to deliver on the challenges that matter most to our people’s lives – health security, economic security, cybersecurity, and climate security,” Biden said. “Mr. President, your bold leadership on this front has been important and particularly impactful.”
Highlighted agendas of co-operation
There will be new U.S.-backed investments in green energy and health manufacturing, along with a detailed plan to cut Kenya’s high debt load, most of which is owed to China, as the White House Press Release said.
The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation will announce $250 million in new investments in Kenya through the U.S. International Development Finance Corp, including $180 million for a major affordable housing project, a U.S. government official said.
The two leaders made a joint call for the international community to reduce the heavy debt burden of developing countries and do more to support poor countries that want to invest in development and climate technologies.
Haiti’s humanitarian crisis was another focus. Kenya’s plan to deploy 1,000 paramilitary officers to the Caribbean country as part of a U.N.-backed effort to curb gang violence and hunger has been delayed.
On Friday, they are supposed to discuss about digital inclusion in Africa with Vice President Kamala Harris at an event hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
How will this partnership affect China and Kenya’s relation?
Looming over the pomp and circumstance is China’s expanding role in Africa, which has become a central testing ground for the world’s two largest economies as they crave for economic and geopolitical influence.
Senior administration officials acknowledge a central factor in scheduling a state visit with Kenya was the desire to counter China’s influence and financial leverage on the African continent, which has outpaced the United States in direct investment.
“For many, many years, it was really the Chinese who showed up in Africa and in Kenya,” US Ambassador to Kenya, Meg Whitman told in an interview. With the first state visit for an African leader in nearly two decades, “there’s a specific message to Kenya and to the continent, which is: America wants to be your partner.”
For decades, China has been making high-interest loans to low-income African nations to help them fund development for domestic projects, including some flagship infrastructure projects within China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Among those: A high-speed rail route from Nairobi to Mombasa that the Kenyan government funded with billions in loans from Chinese state banks.
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A decade after the construction of that railway, Kenya and the US plan to announce that an American company will be building a roadway along that same corridor.
“That’s a great opportunity for America to start bidding on these big government contracts that make a difference to the infrastructure” Whitman told.
“Too many nations are forced to make a choice between development and debt, between investing in their people and paying back their creditors,” Biden said during a joint press conference with Ruto.
Today, I am as optimistic and hopeful as I was all those years ago when Kenyan patriots raised a new flag high into the midnight sky.
Kenya and the United States stand together.
Committed to each other.
Committed to our people.
And committed to building a better world. pic.twitter.com/KveKZzhApf— President Biden (@POTUS) May 24, 2024
Biden arranges a special dinner for Mr Ruto
The dinner was held in a glass pavilion on the White House grounds that was lit by 1,000 candles. The menu included heirloom tomato soup, butter-poached lobster, smoked beef short ribs and a white chocolate dessert.
Country singer Brad Paisley is headlining the dinner along with Howard University’s Gospel Choir, both of which are tributes to Ruto’s musical interests.
The menu featured fruitwood-smoked beef short ribs, poached lobster, chilled heirloom tomato soup and a white chocolate basket.
Guests made their red carpet arrival in an entryway adorned with red roses and hot pink orchids while Toto’s hit “Africa” played on violin. The extra-long guest list did require cutting some corners: The typical presidential receiving line was nixed because it would have taken too long to get everyone through.
Actor LeVar Burton of “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and “Reading Rainbow” fame joked that his word of the day for the modern political climate was “fraught,” but clarified that he meant it was fraught “with possibilities.” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell was there, as was his NBA counterpart, Adam Silver, who declared, “We need another basketball court at the White House.”
Former President Bill Clinton and his wife, Hillary, were on hand, as was another ex-president — Barack Obama — who popped by briefly early in the evening but didn’t stick around. During his toast to Ruto, President Joe Biden joked that attendees included “many members of the African diaspora, one who just left, Barack.”
