LONDON, (The Southern African Times) – Kenyan President arrives in UK tomorrow to chair Global Education Summit and strengthen Kenya-UK Strategic Partnership.
His Excellency President Uhuru Kenyatta will arrive in London tomorrow (27 July) for a packed three-day visit, which will see him co-chair the Global Education Summit with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and make major announcements strengthening the Kenya-UK Strategic Partnership.
Alongside meeting Prime Minister Johnson for talks at his country residence, Chequers, President Kenyatta will jointly announce major investments into Big Four projects, on affordable housing, manufacturing, and health partnerships.
The centrepiece of the visit will be co-chairing the Global Education Summit, which aims to raise $5 billion to educate children across the developing world over the next five years. The President will also meet senior members of the UK Royal Family as part of his visit.
The highlights of the three-day programme, as an official ‘Guest of Government’ of the UK, include:
- The President will attend an event at West London’s Kew Gardens, to celebrate the Kenya-UK Year of Climate Action, and Kenya’s leadership on climate change in Africa ahead of COP26. He will then by hosted by UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab in an event at Mansion House, in London’s historic financial district. The Foreign Secretary is expected to make significant announcements on the UK’s support for Big Four projects in Kenya.
- Prime Minister Johnson will host the President at Chequers, his country residence in Buckinghamshire, for bilateral talks. Senior UK Royals will also welcome the President.
- The President will co-chair the Global Education Summit, and focus on Kenya-UK health partnerships through COVID-19, as well as on cancer prevention and treatment.
The President will be joined by senior members of the Kenyan and UK governments throughout the programme, with side discussions on defence, the environment, foreign affairs, health, and finance.
It is 18 months since the President last visited the UK for the Africa Investment Summit. As part of that visit, the President agreed a new Strategic Partnership with Prime Minister Johnson. The two leaders are expected to discuss huge progress across all areas of the partnership in that time.
- Mutual Prosperity: A new Economic Partnership Agreement was ratified in May of this year, to boost trade worth already KES 200 billion a year.
- Security and Stability: Earlier this year, we refreshed the Kenya-UK Security Compact to strengthen regional security and fight Al-Shabaab. Further announcements on security cooperation are expected as part of the visit.
- Sustainable Development: In addition to co-chairing the Global Education Summit, Kenya and the UK have had an extremely strong partnership on COVID-19. The UK recently announced support to Kenya on genomic sequencing to track new COVID-19 variants.
- Climate change: We launched a Kenya-UK Year of Climate Action in January 2021 to drive Kenyan leadership in the region, and a agreed a joint action plan on tackling climate change in Kenya.
- People to People: Links between our universities and research institutions continue to grow, along with new visa routes open to Kenyans who want to work and study in the UK.
