President William Ruto on Monday, August 5, 2024, hosted US Senator John Cornyn at the State House.
In a statement, Ruto noted that Kenya and the United States always find common ground in many areas of mutual benefit because of the shared values of freedom and democracy.
“Our two countries are working closely on regional peace and security, and the renewal of the African Growth and Opportunity Act. We are also negotiating a Strategic Trade and Investment Partnership,” Ruto said.
Also accompanying the Texas Senator who has held his seat since 2002 was US Ambassador to Kenya Meg Whitman.
Cornyn sits in the Finance, Intelligence and Judiciary committees in the US Senate.
The discussions centred around security and bilateral trade given the status of Kenya as a strategic partner of the United States in the Horn of Africa region.
Ruto as security partner
The visit comes after Ruto visited the US where he pledged to send troops to Haiti, where gangs had overran the country.
The first batch of 400 Kenyan police officers was flagged on June 25, 2024, just weeks after US President Joe Biden and Ruto arrived at a bilateral agreement concerning the efforts to restore democracy in Haiti.
On July 16, a second contingent of 200 police officers left the country to join the UN-backed Multinational Security Support Mission in Haiti.
The second deployment came after the Caribbean nation’s Prime Minister Garry Conille asked Kenya to provide additional police officers to Haiti.
“The Prime Minister called for the deployment of additional Kenyan police officers in Haiti, expressing his optimism that the Multinational Security Support (MSS) team will control the gangs,” the former Inspector General of Police said in July.
Other countries which have pledged to contribute personnel to the peace-keeping mission in Haiti are The Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Benin and Chad.
Other key partnership areas between Kenya and America are the health partnerships including research on pandemics and HIV/AIDS.
“Decades of collaboration between the United States and Kenya in the health sector have resulted in tremendous improvements in health not only for millions of our citizens but also for the broader global community,” Biden said during the May 2024 visit by Ruto.
Other areas are education, refugee crisis, diplomatic exchange programs, sharing of climate solutions, humanitarian and disaster response and business and trade investments between the two countries.
During Ruto’s visit to the US, Coca-Cola promised to invest Ksh22.7 billion into the economy.