President Uhuru Kenyatta on Wednesday met British Prime Minister Boris Johnson for bilateral talks on the second day of the Kenyan leader’s official visit to the United Kingdom.
The leaders meeting at Chequers, the Prime Minister’s official country residence in Buckinghamshire, discussed the deepening of the Kenya-UK historic ties as well as explored new avenues of bilateral cooperation.
In their broad discussion, the President and the Prime Minister were clear that it was necessary to maximise on the benefits of a strategic partnership they signed when the Kenyan leader last visited the UK.
“It is time to fully pick up from the agreements last year. Implementation was affected by Covid-19 but we must start to strongly deliver on that agreement,” President Kenyatta told his British host.
On his part, Prime Minister Johnson reiterated his his administration’s commitment to continue working with Kenya in expanding British business footprints in Africa so as to reclaim the declining volumes of UK investments on the continent.
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President Kenyatta and his host also spoke about the Covid-19 pandemic especially the growing challenge of access to vaccines for Kenya and the rest of the developing world.
Prime Minister Johnson pledged additional vaccines on a bilateral basis, in addition to the 400,000 doses announced earlier on Wednesday.
“As friends and allies, we are sharing UK vaccine doses to support Kenya’s fight against the pandemic,” Prime Minister Johnson said.
The two leaders also discussed several areas of mutual interest including regional peace and security.
President Kenyatta was accompanied to the meeting by Cabinet Secretaries Ukur Yatani (National Treasury), Raychelle Omamo (Foreign Affairs) and Dr Monica Juma (Defence) as well as Kenya’s High Commissioner to the UK Amb Manoah Esipisu and State House Deputy Chief of Staff Ruth Kagia.
