WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden welcomes Kenyan President William Ruto to the White House for a three-day state visit as the East African country prepares to send troops to Haiti as part of a United Nations-led effort to address the worsening security situation to peaceful the crisis in the Caribbean country.
Around 1,000 Kenyan police officers are expected to arrive in Haiti soon, part of a multilateral security assistance mission to support quell gang violence. Other countries expected to support the Kenyan armed forces include the Bahamas, Barbados, Benin, Chad and Bangladesh.
The United States has worked with Kenya for years to combat terrorism in Africa, including fighting the extremist group al-Shabab. Kenya participated in the Ukraine Defense Contact Group and an international maritime task force launched by the Biden administration in December in response to Houthi attacks on ships operating in the Red Sea.
Ruto’s decision to send police forces to Haiti was hailed by a senior Biden administration official as an “unprecedented undertaking” and a sign of global leadership from Kenya.
Kenya is the first African country to be honored by the US with a state visit since 2008.
“This is a deep and comprehensive partnership,” White House deputy national security adviser Jon Finer said this week. He added that it begins with fighting terrorism in Kenya’s own region of Africa and has expanded to “becoming a cybersecurity provider in our own hemisphere” with its upcoming deployment in Haiti.
The state visit begins when the two leaders attend an afternoon meeting with leaders at the White House focused on strengthening ties between the American and Kenyan technology sectors. According to the White House, executives from Teneo, Alphabet and Semiconductor Technologies Limited, among others, are expected.
First Lady Jill Biden greeted Ruto and his wife Rachel Ruto upon their arrival at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington.
Ruto, who also met House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) at the Capitol, said he wanted to operate the visit, among other things, to share his concerns about the challenges posed by high debt burdens in Kenya and across Africa bring yourself.
Kenya’s debt-to-GDP ratio is over 70%, much of which is owed to China. The rating agency Fitch estimates that it will spend almost a third of its government revenue this year on interest payments alone. Ruto said the talks would be about “how we can create a fairer international financial system where all countries are treated equally”.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the visit would include announcements from leaders on “how the international community can take action to ease the growing debt burden and spur inclusive growth.”
Biden and Ruto will hold formal talks and a joint press conference before a state dinner on Thursday. Ruto will also attend an event at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce with Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday.
The United States and Kenya are celebrating the 60th anniversary of their diplomatic relations. White House officials said the leaders’ agenda will include trade and investment, technological innovation, climate and immaculate energy, health and security.
Deputy Foreign Minister Kurt Campbell said the two countries would announce “significant commitments” to boost Kenya’s technology sector. Kenya is home to Google and Microsoft offices and has positioned itself as East Africa’s technology hub, known as Silicon Savannah.
Biden gathered dozens of African leaders in Washington in December 2022 to outline that the United States was “fully committed” to Africa’s future under his watch, and delivered billions of promised government funds and private investments on the continent in health, infrastructure, economics and technology. The Democrat also promised to visit sub-Saharan Africa in 2023.
But other priorities got in the way last year, including the war between Israel and Hamas and Biden’s long battle with Republicans to renew funding for Ukraine’s war with Russia. Biden’s promised visit to Africa never materialized. Sullivan said Biden still plans to visit Africa during his presidency.
At the same time, Russia has sought to expand its economic and military influence across Africa. US troops were recently withdrawn from Niger by the West African country’s ruling junta and are expected to complete their withdrawal by mid-September. Meanwhile, Russia has deployed military trainers to Niger.
The United States has also fallen significantly behind rival China in investing in Africa, which has become a key battleground in competition between major powers.
Biden and his aides expect there will be forceful economic competition with Beijing in Africa, but they have tried to argue that Washington is a far more reliable partner in Africa in the long run.
To that end, Biden took steps early in his presidency to devote more attention to Africa than his recent predecessors, including by inviting nearly 50 world leaders to the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit in December 2022 But since the summit, analysts say the government’s commitment has waned.
Cameron Hudson, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Africa program, pointed out that since the summit, Biden has hosted only one African leader, Angolan President João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço, for talks at the White House.
“This visit today feels a bit like a fig leaf, not just for Kenyans but for Africa in general, and a kind of placeholder for the government to say: all these things that we said early on in government, they all remain true,” Hudson said.
Ruto wants to operate the visit to boost his standing on the world stage, and he believes sending Kenyan police officers to Haiti will go a long way toward achieving that overarching goal, says Macharia Munene, a professor of international relations at United States International University-Africa.
“Ruto wants to be recognised as the leader of Africans, especially in the West. And this kind of recognition reinforces that desire,” Munene said.
Ruto said Kenya’s aim with the mission in Haiti was to “formulate actionable strategies that lead to long-term solutions in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere”. Haiti has suffered from poverty, political instability and natural disasters for decades. The United States has agreed to provide direct financial support, as well as training, logistical and material support, to the United Nations-backed mission.
But Ruto’s plan to involve Kenyan police in a crisis thousands of miles away also faced some resistance in Nairobi, including legal challenges aimed at blocking the deployment of police forces and long-standing concerns about alleged abuses by the police Police.
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Associated Press writers Evelyne Musambi in Nairobi, Kenya, Sudhin Thanawala in Atlanta, Seung Min Kim aboard Air Force One and Darlene Superville contributed to this report.
