Saturday May 19, 2018
By KEVIN J. KELLEY
US President Donald Trump speaks (right) with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as Vice President Mike Pence (centre) looks on during a meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in the Cabinet Room at the White House in Washington, DC, on May 17, 2018. Mr Pompeo has assured President Uhuru Kenya of the US support for Kenya's economic development and security. AFP PHOTO | NICHOLAS KAMM
NEW YORK - US Secretary of
State Mike Pompeo has assured President Uhuru Kenyatta of the country's
continued support for Kenya's security and economic development.
On
Friday, Mr Pompeo and President Kenyatta also discussed “shared goals
of countering terrorism, promoting regional security and ensuring good
governance,” the State Department's spokeswoman said in a summary of a
telephone call the top US diplomat made to the president.
The
outreach by the recently installed secretary of state is intended to
show that the Trump administration respects and values relations with
Africa, a continent that the US president has previously derided in
vulgar terms.
Mr Pompeo's overture to President Kenyatta follows his May 17 telephone call to Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari.
Friday's call echoed some of the same themes Mr Pompeo had sounded in his talk with Mr Buhari the previous day.
The State Department
said its leader has “thanked President Kenyatta for his leadership in
calling for an important national conversation to move the country
forward following the 2017 election.”
“They also
discussed ways to work together to hasten the end of the conflict in
South Sudan and ensure continued support for Amisom forces in Somalia,”
State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert added in a written
statement.
Kenya-US relations may be entering a time of
transition as Ambassador Robert Godec prepares to end a sometimes
controversial six-year tenure.
President Barack Obama's
appointee as US envoy to Kenya is likely to be replaced in the coming
weeks by Mr Trump's choice, Republican politician Kyle McCarter.
The
US Senate Foreign Relations Committee is expected to hold a hearing
soon on Mr McCarter's nomination. There appears to be no major obstacle
to confirming the fluent Swahili speaker and Kenya charity director as
Washington's next envoy to Nairobi.