State House Sunday announced Kenya was expecting a host of government and business leaders from across the world.

 

By end of this week, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi will make his maiden visit to the country. Although this visit is not related to the Obama tour, State House says it is vital as it underlines just how sharply Kenya has drawn the world’s interest.

 

In the same period, Kenya will welcome the proprietors of the Independent and the Evening Standard – two broadly respected United Kingdom dailies.

 

“These visits show that not only is the wider world’s interest undimmed, but also that we are attracting interest from new friends, and in new sectors,” State House Spokesman Manoah Esipisu said.

 

 

 

Sir Richard Branson (founder, Virgin Group), Jacqueline Novogratz (founder, Acumen), Chris Anderson (curator, TED Conference) Dipender Saluja (Capricorn Investments), Steve Jurvetson (Draper Fisher Jurvetson), Jean Oelwang (CEO, Virgin Unite), Zia Khan of the Rockefeller Foundation and Strive Masiyiwa, founder and chair of Econet Wireless, are among those who have arrived.

 

Mr Manoah said the investors chose Kenya because the Government is ready to listen to their ideas and to help implement them. The visits come in the wake of last month’s cordial and productive discussions between the President, and France Foreign Trade Minister Matthias Fekl.

 

This was preceded by US Secretary of State John Kerry’s visit and consultation with the President, as well as a number of visits by senior foreign government officials in 2014.

 

“It’s fair to say there is a pattern of deep and continuing engagement between Kenya and the outside world, which has gathered pace in recent months. This, indeed, is the keenest focus on Kenya that we have seen for quite some time. It puts paid to the talk in some quarters that Kenya’s relationships with the outside world are in need of repair, and it silences those who doubted the Jubilee government’s management of this country’s foreign affairs,” Manoah said.

 

He announced that President Uhuru Kenyatta will travel to Addis Ababa this morning to attend the World Health Organisation (WHO) forum on Global Financing Facility for Every Woman and Every Child.

Source : in2eastafrica.net