President Uhuru Kenyatta on Thursday came under fire from an international media house following remarks made during British Prime Minister Theresa May's State House visit.
The British daily newspaper, The Guardian, ran an article with the title: Kenyan President Rebukes Theresa May on Last Day of African Trip, which highlighted key issues they had with the President’s speech.
A video attached shows President Uhuru trying to remember former UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson’s surname who he then jokingly referred to as 'the bicycle guy'.
Describing the moment, the article read in part "...(Uhuru) went on to struggle to remember Boris Johnson’s surname...” and "The prime minister allowed herself a wry smile as the president struggled to recall Johnson’s name…”
In another instance, the article made mention of how “Kenya’s president has complained that no British prime minister has visited the East African country for the past 30 years” in what they termed a diplomatic rebuke to May on her last day of her African tour.
The publication further picked issue with how President Kenyatta began his address by telling May that he was glad she had honoured Kenya’s invitation to see for herself how the country and the African continent has changed in the nearly four decades since a UK Premier last visited.
On the same note, the article made mention of the fact that Margaret Thatcher had been the last sitting premier to visit Kenya in 1988 claiming that since then, despite historic links between the two countries, the East African country has increasingly turned to China and the US for support and investment.
The article emphasized how Uhuru “repeated his reference to long gap between British Prime Minister’s visits” as they sought to explain why Kenya was keen to seek investment from anywhere in the world following the Uhuru’s recent US trip.
Other notable media houses that concentrated on Uhuru's reference to Johnson as 'the bicycle guy' included CNN, The Daily Mail, The Washington Post, Bloomberg,Sky News and The Belfast Telegraph amongst others.
On Prime Minister May's part, The Guardian noted that she was happy to be visiting Kenya and taking with her the memories of the continent’s unforgettable vibrancy and beauty.
“The UK is already the largest investor in Kenya,” she was quoted as saying adding that “as Britain prepares to leave the European Union, we are committed to ensuring a smooth transition".
May promised Kenya would retain its duty-free quota access to the UK market even as President Kenyatta maintained that Brexit would have a neutral effect on the country.
