President Uhuru Kenyatta on Friday, January 10, landed a new role in the African Union during a meeting with a special envoy of President Boubacar Keïta of Mali at State House, Mombasa.
State House announced that the president had accepted a request from Keïta to become the champion of the African Union culture and arts agenda.
"The President agreed to take up the new role after receiving a special message from President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta of Mali who was recently elected to lead the continent's culture and the arts agenda," the statement by PSCU read.
Receiving the special message at a meeting attended by Head of Public Service Joseph Kinyua and Foreign Affairs CS Monica Juma, the president underscored the importance of culture and the arts in cultivating unity and promoting continental integration.
President Kenyatta stated that the rich African culture and the arts could be harnessed as a vehicle to inculcate a positive attitude, teach patriotism as well as create employment for the youth throughout the continent.
“I am keen on promoting our culture. Our rich African culture is our identity and heritage. You can count on our support on this,” the president assured.
He promised the special envoy that Kenya would provide two cultural experts to join the technical team charged with spearheading the implementation of the continent’s cultural agenda.
“It is important to come up with a concrete agenda on culture and the arts that can be implemented and we need to work together to move this agenda forward,” President Kenyatta added.
Speaking about peace and security, he noted that Kenya and Mali needed to collaborate to fight terrorism.
He then sent a message of condolence to the visiting president for the people who lost their lives during a terrorist attack that happened in November 2019.
