Uhuru Flies Out to Dubai

Minister for Foreign Affairs of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al Nahyan (left) with President Uhuru Kenyatta
Minister for Foreign Affairs of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al Nahyan (left) with President Uhuru Kenyatta.
State House

President Uhuru Kenyatta is on Tuesday, February 14, began a three-day official visit to Dubai in the  United Arab Emirates (UAE).

According to a statement released by State House, Uhuru's visit will focus on strengthening diplomatic ties between Kenya and UAE. He is expected to hold bilateral talks with the leadership of the Gulf country.

According to Kenya's envoy to the UAE, Kariuki Mugwe, the Head of State will also be gracing a high-level business forum,  and preside over the Kenya national day at the Expo 2020 Dubai, where he is expected to showcase businesses and investment opportunities in Kenya the manufacturing, agriculture and tourism sectors.

Kenya's Ambassador to the UAE, Kariuki Mugwe
Kenya's Ambassador to the UAE, Kariuki Mugwe
State House

“The purpose of the President coming here is to showcase business and investment opportunities that are available in Kenya. And there are quite a number of them mostly in the investment areas.

“Those opportunities need to be made known not only to the UAE investors but also other investors in the world, we have actually invited a number of them among the 192 countries participating in the Expo 2020 Dubai,” Amb. Mugwe stated Mugwe.

Mugwe noted that the bilateral talks will help bridge the huge trade imbalance between the two nations, which currently leans in favour of Dubai. Uhuru Will be accompanied by representatives of the Kenya business community with trade interests in the UAE and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region in general.

Established in 1981, GCC is a political and economic union comprising six Arab countries bordering the gulf. It has six members including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait and Bahrain.

The Ambassador termed Kenya’s participation at the Expo 2020 as part of the country’s post-Covid recovery strategy because it comes at a time when more visibility is required in terms of creating investment opportunities in the country.

"Our two countries cooperate in many areas of mutual interests both at the bilateral and multilateral levels. It is expected that there will be investment opportunities that will be secured by the engagements that will be undertaken while His Excellency the President is in the UAE,” the Ambassador said.

Moreover the Consul General of Kenya to Dubai and the Northern Emirates, Amb. Peter Mwendwa thanked President Kenyatta for agreeing to grace the Kenya national day at the Expo 2020 Dubai.

“This is definitely going to be a game-changer due to our proximity to the huge market of the Middle East. You are talking about - if we take the example of horticultural products, a market of over Ksh260 trillion (USD2.6 billion). You can imagine what that will do to our economy if we can get just a small chunk of that,” Amb. Mwendwa stated.

{"preview_thumbnail":"/files/styles/video_embed_wysiwyg_preview/public/video_thumbnails/IZKJzbidt6w.jpg?itok=QXSYVcaK","video_url":"","settings":{"responsive":1,"width":"854","height":"480","autoplay":0},"settings_summary":["Embedded Video (Responsive)."]}