New York — With the Obama administration having sent off Kenya for corruption and impunity, Tanzania has emerged as East Africa's star player on the US pitch.

It was Tanzania's President Jakaya Kikwete rather than Kenya's Prime Minister Raila Odinga who commanded the spotlight in New York at last week's opening sessions of the United Nations General Assembly.

The Tanzanian head of state was asked to initiate a discussion at a luncheon hosted by US President Barack Obama.

He outlined African agricultural issues at the two-hour meeting to which 24 African leaders had been invited. Mr Odinga was not among them.

In a move humiliating to Kenya, the United States withdrew the prime minister's invitation to the Obama luncheon, with American officials later attributing the reversal to a technical error.

But it seems clear that Obama and his team are keeping their distance from Kenya's leaders as a signal of US displeasure over the Grand Coalition's failure to attack graft and to hold accountable those responsible for the killings following the 2007 election.

President Kikwete was meanwhile heaping praise on the US government, unveiling a pan-African anti-malaria initiative, pledging to commit more troops to UN peacekeeping efforts, and preparing for his featured role at a corporate conference in Washington next week.

In comments on the sidelines of last week's UN sessions, President Kikwete described Tanzanians as "grateful recipients of generous support from the government and people of the United States."

He was referring to the five-year, $700 million development package awarded to Tanzania in 2008 through the Millennium Challenge programme.

It is the single largest of $6.9 billion in anti-poverty grants that the US has given to 19 countries since the inception of the conditioned aid initiative in 2004.

President Kikwete also orchestrated a gathering of several African leaders at the UN to announce formation of an alliance dedicated to halting the scourge of malaria within five years.

The disease is estimated to cost Africa an estimated $12 billion in annual health care expenses and lost productivity, the president noted at a press conference launching the African Leaders Malaria Alliance.

The new 20-nation grouping is intended to save money on procurement and distribution of malaria treatments and preventive bed nets.

Some $3 billion is being provided by donor countries and multilateral institutions to facilitate the effort to prevent almost all malaria deaths in Africa by 2015.

"The goals look ambitious but I am confident they are achievable," President Kikwete told reporters at the UN.

Addressing the General Assembly on September 24, President Kikwete pledged that Tanzania will continue to assist UN peacekeeping efforts and is "ready to do more" in that regard.

He noted that Tanzanian troops are currently deployed with the UN mission in Lebanon and will soon take up positions in Darfur as well.

Tanzania is likewise set to train soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo in co-operation with the UN force deployed in that country, he added.

After Mr Odinga flies back to Kenya, President Kikwete will travel to Washington to address a US-Africa Business Summit on September 30-October 1 that will have representatives of US corporations with stakes in the continent.

"President Kikwete's leadership has been crucial to Tanzania's success," says Stephen Hayes, head of the Corporate Council on Africa, which is sponsoring the conference.

Tanzania will be in a position to grow rapidly as the world economy emerges from the current downturn," Mr Hayes added.

The country is in fact projected to have the world's ninth-fastest growing economy this year, ranking just behind China and ahead of India, according to a December 2008 report by the London-based Economist magazine.

And in another move highlighting the comparative international standings of Kenya and Tanzania, it was announced recently that Dar es Salaam, not Nairobi, will be hosting next year's World Economic Forum.

The gathering of business leaders scheduled for May 2010, was initially set to take place in Kenya but was switched to Tanzania, reportedly at the prompting of former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

According to the Daily Nation, Annan orchestrated this rebuke to Kenya for its failure to implement the National Accord he brokered last year.

Kenya, by contrast, has failed to qualify for Millennium Challenge assistance due to rampant corruption.