Washington, DC — Expanded trade, investment and tourism is what Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki hopes will result from his two-day official visit to Washington this week. "Let us make this a beginning," he said, in extemporaneous remarks to the Corporate Council on Africa Tuesday before departing later for a stopover in London.
Kenya offers attractive opportunities for doing business and is "very well placed" to provide a hospitable home for American firms, he said. The country has "genuine" products to sell and hopes to expand its market share in the United States. "America sells to the whole world; we want to sell just a little," he said.
According to Dr. Mukhisa Kituyi, Kenya's minister of trade and industry, who accompanied Kibaki on his U.S. visit, those "genuine" products include top-quality coffee and tea. "Premium Kenyan coffees have been used to add value to poorer quality coffee from South America and Vietnam," he said. Kenyan tea, which the country has produced for 50 years, is similarly underrated. "We want Americans to consume Kenya tea as Kenya tea and not as English Breakfast tea," he said in an interview after the business luncheon. At the moment, Kenya is not receiving benefits from these products "commiserate with the quality of product we are able to put on the market."
Kibaki - a 71-year-old veteran politician who served as both vice president and finance minister in previous governments - has won praise at home and abroad since his election in December for attacking corruption and instituting economic reforms that have helped restore confidence in the business community and the public at large. The reception accorded him in Washington represents an important gesture for his government, Kituyi said.
"The fact that our president is the fourth head of government to be given this level of reception by President Bush is a very positive statement of recognition, not only of our solidarity in matters to do with terrorism but, importantly, an appreciation of us as a government that is trying to do things the right way," he said.
Kenya has seen its exports of clothing increase significantly as a result of the African Growth and Opportunity Act, a free-trade measure adopted by the U.S. Congress in 2000. Now the government wants to diversify, not only by boosting tea and coffee sales but also by increasing exports of other goods, particularly horticultural products, the minister said. The country is a major producer of flowers, most of which are sold in Europe. "With impending direct flights between Nairobi and the United States by Kenya Airways, we expect a very substantial expansion will be possible here," Kituyi said.
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Kenya, with a land area slightly smaller than Texas and a population of 31 million people (compared to Texas's 20 million), has been a popular destination for tourists from North America and Europe. But since the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in 1998, and subsequent terrorist attacks in November 2002, the country's travel business has plummeted.
Kibaki urged the business audience to come see how wonderful and safe the country is. "Please do visit us and see for yourself what Africa is really like," he said.
In a travel warning updated on September 25, the U.S. State Department advised Americans "to defer all non-essential travel to Kenya at this time." Although the statement represented a softening of early warnings, the subject remains a sore point and was a central issue in Kibaki's talks with President Bush and other American officials.
An economic forecast issued this week in Nairobi predicted a sharp decline in tourism revenue for the fourth quarter as a result of the U.S. travel warnings and other actions like the weeks-long cancellation of flights to Nairobi by British Airways.
On another bilateral issue, the Bush administration's request that Kenya provide military forces to Iraq, Kituki said his government could commit troops "only as part of a UN peacekeeping force, not in any other capacity."
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