Rwanda: Kagame, Ruto to Discuss Northern Corridor, Food Security, Tech

4 April 2023
The New Times (Kigali)
By Alice Kagina

Kenyan President William Samoei Ruto is set to arrive in Rwanda on Tuesday, April 4, for a two-day state visit.

He's expected to be hosted by his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame and deliberate on areas of mutual interest and cooperation, including the Northern Corridor Integration Projects (NCIP), food security, innovation and ICT, health and education.

NCIP is an initiative between regional countries originally - Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya - aimed at among others ease movement along the Northern Corridor trade route which is used by countries that use the Kenyan port of Mombasa.

Under this initiative, citizens of the three countries have since 2014 been using respective national IDs to cross into the other country.

According to Hussein Mohamed, Kenyan State House Spokesperson, the visit is further expected to help enhance trade and commerce cooperation within the East Africa Community (EAC) and the African continent, as the two leaders re-affirm their commitment to EAC integration and the Africa Continental Free Trade area (ACFTA) cooperation for trade and economic growth.

Regional peace and security will also feature in the discussions that will culminate in the signing of bilateral agreements, he added.

Ruto has previously hailed ties between Rwanda and Kenya and he and President Kagame have held bilateral talks at least twice since September.

Kagame and Ruto last met in November 2022 on the sidelines of the UN climate conference (COP27) in Egypt, during which the two leaders discussed "continued positive and fruitful bilateral relationship between Kenya and Rwanda."

Read the original article on New Times.

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