Deputy President William Ruto has been cleared by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to fly to the United States of America and the United Kingdom on Sunday, February 27, for a 12-day tour.
According to a tweet from the Carnegie Africa program, which is organizing the trip, Ruto will talk politics and policy with Karen Bass of the US House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Human Rights on March 2.
“The conversation will be moderated by CEIP Africa Programme Director Zee Usman and Georgetown University’s Ken Opalo,” stated the tweet.
The forum will be chaired by Karen Bass, the chair of the US House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health and Human Rights.
The event will be moderated by Carnegie Endowment International Peace Africa Programme director Zainab Usman and Ken Opalo, a political scientist at Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service.
On March 4, Ruto will visit Mt. Calvary Baptist in Washington DC. Where he is expected to meet Kenyans living in the U.S.
Thereafter the Second in Command will fly to the United Kingdom to deliver the speech at the King College where he will be the guest of the day.
The Deputy President will be accompanied to the U.S by MPs Rigathi Gachagua, Alice Wahome, Ndindi Nyoro, Kimani Ichung’wa, ANC and FORD-Ke Bosses Musalia Mudavadi and Moses Wetangula; and a host of the Kenya Kwanza Leaders.
The US-UK trip will be a political tour which is a departure from his private visits since the beginning of the second term.
Since 2018, Ruto has been to Italy, UK, United Arab Emirates UAE, Uganda and Zanzibar.
In strategy to gunner diaspora votes, Ruto appointed former Foreign Affairs Chief Administrative Secretary Ababu Namwamba to international relations at the presidential campaign secretariat and exposed the role foreign nations and interests will play in President Uhuru Kenyatta’s succession. The interest also includes the growing diaspora population whose
remittances hit Sh418 billion in 2021.
Ruto met the European Business Council Kenya and explained to them what his government will do to create a conducive environment for doing business if he is elected to succeed Kenyatta.
“The recalibration of our business environment will democratize opportunities to actualise our country’s huge entrepreneurship potential. Kenya Kwanza will establish a just, supportive and
affirmative regulatory regime that will facilitate businesses to comply and thrive,” said Ruto.
The meeting, he said, was a ‘Meet the Candidates Platform’ at the Village Market, with members drawn from 17 European countries.
Late last year, Ruto was barred from travelling to Uganda at Nairobi’s Wilson Airport, while his allies, Sudi, Nyoro, Lagat, Harun Aydin, David Muge, Simon Mogun and Nelson Kisalit were cleared to fly.
The presence of the Turkish national in DP Ruto’s delegation to Uganda last year also gave the impression that he is busy building his global network.
Ruto’s relationship with Museveni, which had started raising eyebrows, forced the latter to late last month announce that his government would not take sides in the August polls.
“Elections in Kenya or any other African country are a matter for the people of that country. We never take sides in the internal affairs of other countries. So, we have no side in the Kenya elections,” Museveni is quoted to have stated.
The DP has however been on the cross-fire with international states citing the incident where he drew the ire of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) when he promised that if he is elected president, his administration will enhance investment in livestock keeping for produce to be sold as far as the DRC, because the country does not have cows and has to import milk, Lumala said such utterances had the potential of affecting trade.
Furious Congolese MPs quickly reacted to Ruto comments, and asked him to withdraw them.
“As a presidential candidate, you do not make pronouncements that are likely to injure the relationship between Kenya and any other nation, or even lead to a situation where we have trade loss. If you compare the Deputy President and Mr Odinga, obviously Mr Odinga has the upper hand in terms of foreign policy and international relations because of his longstanding standing in the international community,” Lumala said.
The DP and his main challenger in the race, Azimio la Umoja boss Raila Odinga, have been busy building their international networks and images, which, analysts say, could help their campaigns in terms of funding.
Odinga boasts of having a number of African heads of state as his cronies.
The ODM boss recently shared photos of himself and leaders like Félix Tshisekedi of the DRC and Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera, among others, during the opening ceremony of the 35th ordinary session of the African Union (AU) Assembly in Addis Ababa.
The former Prime Minister has so far held talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi during his week-long visit to the country, in what is seen as enhancing his global image. It was established that the ODM leader had held a series of meetings with Indian authorities to discuss implementation of his social welfare protection programme, which borrows widely from the Indian framework, in case he is elected president.