This archive report was first published on 18 July 2021.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Kenya's Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Raychelle Omamo met at the State Department in Washington DC on July 16, 2021, to discuss regional security, health, and climate change issues.
According to a dispatch released to the media after the meeting, the two leaders discussed "shared priorities" as far as regional security, health, and climate change issues are concerned.
"[I] met with Cabinet Secretary Raychelle Omamo to discuss leveraging the US-Kenya Strategic Partnership to advance health, security and the climate crisis, human rights and democracy, regional peace and security, and trade and investment," Blinken tweeted on July 16, 2021.
The meeting came as the Horn of Africa faces several crises, including a conflict in Ethiopia's Tigray region and South Sudan's struggles to keep the peace.
"We both believe in the same principles, the same values of democracy, the idea that there is hope in every person, and that we can surmount our challenges through solidarity... especially in the aftermath of Covid-19," Omamo said after the meeting.
The US has pledged to send 1.7 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines to Kenya before the end of the month to boost an inoculation campaign that is now stuck at around 1.5 million, owing to dosage shortages.
