Security was heightened at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Nairobi ahead of US Secretary of State John Kerry’s arrival Sunday.
US Secretary of State John Kerry departs for Kenya in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Security checks were intensified at all airport entries and exits since Saturday, with more GSU personnel deployed. More checks were mounted across the Nairobi City County.
Kerry’s jet is expected to touch down at the JKIA anytime from 1.30pm, where upon he will start talks with Government, opposition leaders and the civil society until Tuesday. Kerry is visiting the country ahead of US President Barack Obama’s July tour, the first in the country since he (Obama) became president.
Kerry will focus on trade and US investment, as well as regional security and the threat from Somalia’s Al Shaabab militants. His meetings will focus mainly on how to deal with the funding of Al Shabaab and how to deal with those providing other resources to the terror group. Emphasis will be on the radicalisation of Kenyan youth into joining the terror organisation.
Afterwards, on May 5, he will travel to Djibouti where he will meet the country’s leaders and discuss their support for evacuation efforts from conflict-hit Yemen.
Kerry, who is on a tour of Sri Lanka, Kenya and Djibouti, left Colombo for Nairobi early Sunday after holding a series of talks in the Island country in South Asia. Kerry arrived in Sri Lanka on Saturday to offer support for newly elected President Maithripala Sirisena after years of tensions with the former government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa over human rights.
The diplomat pledged support to ensure “true reconciliation” in Sri Lanka six years after the end of its 37-year Tamil separatist war which claimed at least 100,000 lives.
