Prime Cabinet Secretary and CS for Foreign Affairs Musalia Mudavadi will be making official visit to China. Mudavadi, leading a delegation of 12, will be among other engagements meeting his counterpart Wang Yi, who is also a member of the Communist Party of China, and Finance Minister Lan Fo’an.
This will be Mudavadi’s first official visit to China as PCS and Foreign Affairs minister, and a precursor for a state visit by President William Ruto, who at the start of his administration signaled a “Look West” foreign policy orientation. He is expected to discuss various projects with Huawei in Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu. Ahead of the visit, Kenya Deputy Ambassador in China Lynette Mwende last week participated in a technical workshop on digital economy at Huawei.
Mudavadi’s tour comes after President Ruto’s October 15, 2023 visit, when he attended the Third Belt and Road Initiative in Beijing and held bilateral talks with President Xi Jinping.
During the visit, President Ruto and Huawei Technologies chairman Liang Hua witnessed the signing of an MoU to “accelerate the country’s digital transformation”. President Ruto at the time said the collaboration was essential for achieving Kenya’s digital transformation agenda, a key pillar of his Kenya Kwanza Administration.
“Our partnership with leading Chinese technology corporation, Huawei, will advance our ICT infrastructure and drive digitisation across key sectors like transportation, e-government, education, and health. This partnership is vital for Kenya’s Digital Superhighway and the components of the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda,” the President said.
The 2023 MoU followed others signed by the previous administration, notably the May 2017 Huawei and Kenya Government Cloud Collaboration Agreement. The deal covered how Huawei would build the infrastructure necessary for the Kenyan government cloud services, migrate government data and applications to the government cloud, and create a platform for state departments to share data and better communicate.
This, in effect, would provide a “one-window style solution” for government services and improve government efficiency. In June 2022, the Communications Authority of Kenya signed a technical cooperation agreement with Huawei on 5G rollout and expansion. The deal came three months after the Kenyan government and Huawei signed another agreement to ramp up information and communication technology skills and capacity in the country.
Project financing of stalled and new projects is also expected to feature in Mudavadi’s talks with the hosts.
At the talks, Ruto emphasised Kenya’s interest in prioritising road development bilaterally and within the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation framework, saying Nairobi aims to work with Beijing to upgrade roads, develop a new Greenfield terminal and a new runway at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and expansion of the ports of Mombasa and Lamu.
By Janet Namalwa