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Vusumuzi Dube in Dakar, Senegal 

RELATIONS between the Zimbabwean and Kenyan government continue to be on a positive trajectory after the President of Kenya, Cde William Ruto yesterday took time during the Dakar 2 Feed Africa Summit in Dakar, Senegal to pay a courtesy call on his Zimbabwe counterpart, President Mnangagwa.

The two countries have over the years enjoyed a cordial relationship mainly rooted on trade and investment, which also saw President Mnangagwa attending President Ruto’s inauguration last year in September. 

This was the first time the two Presidents have met following President Ruto’s inauguration. 

Speaking after the closed door meeting at a hotel in Dakar, President Ruto reiterated that the two nations would continue working on creating more cooperation opportunities revealing that President Mnangagwa had since invited him to an investment conference set to be held in Zimbabwe next year. 

“We had a wonderful discussion with President Mnangagwa. The interests of Kenya, the interests of Zimbabwe on matters of trade, investment, innovation, value addition of the products that we have and what we can do about our young people.

“We also deliberated on issues to do with agro-processing that brings more value and creates opportunities for young people to work and we can do that together in the framework of Africa Continental Free Trade Area, the Tripartite Agreement and Comesa network,” said President Ruto. 

He said his government will also be working with Zimbabwe to see how they can assist the nation in ensuring the growth of the horticulture sector, an area which the Eastern African country has succeeded. “President Mnangagwa has invited me to the investment conference next year so that we can come along with Kenyan investors, people who can invest in the space of horticulture, in the space of agro-processing, value addition and a whole lot of that space. 

“Hopefully, we can share experiences, learn from Zimbabwe and what Zimbabwe can learn from Kenya and how we can bring the private players into that space and how they can then work together,” said President Ruto. 

He also spoke on his country’s decision to grant 1 700 people of Shona origin, who settled in that country from Zimbabwe, citizenship, saying this was one of the major steps to show the rest of the world that Africa was united. 

“The Shona community which we gave Kenyan citizenship are a great community, they came to Kenya many years ago and because they have stayed in Kenya we decided that we are one people as a continent and that is why we gave them the citizenship, they are free to now contest, vote, go to school and we look forward to building this continent into one family,” said President Ruto.