06 Mar 2022

President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi says Botswana and Kenya will continue to strengthen relations existing between the two countries. 

Speaking to journalists after a meeting with Kenyan President, Mr Uhuru Kenyatta in Nairobi, Kenya recently, President Masisi said Botswana valued creating strong mutually beneficial ties with sister African states as well as development partners across the world. 

He said his meeting with President Kenyatta was held in a pleasant atmosphere in which they discussed a number of pertinent issues key to cooperation. “I had a cordial discussion with President Kenyatta, we spoke about our countries’ relations and areas of mutual interest. 

We also discussed electricity as Kenya has successful geothermal energy - being the most competitive in Africa in that regard; the use of natural renewable electricity generation and the construction of railways which they have done successfully. I learned that two thirds of Kenya is shrub desert, yet the country produces enough food for its 50 million people, which is something for us to learn from,” President Masisi said. 

He also paid tribute to his Kenyan counterpart, who will be leaving office after completing his constitutional term, after his country’s general elections, due August this year. “We are grateful that President Kenyatta is successfully paving the way to a successor due to be elected this year. It was his father, Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, who offered land for Kenya to host the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) the first UN agency to be based in Africa. President Uhuru Kenyatta also offered more land for UNEP to expand their global conservation programmes from within Kenya,” Dr Masisi said. 

Having also met Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, President Masisi said he was committed to Botswana’s multilateral approach to global issues, as well as strengthening bilateral ties. “We believe the solution to global challenges could be achieved through multilateralism. 

We have been in the UNEP commemorations here and if you look at their history, from the Stockholm Declaration of 1972 in Sweden, to the 1992 Rio Earth Summit in Brazil, the Paris Agreement and Glasgow Declaration on the environmental issues, it has been multilateralism that has been promoting the quest for a solution to environmental degradation,” he said. He added that he would continue to stimulate the world’s in Botswana as a brand, in order to market the country and develop beneficial partnerships. “In my international travels we develop friendships. 

Some of these countries in the past we used to publicly criticise, now we diplomatically engage each other and this is starting to bear fruit. Recently in Victoria Falls, we managed to convince the Zimbabwean government through dialogue to end an impasse about the status of our territory along the Kazungula quadripoint. 

We have managed to convince our neighbouring countries to vote for a Motswana, Mr Elias Magosi, to head SADC,” he said. Meanwhile, Botswana’s High Commissioner to Kenya, Ambassador Duke Lefhoko said his mission continued to pursue potential investors in areas such as tea and coffee production as well as tourism.  Kenya has done well in tehse areas. BOPA