President Uhuru Kenyatta met American counterpart Donald Trump at the White House in Washington D.C. on Monday.

First Ladies Margaret Kenyatta and Melania Trump also held their own private meeting inside the Diplomatic Reception Room in the West Wing.

“Today, President Donald Trump and First Lady of the United States welcome the President of the Republic of Kenya Uhuru Kenyatta and Mrs. Margaret Kenyatta to the White House,” a tweet from the White House reads.

Earlier, President Uhuru Kenyatta witnessed the signing of two agreements that will see two US companies invest $238million worth of projects in Kenya as he urged the US government to facilitate the operations of US businesses Africa.

Taking cue from President Kenyatta’s call, the US Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) and Kipeto Wind Energy Company signed documents to close a $232 million deal in financing for the construction and operation of a 100-megawatt grid-connected wind power plant south of Nairobi.

The plant will provide a more reliable source of energy to the national grid and support the US Power Africa Initiative to double the number of people in Sub-Saharan Africa with access to electric power.

The second agreement signed in the presence of President Kenyatta when he met business executives of leading US companies meeting under the umbrella of the Business Council for International Understanding (BCIU), was a $ 5 million letter of commitment in financing to expand the distribution network of Twiga Foods and improve food security and agricultural wages in Kenya.

“Kenya is open for business and all we want to do is package our partnership in a way that it is mutually beneficial to you as a private sector and the people of Kenya,” President Kenyatta said.

President Kenyatta invited more US investors to set shop in Kenya to benefit from the opportunities created by the Big Four development blueprint projects.

He said the Big Four agenda projects – pegged on boosting manufacturing to create jobs, food security, provision of affordable housing and universal healthcare coverage – present major opportunities for local and foreign investors.

The BCIU is a US-based organization comprising of 200 member companies. It helps its members to engage internationally by facilitating mutually beneficial relationships between business and government leaders worldwide.

Cabinet Secretaries Monica Juma (Foreign Affairs) and Henry Rotich (National Treasury) were among the Kenyan delegation at the business meeting.

Recall that President Trump had reportedly referred to his Nigerian counterpart Muhammadu Buhari as “lifeless” shortly after a meeting between the two leaders on April 30, Financial Times said on Monday.

Buhari, the first sub-Saharan Africa president to meet Trump since he was sworn in January 2017 as the 45th American president, was in the US for bilateral talks on Trump’s invitation.

That meeting ended with Trump saying he never wanted to meet someone as lifeless as Buhari again, Financial Times reported citing three persons familiar with the matter.

Monday’s meeting between Kenyatta and Trump showed a very lively conversation between the two leaders.

 

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