AFR: Clinton kicks off Africa tour in Kenya
Wed Aug 5 04:00:29 EST 2009
by Shaun Tandon
NAIROBI, Aug 4 AFP - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton began a tour of seven African states on Tuesday in Kenya, where she will seek action to stabilise neighbouring Somalia and push for free trade with the continent.
The 11-day trip will be her longest since she became the top US diplomat six months ago and her first to sub-Saharan Africa, where some had feared the continent was not an early priority for the administration.
The State Department has underlined that her visit, which comes just three weeks after President Barack Obama visited the continent, is the earliest trip by a secretary of state to Africa of any administration.
Clinton will seek to build ties with three African powers - Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa - and show support for three nations recovering from conflict - Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Liberia - while also stopping in small US ally Cape Verde.
On Wednesday, she will address a forum of some 40 African states that enjoy trade preferences in the giant US market on the condition they uphold free elections and markets.
She will also use her Nairobi visit to confer with Somali President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, who is struggling to fend off a three-month-old insurgent offensive.
Washington and Nairobi share fears that the lawless Horn of Africa country could become a new haven for Al-Qaeda affiliates.
Clinton's trip follows a visit to Ghana last month by Obama, whose father was born in Kenya. The first African-American US president appealed to Africans to hold their governments accountable and fight corruption.
A Gallup poll released on Monday found that Obama's African roots have led to a jump in the popularity of the United States in sub-Saharan Africa, where an overwhelming 87 per cent backed US leadership in the seven countries surveyed.
As evidence that the Kenyan leg would be more than a courtesy call, the US embassy issued a terse statement scolding the country's leaders for shunning the creation of a special court to try suspects in the deadly violence that erupted after December 2007 elections.
"The United States will stand firmly behind the Kenyan people as they insist on full implementation of the reform agenda. We will take the necessary steps to hold accountable those who do not support the reform agenda or who support violence," the statement said.
