Trade top of Uhuru Kenyatta's agenda in Japan tour

President Uhuru Kenyatta is expected to travel to Japan on Wednesday for a four-day tour, which will also include attending a conference on disaster management.

This will be his first visit to Japan but the second time he will be in the Far East, having been to China in 2013.

On Tuesday, State House said the tour will also reflect how Japan and Kenya are “old friends” when President Kenyatta meets with Japanese Premier Shinzo Abe, the Japanese royal family and business leaders.

“Japan has been a constant and generous partner over the years. There are many achievements we have had and the President will be keen to make progress on them,” said State House spokesman Manoah Esipisu.

“We both support a fairer, more democratic world and more secure international borders,” he added.

TSUNAMI

A global meeting titled “World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction” and organised by the UN is being held in the Japanese city of Sendai to discuss modern ways of dealing with disasters and how to rebuild after such incidents. The city was one of the Japanese areas devastated by the 2004 tsunami.

Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery was to represent Kenya and speak at a ministerial roundtable on “Reconstructing after disasters: build back better.” But he has instead decided to send representatives after what his handlers said were “other urgent matters”.

President Kenyatta will attend the meeting alongside 14 other African leaders, who include Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe as the AU chairman.

The President has also scheduled a series of bilateral talks with Japanese authorities.

He will be expected to open Kenya’s new embassy in Tokyo, which is now under its new ambassador Solomon Maina. Since 1979, when Kenya first opened a diplomatic mission in Japan, its diplomats had been renting offices.