Ab-Titchaz
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No one-on-one meeting for Obama, Uhuru
THE POSITION: US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Linda Thomas- Greenfi eld addresses journalists via video link at the US Embassy, Gigiri, yesterday.
Friday, July 11, 2014 - 00:00 -- BY ADOW MOHAMED
PRESIDENT Uhuru Kenyatta will not meet US President Barack Obama one-on-one during the US-Africa Summit in Washington DC next month. Contrary to previous reports that Uhuru and First lady Margaret will have a private dinner with Obama and his wife Michelle, the State Department has clarified that Obama will jointly meet all invited African heads of state from across the continent.
The US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Linda Thomas-Greenfield said "trying to determine who the Obama should meet is very difficult".Answering questions from journalists across the continent during a live video-conference from Washington yesterday, she said "logistical challenges" involved prevent the one-on-one discussions.
She said Obama will be participating in other events two days before and hosting a dinner at the White House for all the heads of state.
"We've made the decision that there will not be one-on-one bilateral meetings between Obama and the heads of state as there are 54 of them," she said.
Sources indicate the State Department fears there might be a backlash if Obama snubs some heads of state."This will create the notion that some countries are more important or useful that others," a source said.
Peter Pham, the director of the Africa Centre for the Atlantic Council in Washington, said failing to get one-on-one meetings with Obama could leave African heads of state "feeling snubbed by a leader they've considere to have unusually invested in the continent's future".
As reported by the Foreign Policy Magazine, Pham said America sees Africa as an "impoverished continent with presidents travelling to Washington hat in hand rather than as nations with robust and growing economies".
"The bigger picture of course is that Africa has seven of the 10 fastest-growing economies of the world and numerous other countries are engaging with them on a bilateral basis," he said.
Sudan's Omar al-Bashir, Eritrea's Isaias Afwerki, and Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe are not among presidents invited due to their 'poor' human rights record.
Green-field snubbed questions that mainly touched allegations fronted by section of Jubilee legislators that foreigners based in the US where former Prime Minister Raila Odinga stayed for three months on a sabbatical at Boston University at the African Presidential Center to destabilize Kenyatta's administration.
No one-on-one meeting for Obama, Uhuru | The Star
THE POSITION: US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Linda Thomas- Greenfi eld addresses journalists via video link at the US Embassy, Gigiri, yesterday.
Friday, July 11, 2014 - 00:00 -- BY ADOW MOHAMED
PRESIDENT Uhuru Kenyatta will not meet US President Barack Obama one-on-one during the US-Africa Summit in Washington DC next month. Contrary to previous reports that Uhuru and First lady Margaret will have a private dinner with Obama and his wife Michelle, the State Department has clarified that Obama will jointly meet all invited African heads of state from across the continent.
The US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Linda Thomas-Greenfield said "trying to determine who the Obama should meet is very difficult".Answering questions from journalists across the continent during a live video-conference from Washington yesterday, she said "logistical challenges" involved prevent the one-on-one discussions.
She said Obama will be participating in other events two days before and hosting a dinner at the White House for all the heads of state.
"We've made the decision that there will not be one-on-one bilateral meetings between Obama and the heads of state as there are 54 of them," she said.
Sources indicate the State Department fears there might be a backlash if Obama snubs some heads of state."This will create the notion that some countries are more important or useful that others," a source said.
Peter Pham, the director of the Africa Centre for the Atlantic Council in Washington, said failing to get one-on-one meetings with Obama could leave African heads of state "feeling snubbed by a leader they've considere to have unusually invested in the continent's future".
As reported by the Foreign Policy Magazine, Pham said America sees Africa as an "impoverished continent with presidents travelling to Washington hat in hand rather than as nations with robust and growing economies".
"The bigger picture of course is that Africa has seven of the 10 fastest-growing economies of the world and numerous other countries are engaging with them on a bilateral basis," he said.
Sudan's Omar al-Bashir, Eritrea's Isaias Afwerki, and Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe are not among presidents invited due to their 'poor' human rights record.
Green-field snubbed questions that mainly touched allegations fronted by section of Jubilee legislators that foreigners based in the US where former Prime Minister Raila Odinga stayed for three months on a sabbatical at Boston University at the African Presidential Center to destabilize Kenyatta's administration.
No one-on-one meeting for Obama, Uhuru | The Star
