Ruto’s regional message during bilateral visit to US

President William Ruto is using his first-ever state visit to the United States to deliver a regional message ahead of a bilateral trip.

In his first engagement since arriving on US soil on Monday, President Ruto spoke about climate change, financial restructuring and regional security concerns.

However, he added that the appeal of democracy could diminish if proponents of freedom of choice continue to wallow in poverty, particularly in Africa.

President Ruto was speaking on the ‘Global Partnership for Democracy’, a commitment at the Carter Center in Atlanta, named after former US President Jimmy Carter.

The audience included Carter’s grandson Jason, Carter Center Board of Trustees Chairman Paige Alexander, Carter Center CEO, Meredith Evans, Director of the Carter Presidential Library and Museum, Congresswoman Nikema William and US Ambassador to Kenya Meg Whitman.

President Ruto was expected to speak about the growth of democracy in Kenya over the years. But he also took the opportunity to discuss the challenges facing the continent.

“In several countries, we have witnessed unconstitutional changes of government that have threatened democratic gains. This is therefore a crucial time to reflect on the need to strengthen democracy across the world,” President Ruto said.

“Many countries face economic debt distress caused by climate change and worsened by an unfair international financial architecture and imperfect multilateralism associated with the market economy.

“We now face a growing risk that democracy and free markets will be associated with poverty and suffering, giving credence to widespread laments that democracy is or has been in decline in many parts of the world, including in Africa,” declared the Head of State. .

President Ruto did not name the countries, but Africa has seen six coups in the past three years as the military ousted civilian leaders for failure to address economic and security challenges.

Gabon, Sudan, Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea are the countries that experienced coups during this period.

Subsequently, some of these countries, such as Niger, changed course in foreign policy, truncating certain bilateral agreements with Western countries such as the United States and France.

Other countries on the continent are no longer able to manage their own affairs following civil wars.

However, for President Ruto, the choice to go back to what had worked before is partly due to disappointment.

It is a global situation, he explained, which has given rise to “a growing wave of narrow nationalism, intolerance, targeting of minorities, violent political conflicts and other anti-democratic trends.” .

President Ruto has previously spoken of democracy and often boasts of having been elected under a structured system whose results could be challenged in court.

He repeated this story in Atlanta.

The head of state is expected to meet members of the American Congress on Wednesday to once again discuss the danger that poverty and debt pose for democracy in Africa.

In Atlanta, President Ruto said he was advocating “for many countries in Africa, including Kenya, seeking a fair international financial architecture that will enable developing countries to benefit from concessional development finance for supporting our economies, strengthening resilience to the effects of climate change, fueling our conviction.” in a free market economy and energize our democratic enterprise.

Some countries, like Kenya, are struggling with debt, some inherited from previous administrations.

But caught between a rock and a hard place, President Ruto himself has continued to borrow more amid rising taxes for Kenyans.

He recently argued that proper taxation is the right thing to do, even though it may not be popular.

In Atlanta, President Ruto implored the United States to help resolve the issue of credit for poor countries, saying it is an anchor for defending democracy for the future .

However, Washington fears that conflicts in countries like Sudan pose a risk to the entire neighborhood, as they are likely to attract militias from other regions or profit from arms smuggling.

President Ruto may well brief his host on any steps taken or challenges faced.

After a year of fighting in which Sudan’s warring parties rejected all offers of a ceasefire, Washington has recently signaled support for local solutions through the African Union and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development.

President Ruto was given the role in February to help reform the African Union to strengthen its role in the continent’s development.

The head of state called this a great opportunity for the United States “to collaborate with Kenya and the African continent as a whole to build the institutional capacities necessary for economic prosperity, peace and security of the 1 .4 billion inhabitants of Africa.

The head of state also warned that climate change could harm these freedoms.

However, President Ruto believes that whatever African countries do to ensure prosperity will be of no use as long as neighboring and distant countries like Haiti remain unstable.

He told the audience that Kenya’s destiny is inseparable from the general well-being of humanity.

“In this context, Kenya has been and will continue to be a leader in finding sustainable solutions to regional and global challenges,” President Ruto said.

“The war in Ukraine, the conflict in the Middle East and the fighting in Sudan, South Sudan, eastern DRC, the Sahel and terrorism in Somalia all demand greater collaboration and global strategic leadership” , did he declare.

Lately, the United States has subtly granted this leadership to Kenya, while encouraging it to help ease tensions between Ethiopia and Somalia, for example over the Somaliland Memorandum of Understanding.

Kenya is also hosting mediation talks for holdout groups in South Sudan, with Washington seeing a potential deal resulting from those talks as crucial to ending persistent clashes between armed groups and government forces.

In fact, two senior U.S. envoys visited Nairobi in the past two weeks to discuss the situation in Ethiopia, South Sudan and Sudan.

President Ruto hosted the leaders of Somalia and Uganda before departing for the trip. He also encountered civil movements in the Sudanese conflict.

Diplomatic sources also indicated that Somalia is pushing for increased international support against what it sees as Ethiopia’s aggression, just as much as it wants the war against Al-Shabaab to be sustained with potential support the United States.