U.S. President Joseph R. Biden Jr. on Thursday met with President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya at the White House to address the “strong U.S.-Kenyan partnership,” and both leaders agreed to “advance peaceful resolutions to the conflicts in Somalia and Ethiopia.”
“Together they discussed their shared commitment to defending democracy and human rights, advancing regional peace and security, and accelerating economic prosperity through climate smart solutions and the use of renewable energy resources,” the White House said in a readout on Thursday night.
They also discussed greater cooperation on vaccine manufacturing and production on the African continent in responding to the Covid-19 pandemic and preparing for future health security threats.
“As President Biden announced today’s donation of over 17 million doses of Johnson & Johnson vaccine to the African Union. Kenya has received 2.8 million vaccines and is slated to get additional Pfizer doses in the next few months as part of the pledge President Biden made at the G7 earlier this year to donate 500 million vaccine doses globally,” the White House noted.
It said President Biden and President Kenyatta “underscored the need to bring additional transparency and accountability to domestic and international financial systems and to advance peaceful resolutions to the conflicts in Somalia and Ethiopia.”
At a White House press briefing on Thursday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was asked when would president Biden impose the sanctions he authorized on September 17 against those undermining peace and stability in Ethiopia.
“I don’t have an update on “if” and “when,” and I know that’s kind of what you’re asking. We often sign an executive order — or the President may sign executive orders to prepare for and have the ability to sign into law sanctions quickly, because the executive order would have already been signed,” she said. “As we’ve talked about in the past, obviously what’s happening in Ethiopia are — it’s an atrocity. It’s horrific. It’s something that, frankly, I’m happy you’re asking about because there hasn’t been probably enough attention here in the United States to what’s happening. But I don’t have an update. It’s often an interagency process, and I don’t have an update on what — when a determination will be made.”
The United States estimates that hundreds of thousands of people remain at an increased risk of famine in Ethiopia and as the war in the Tigray region worsens and expands to other regions, many more would be exposed to human rights abuses, hunger and death.
Simon Ateba is Chief White House Correspondent for Today News Africa. Simon covers President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, the U.S. government, the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other financial and international institutions in Washington D.C. and New York City.