United States President Joe Biden on Thursday hosted Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta at the White House for closed door talks on issues affecting the country.
During the meeting, President Biden announced that the United States will donate another 17 million doses of Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus vaccines to the African Union (AU).
The 17 million doses are in addition to 50 million doses of coronavirus vaccine that President Biden’s administration has already committed to African through the AU.
Reacting to President Biden’s announcement, President Kenyatta thanked the United States for taking a front step in supporting Africa’s fight against the pandemic.
“During this very difficult time, the United States has done its best to step up in terms of not only helping Kenya, but the African continent in general with regards to access to vaccines. Happy to hear your new announcement on that increase because as many of you will know, as a continent we are lagging well behind the rest of the world in terms of being able to vaccinate our people.
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US President Joe Biden during a meeting with Kenya's Uhuru Kenyatta at the White House. [Photo: Courtesy]
“So, any additional support like the President has mentioned is greatly welcomed and we look forward to that continued partnership,” Uhuru said.
So far, Kenya has received 2.8 million vaccines from the United States 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.
Apart from issues around Covid-19 vaccine, the two leaders 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.
Additionally, the two Heads of State 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.
