NAIROBI, Kenya, May 3 – Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu arrived in Kenya Tuesday for talks with her host President Uhuru Kenyatta, in her first state visit to Kenya since taking over power.
Suluhu took over following the death of Pombe Magufuli.
President Suluhu’s visit, the second outside her country since taking office on March 19, follows a similar visit to Uganda where she signed a petroleum pipeline deal with President Yoweri Museveni.
She was set to address ajoint sesion of the Senate and the National Assembly as part of her itinerary in Nairobi.
During her visit to Uganda on April 11, the foreign visit since assuming leadership following President Pombe Magufuli’s sudden death, President Suluhu inked a deal which would see a 1,445 kilometre East African Oil Pipeline constructed linking Ugandan oilfields in the Albertine rift to Tanzania’s seaport of Tanga.
Uganda, being a landlocked country, had until the April 11 signing been rooting for the construction of the pipeline which is key to the evacuation of oil reserves discovered in 2006, estimated at six billion barrels.
Kenya’s bid to have the pipeline rooted to Lamu through Lokichar suffered a blow in March 2016 after Tanzania and Uganda jointly announced plans to fund the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), also known as the Uganda–Tanzania Crude Oil Pipeline (UTCOP) running from Hoima to Tanga through Bukoba.
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