President Ruto meets US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, pushes for AGOA extension
Having once championed Kenya's deployment to Haiti, the United States has now shifted the file to the UN. In his UNGA speech, President Trump made no mention of Haiti at all - a telling omission.
In New York, President William Ruto pressed America's top diplomat, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, for a trade deal as the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) approaches expiry.
Ruto told Reuters he was confident that Nairobi and Washington had made "good progress" and expected a bilateral agreement to be signed before the end of 2025.
He also lobbied for an AGOA extension, a measure repeatedly stalled in Congress and made more uncertain by Donald Trump's tariff-driven return to the White House.
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"At the bilateral level, we agreed to strengthen relations by expanding trade, concluding a trade agreement by the end of the year, boosting US investment in Kenya, and deepening security cooperation, particularly in counter-terrorism," he said.
Kenya, which exports textiles, tea, coffee and avocados, is also angling for market access in mining and fisheries.
The Kenyan delegation, led by Trade Minister Lee Kinyanjui, has been in repeated talks with US officials.
Previous attempts under both Uhuru Kenyatta and Joe Biden fell flat; Nairobi is hoping this third try proves more fruitful.
But while Ruto sought commercial assurances, Washington quietly undercut one of his foreign-policy centrepieces.
Having once championed Kenya's deployment to Haiti, the United States has now shifted the file to the UN.
In his UNGA speech, President Trump made no mention of Haiti at all - a telling omission.
The Kenyan-led mission, already underfunded and poorly equipped, expires soon.
Washington has shown little appetite to bankroll it further, and Russia and China have blocked its transformation into a UN peacekeeping force.
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