The Speaker of the Senate, Sen Kenneth Lusaka today met with the Ambassador of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, H.E. Dr Slaiman Arabiat

Speaker Lusaka told Amb Arabiat – who called on him at his Parliament Buildings Office – that Kenya considers Jordan a diplomatic, economic and strategic partner.

“We are proud of our privileged relationship with Jordan which only recently opened its mission in Kenya. While our main area of cooperation has been agricultural trade this has extended to military cooperation as well,” Speaker Lusaka observed.

In September 2016, President Uhuru Kenyatta and King Abdullah II of Jordan witnessed “Exercise Swift Eagle” at the Humanitarian Peace Support School at Embakasi Garrison, Nairobi. Exercise Swift Eagle was a joint military exercise between the Kenya Defense Forces and the Royal Jordanian Armed Forces on how to respond to terrorist attacks and other emerging threats.

Amb Arabiat, who is the first ambassador from Jordan to Kenya, said that the Hashemite Kingdom was keen on deepening its relationship with Kenya.

“Kenya is a key strategic partner in the East African region. We also consider Kenya a trade hub for Jordanian products and vice versa. We are keen to grow this friendship in areas of tourism.

The Ambassador noted that his country enjoys favourable trade arrangements with European and the USA from which Kenya can benefit from in terms of trade volume.

“We for instance take Kenyan tea and improve on it and export it as Jordanian product. This is definitely of mutual benefit,” said the Ambassador.

The meeting also discussed the structure of their devolved governments and shared ways they could improve service delivery to their citizens.