Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta left the country on Saturday to Uganda for a three-day state visit, the first such visit to the neighbouring country.
“The two leaders are also likely to discuss the latest developments in South Sudan and review the situation in Burundi where President Museveni acted as mediator on behalf of the East African Community,” the statement said.
South Sudan has been engulfed in political turmoil since fighting erupted in Juba in December 2013, pitting the government forces of President Salva Kiir against supporters of Riek Machar, his former deputy and long-time rival.
The conflict has reopened deep ethnic tensions in the world’s youngest country, which only won independence from Sudan in 2011.
Peace talks between the two warring parties resumed in Ethiopia early this week after President Kiir and Machar met in Nairobi in July.
Previous truce agreements have since collapsed with multiple peace processes and initiatives create little tangible progress.
Civil unrest erupted on April 26 in Bujumbura, Burundi’s capital, after the ruling CNDD-FDD party elected President Pierre Nkurunziza on April 25 as its candidate for the then-scheduled June 26 presidential election which was postponed to July 15, then July 21.
Nkurunziza has been in office for two terms since 2005, and a broad array of actors warned that an attempt to seek a third term was unconstitutional and contrary to the spirit of the 2000 Arusha Peace and Reconciliation Agreement for Burundi that ended a decade of civil war in the country.
While in Uganda, President Kenyatta will also meet the Ugandan business community and the Kenyan Diaspora as well as address the Ugandan Parliament.
Upgrading of the port of Mombasa which Uganda relies on for its imports will also be key in their discussions. Enditem
