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Kenyatta Comes to Washington With a Simple, Blunt Message: Africa is Not Up for Grabs

by Eric Olander
Kenya President Uhuru Kenyatta gives a speech at the Atlantic Council in Washington, DC on February 5, 2020. Eric BARADAT / AFP

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta began his visit to the United States on Wednesday with an urgent call to international leaders to stop thinking of Africa as a prize to be won. “Western countries, and their counterparts in Asia and the Middle East, are returned to competition over Africa, in some cases weaponizing divisions, pursuing proxy actions and behaving like Africa is for the taking.

“Well, I want to tell you it is not,” Kenyatta said in a speech at the Atlantic Council think tank. 

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