Kenya’s President Kibaki on 3-day state visit to Malawi
Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki will start a three-day state visit to Malawi on Wednesday January 16 when he is also expected to meet President Joyce Banda.
State House press secretary Steven Nhlane said President Banda “will welcome President Kibaki at Kamuzu International Airport on his arrival at 9:30am on Wednesday, 16th January 2013.”
Nhlane told Nyasa Times that while in the country, President Kibaki will, among other things, hold discussions with his Malawian counterpart, President Banda.
Kibaki is also scheduled to lay a wreath on the Mausoleum of Malawi’s first founding president the late Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda at City Centre.
He will also lay a foundation stone for a by-pass road that will connect the M1 (on the Blantyre-Lilongwe road) and the Lilongwe/Mchinji road.
Malawi government said the visit by the Kenyan President will help strengthen the two country’s bilateral and trade relations which have been there for a long time.
President Banda recently announced plans by her governmentto re-open its High Commission in Nairobi as part of its initiative to strengthen relations with Kenya.
The Malawian High Commission in Nairobi was closed ten years ago but its property remains intact.
President Kibaki will be the second African president to visit Malawi since Joyce Banda, one of two female leaders on the continent came to power in April 2012. The last time Kibaki was in Malawi was during the funeral ceremony of Mutharika.
Nigerian leader Goodluck Jonathan was the first to visit Malawi since Banda assumed office.
There have also been visits by high-profile international guests such as US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, IMF managing director, Christine Lagarde, wife to US business magnate Melinda Gates since Banda took over power form controversial president Bingu wa Mutharika who died in office after a heart attack.
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