Ahead of his state visit to the US, President William Ruto hosted US Ambassador to Kenya Meg Whitman and students from the Harvard Business School at State House, Nairobi, on May 14, 2024.
When answering a question about how the US and Kenya can strengthen their relationship, Ruto referred to the long-standing partnership between the US and Kenya, stating that it is Kenya’s “single largest trading partner”.
“The US is a great partner of Kenya. It is actually the single largest trading partner with Kenya” — President William Ruto
The USA has a longstanding trade, defence and diplomatic relationship with Kenya. The depths of these relations were seen during a state visit by President Ruto between May 20-24, 2024. “This partnership extends to areas including international peacekeeping, peace negotiations, security governance, refugee inclusion, and cooperation in cybersecurity,” President Biden said.
Verification
The 2024 Economic Survey report contains a detailed table of Kenya’s export and import partners with the value of the trade. Kenya’s biggest export market is Uganda which traded goods and services worth more than Ksh126.3 billion with Kenya. Pakistan, Tanzania and USA followed at Ksh78.9 billion, Ksh69.3 billion and Ksh64.3 billion respectively. See the visualisation below.
As for imports, although Kenya imports goods and services worth Ksh112.76 billion from the USA, it isn’t Kenya’s top import partner either. China is the largest import partner exporting to Kenya more than four times the value of the USA’s exports, goods and services worth Ksh459 billion. The United Arab Emirates, India, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia follow at Ksh411.53 billion, Ksh269.17 billion, Ksh145.15 billion, and Ksh120.5 billion respectively. See the visualization below.
Verdict
President Ruto’s claim that the USA is Kenya’s single largest trading partner is FALSE.
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