Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary, Musalia Mudavadi ended his three-day official visit to China on Friday after holding talks with his counterpart, Wang Yi.
Among the issues discussed were Kenya’s multilateral mission to Haiti. Despite the High Court barring Kenya from continuing with the mission, China pledged to support the deployment of police to curb gang-related violence in the Caribbean country.
“It was agreed that China will continue to support the mission as well as other peacebuilding initiatives in Africa, where Kenya is playing a leading role,” the statement by Mudavadi read in part.
The High Court of Nairobi on Friday declared the deployment of Kenyan police officers to Haiti as unconstitutional. Judge Chacha Mwita added that the National Security Council and National Police Service (NPS) did not have powers to deploy police outside Kenya.
“To be clear, Article 240 does not mandate the Council to deploy police officers outside Kenya. Deployment should be as provided for in part 14 of the Act and only to a reciprocating country,” the judge ruled.
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) in October last year adopted a resolution, RES. 2699 (2023), authorising a non-UN multinational security support (MSS) mission in Haiti led by Kenya.
Meanwhile, during his visit, Mudavadi also affirmed Kenya’s stand in the conflict between Taiwan and China, citing the need to respect the territorial sovereignty of his host nation.
Taiwan views itself as an independent entity from China with its own leadership contrary to the latter.
“On an equal note, H.E. Dr. Mudavadi reiterated the need for respect for the territorial and sovereignty of nations. Kenya reaffirmed that there is but one China in the world.”
“Taiwan is an inalienable part of China’s territory and the government of the People’s Republic of China is the sole legal government representing the whole of China, and the One-China Principle is a universally recognised basic norm governing international relations and a prevailing international consensus,” Mudavadi stated.
Further, the two foreign ministers agreed to maintain the high-level exchange of visits and contacts and regular Joint Technical meetings for the implementation of the Joint Vision of Building an even closer China-Kenya community with a shared future in the new era.
“We unanimously agreed to uphold the universal values of peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy and freedom, and oppose interference in the internal affairs of other countries under the banner of ‘Democracy and human rights’,” Mudavadi stated.
Source-CEDRICK KHAYEKA
Source-https://www.kenyans.co.ke/
