It was an emotional stop for Netanyahu as he marked the 40th anniversary on July 4 of the Uganda hostage rescue in which his brother was killed.
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Earlier yesterday, Netanyahu, whose elder brother Yoni was killed in the 1976 commando raid to free passengers aboard an Air France plane hijacked by Palestinians, laid a wreath at the mausoleum of Kenya’s founding President Jomo Kenyatta, whose government at the time authorised the Israeli aircraft to refuel in Nairobi.
“The campaign against terrorism continues to this day”, he said.
Kenya will work to restore Israel’s observer status at the African Union because Israel is a critical partner in the battle against terrorism, the most serious challenge facing the world today, Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta said on Tuesday.
“Netanyahu wants to improve Israel’s standing with these countries in Africa so that at global conferences they will not join the Arab countries in their resolutions against Israel”, said Aryeh Oded, a former Israeli ambassador to Kenya and Swaziland and non-resident ambassador in Zambia, Mauritius, Seychelles, Tanzania and Uganda.
Of particular concern to the leaders was extremist activities.
“Israel is coming back to Africa and Africa is coming back to Israel”, Netanyahu said.
“If you know an attack will take place, we will take steps to thwart those attacks, that will be direct assistance to save lives”, he told reporters.
The leaders reiterated that the relations between Kenya and Israel, which has seen security officers especially from the elite squad (Recce) trained, should be enhanced.
President Uhuru said it was befitting that the historic security cooperation between the countries was a priority for both nations.
Netanyahu is the first Israeli prime minister to visit sub-Saharan Africa since 1987. But Israel is always looking for new worldwide partners, and emerging African economies are in need of the kind of cutting-edge technology, development, and security assistance that Israel is uniquely positioned to provide.
“Kenya has already gained” he said. “Israel is doing this and we will share intelligence with friends in Kenya and Africa”. “From training to strategic thinking and use of technology to fight terrorism”, the President said.
“We have had hard relations with Israel as a continent, but the world has changed and we can’t live in history”, Kenyatta said.
Currently, only 2 percent of Israel’s exports go to Africa, but a growing middle class and process of urbanization in many of these countries have paved the way for economic opportunities there, Groner said. “You have many other countries, the BRICS and so on, that are making a lot of headway in these parts and therefore [Israel is] making a move in order to guard her own interests and to build common platforms of cooperation with African states especially in the realm of security, agriculture, energy and commerce”, Nzau said.
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Netanyahu noted that the partnership was important.
