Mudavadi leaves for UAE to attend bilateral meetings

Prime Cabinet Secretary and Foreign and Diaspora Affairs CS Musalia Mudavadi

Prime Cabinet Secretary and Foreign and Diaspora Affairs CS Musalia Mudavadi has left for Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates for bilateral meetings and the signing of the long-awaited Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) deal.

A statement from his office released Sunday evening said the CEPA deal will be sighed with the Middle East Country between January 12-17, 2025.

The statement said the CEPA will give Kenya a unique opportunity to enter into a reciprocal bilateral trade and development deal with the United Arab Emirates which is Kenya's 7th largest export market.

Kenya and the UAE have enjoyed a long-standing diplomatic, political, and economic agreement for many years.

"The CEPA seeks to strengthen the existing relationship between Kenya and the UAE by promoting preferential and mutually beneficial trade, investment and economic relations through the progressive elimination of tariff and non-tariff barriers on substantially all trade in goods to establish a free trade area among the parties," the statement said.

Currently, there are 40,000 Kenyans in UAE, working as skilled, semi-skilled, and unskilled migrant workers.

The group sends billions of shillings as Diaspora Remittances, and the number is expected to increase with the new deal that will push to have more Kenyans access more trade between the two countries.

Mudavadi's office said the CEPA is part of the push by the Kenya Kwanza government to enhance the country's global strategic position and help the country leverage global trade, investment, and foreign jobs for Kenyans.

"Lately, Diaspora remittances have overtaken the combined revenues of tea, coffee, flowers and tourism and the Kenya-UEA deal seeks to bolster this," the statement said.

World Bank statistics released late 2024 indicate that Kenya continues to lead in diaspora inflows across the eastern Africa region, receiving $4.8 billion in 2024. The figures dwarf Somalia's $1.73 billion and Uganda's $1.49 billion.