- President Uhuru Kenyatta's commitment to en.The Wallstreet Journal reported on October 27, 2019, that Trump had signed a document signalling his administration's intent to withdraw from the Treaty on Open Skies, designed to enhance mutual understanding and confidence by giving all participants, regardless of size, a direct role in gathering information about military forces and activities of concern to them.
Saboti MP Caleb Amisi who sits in the National Assembly Committee for Defence and Foreign Relations confirmed the committee's awareness of the new developments by the US.
Saboti MP Caleb Amisi told Kenyans.co.ke that the government was aware of the new moves by US President Donald Trump
Speaking to Kenyans.co.ke on Saturday, November 23, the legislator stated that the new move, though not totally unexpected, would deal a big blow to the relationship between Kenya and the United States.
"We cannot bury our heads in the sand and pretend that things are okay. I think in this we'll need a diplomatic engagement with the president (Uhuru) and the US president, to see if we can get a way forward and salvage the relationship," he stated.
The MP revealed that the move would cause a huge strain in the relationship between the two countries, indicating that the US was Kenya's biggest source of military aid due to the Open Space Agreement.
"It is a bad indication because the Trump policy on Africa has been negative, especially in terms of aid. We've been depending a lot on the US in terms of military aid so this is just part of the measures that the Trump administration has put across to cut military aid," he continued.
Amisi also lamented about the frustration that the country had been going through at the hands of the superpower, stating that though there were military and economic exchanges between Kenya and the US, there were too many strings attached.
He regretted that the US had been benefitting more from the agreements than Kenya.
"The US' relationship with the country has never been symbiotic, and I don't think it will ever be. Our relationship can only be symbiotic if our interests align at some point, but now we are at a different economic and political status," he explained.
Amisi stated that the National Assembly Committee for Defence and Foreign Relations would, in the meantime, look for a way to salvage the relationship. - ding the terror scourge in the country is set to suffer a huge blow after US President Donald Trump moved to opt-out of the Open Skies Agreement, which was created in 2002.
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