NAIROBI, Kenya – Barbados Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Minister, Dr. Jerome Walcott, has officially opened the CARICOM diplomatic mission in Nairobi making it the first for the 15-member regional integration movement on the African continent.
Kenyan Cabinet Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Raychelle Omamo; Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Dr. Jerome Walcott; and Kenya Cabinet Secretary in the Ministry of Energy, Mining and Petroleum, Ambassador Dr. Monica Juma, officially open the CARICOM diplomatic mission in Nairobi.“The commissioning of this mission here in Kenya, the first diplomatic mission of Barbados to be commissioned on the African continent, is a testament of Barbados’ outreach to the motherland and cradle of civilization, where many of our ancestors were born,” Walcott said at the CARICOM’s new offices in the South Tower of the Two Rivers Office Complex.
“Barbados, at this time, looks to Africa in pursuit of new relationships and partners with the aim of deepening engagement and cooperation with like-minded nations both bilaterally and multilaterally,” he added.
Walcott, said that this latest development is the result of a continued commitment to cooperation made between the Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Amor Mottley, and President of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta.
Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Raychelle Omamo, described the opening of the mission as a fulfilment of a promise to secure a home for the Caribbean community in Kenya, made by President Kenyatta during his visit to Barbados in 2019.
“This is a promise of historic significance, in that it will forge closer people-to-people ties between Africa and CARICOM,” Ambassador Omamo said on behalf of President Kenyatta.
“Africa has been separated from the Caribbean region, not only by the Atlantic Ocean, but by centuries of few interactions, despite our shared common descent and history. But I am proud to state that Kenya and Barbados have been at the forefront in fostering linkages between Africa and the Caribbean countries,” she added.
