Raila ends tour of US, heads to UK

By PMPS

Prime Minister Raila Odinga has ended his tour of the US after a week of making a case for Kenya.

Raila is expected to travel to the United Kingdom.

Raila was in the US to attend the 64th UN General Assembly.

In his address to the forum, the PM took the opportunity to make local environmental conservation a global issue and drew attention to the need to upgrade Unep and retain it in Nairobi.

Armed with an atlas of environmental degradation in Kenya’s water towers, Raila and Environment Minister John Michuki presented a strong case for the world to support efforts to save the Mau and its other catchment areas.

Others who accompanied Raila were Planning Minister Wycliffe Oparanya, Public Health Minister Beth Mugo, MPs Musa Sirma, Chachu Ganya (North Horr, ODM), and David Ngugi (Kinangop, Sisi kwa Sisi).

Support pledged

At a meeting on climate change, Raila got the World Bank president to acknowledge before the delegates that Kenya was an example of a country where conservation of the environment has been embraced at the highest level of government.

The World Bank President pledged support if Kenya puts a formal request.

The two leaders got former US President Bill Clinton to commit to help increase Kenya’s forest cover from 1.7 per cent to 10 per cent in a decade. On Friday, before going to the UN, Raila met Clinton and his wife, Secretary of State Hillary, at the Sheraton Hotel in New York.

He took up the case of the Mau with the two. Hillary promised to "do something".

Before meeting the Clintons, Raila, Michuki and Foreign Affairs Minister Moses Wetang’ula met with a delegation from Bangladesh, including the country’s premier, to lobby for the elevation of Unep.

Raila told the world leaders that Kenyans may have fought after the 2007 polls, but it was all in the past.

At the reception for Heads of State and Government Raila held talks with US President Barack Obama.