We will train your civil servants: Kenya's offer to DRC's Tshisekedi

Kenya’s president Uhuru Kenyatta has reiterated his government’s support to president Felix Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of Congo, offering on Wednesday to train the latter’s civil servants.

Kenyatta expressed his country’s commitment to political stability in DRC during a visit by President Tshisekedi.

The new DRC president is on his maiden tour since his inauguration last month following a hotly disputed election. He has already been to Angola and will end the tour in Congo Brazzaville.

We are ready to partner in building infrastructure, sharing skills in extractive industry and in many other areas of mutual benefit.

In Nairobi he held separate talks with opposition leader Raila Odinga and Kenyatta, who have grown close and are working to promote peace after a dramatic 2017 election that left at least 92 dead, according to rights groups.

Kenya to support stability in DRC

Kenyatta told Tshisekedi that Kenya had learned valuable lessons from past political tensions, which it was willing to share, his office said in a statement.

“We will continue to help you achieve peace and stability because we have had similar experience which we can share,” he said.

Kenya-DRC possible partnerships

Kenyatta said that Kenya would offer training opportunities to Congolese public servants. “We are ready to partner in building infrastructure, sharing skills in extractive industry and in many other areas of mutual benefit,” he said.

Kenyatta also called for the deepening of trade ties. Tshisekedi’s inauguration after December polls marked the first-ever peaceful transfer of power since independence from Belgium in 1960.

However runner-up Martin Fayulu dismissed his victory as an “electoral coup” masterminded by long-term outgoing president Joseph Kabila.