President William Ruto Monday met the CIA Director, William J Burns at State House In Nairobi.
This was the second trip to Kenya in a year.
Also present was Kenya’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) Director General Noordin Haji, among other top leaders.
It is not clear what prompted Burns to fly to Nairobi but officials said it must be a serious issue.
After the meeting, the President said the leadership in the region will continue to remain vigilant against destabilising crimes and safeguard the gains of peace, stability, democracy and economic growth.
“The peace and security in the region have significantly been boosted by the close collaboration between us and our partners around the world.
As a result, we have substantially rolled back the threat of terrorism, radicalisation, violent extremism and organised crime,” the President said in a statement on X.
Burns’ meeting comes days after the UK Foreign Intelligence agency MI6 Chief of Service Richard Moore visited Nairobi for a series of meetings touching on terrorism.
He and other top officials met Ruto at State House Nairobi, and discussed counter-terrorism, peace and security measures in the Eastern African region.
Also present was High Commissioner to Kenya Neil Wigan, Haji and other local officials.
There were scanty details on the meeting and trip by the UK intelligence boss.
Ruto said Kenya has a strong relationship with the United Kingdom, ranging from diplomatic, investment and business to defence and security.
“Our two countries also share common values of democracy, the rule of law and peaceful resolution of conflicts,” he said.
The visit by Moore is seen to have a heavy message to Kenya ahead of the withdrawal of Kenya Defence Forces troops from Somalia under the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS).
Terror activities in the region have been worsened by the war in Somalia, Yemen, DRC and Sudan. Instability in parts of Ethiopia is also worrying.
Kenya is seen as the regional hope in terms of stability and many have been working behind the scenes to thwart plans to destabilize the country.
The CIA is a US government agency that provides objective intelligence on foreign countries and global issues to the president, the National Security Council, and other policymakers to help them make national security decisions.
The Agency stops threats before they happen and furthers US national security objectives across the globe.
They also collect foreign intelligence, produce objective analysis and conduct covert action, as directed by the president.
“We do not make policy or policy recommendations. Instead, our Agency serves as an independent source of information for people who do,” the CIA said.
“We are not a law enforcement organization. However, we do work with the Intelligence Community, Department of Defense, and law enforcement agencies on many complex issues ranging from counterintelligence to counterterrorism.”
The Agency leads specialized, multidisciplinary Mission Centers to address high-priority issues, including nonproliferation, counterterrorism, counterintelligence, organized crime, narcotics trafficking, and arms control, among other duties.
They also build strong partnerships between intelligence collection disciplines; produce all-source analysis on a range of topics and participate in Intelligence Community-wide efforts.
The Central Intelligence Agency further contributes to the greater Intelligence Community by managing services of common concern, like imagery analysis and open-source collection, while partnering on technical research and development.
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