Rice to visit strife-torn Kenya
Bush announces the move on the eve of his Africa trip, which will skirt the continent's trouble spots.
WASHINGTON — President Bush said today that he would send Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Kenya to try to bring an end to postelection violence, as he laid out a U.S. agenda in Africa to promote economic and political development and expand a massive campaign against HIV/AIDS and malaria.
Bush delivered the twin announcements on the eve of his second presidential visit to sub-Saharan Africa. The president is scheduled to leave Friday afternoon for a six-day trip to Benin, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana and Liberia.
Bush, whose itinerary across the continent's midsection skirts its most troubled states and highlights instead its success stories, has come under pressure to involve his administration in efforts to stem the violence in Kenya, until weeks ago considered one of the most stable examples of democratic progress in Africa.
Rice, Bush said, will "deliver a message directly to Kenya's leaders and people: There must be an immediate halt to violence, there must be justice for the victims of abuse, and there must be a full return to democracy."
Former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan is seeking to mediate a crisis that has left more than 1,000 people dead since the disputed Dec. 27 presidential election. He hopes to complete a power-sharing agreement between the two sides by the end of this week.
In a speech at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African Art, Bush sought to assure Africans that "the United States is committed to them today, tomorrow and long into their continent's bright future," and he declared Africa "increasingly vital to our strategic interests."
Bush outlined a broadened U.S. role in Africa well beyond the end of his administration and promised that the so-called Dark Continent would enjoy "the light of liberty. "Africa in the 21st century is a continent of potential," he said, "where democracy is advancing, where economies are growing, and leaders are meeting challenges with purpose and determination."
Bush presented both a religious and a security underpinning to the U.S. commitment.
"Our brothers and sisters in Africa have dignity and value, because they bear the mark of our Creator," he said, while also recognizing that a declining Africa "would be more likely to produce failed states, foster ideologies of radicalism and spread violence across borders."
Bush's first visit to sub-Saharan Africa as president, in 2003, took him to two of the continent's economic heavyweights, South Africa and Nigeria, among other stops.
