President William Ruto is in Madagascar for an official state visit, days after coming back from a five-day European tour, which involved him attending the G7 Summit in France.

The President is taking a high-level Kenyan delegation comprising Trade Cabinet Secretary Lee Kinyanjui, ICT Cabinet Secretary William Kabogo and Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe. The officials will attend a Kenya-Madagascar Business Forum to enhance economic linkages between the two countries.

In the visit, President Ruto will share Madagascar’s celebrations of its 66th Independence Day with them, followed by bilateral talks with the Malagasy leaders.

The talks are likely to be on strengthening cooperation in agriculture, information and communication technology (ICT), trade and aviation as Kenya and Madagascar look to expand economic, investment and diplomatic relations.

Ruto’s increased foreign trips

The presidential visit to Madagascar is the seventh visit to a foreign country since late April. In that time, he has visited Kazakhstan, South Africa, Belgium, Norway, Finland and France as part of Kenya’s diplomatic and economic outreach programmes to other nations.

The visit follows a little more than a month after President Ruto hosted Madagascar’s transitional leader, Colonel Michaël Randrianirina, in Nairobi during the Africa Forward Summit, where the two leaders agreed to deepen the ties between their nations.

President Ruto at the time expressed his appreciation of Madagascar’s constitutional and governance reforms and reiterated Kenya’s aspirations to increase trade, investment and cooperation with the Indian Ocean island country.

The state visit is also a historic one, as it is the first official state visit of a Kenyan head of state to Madagascar since the countries’ independence.

The visit is, however, coming on the heels of a renewed public controversy over the president’s habit of travelling overseas and the use of chartered aircraft for his official trips, raising doubts about the expense of his trips.

Ruto defends his visits

The president has defended that his international engagements have brought Kenya real gains, such as investment, business opportunities and job opportunities for Kenyans abroad.

During his recent European tour, President Ruto announced Norway’s intention to hire at least 1,000 Kenyan seafarers by 2030, with the first batch of 120 seafarers to be hired this year. He also announced investment pledges of Ksh20.9 billion from Belgium, which include support for the Africa extension of the Blue Raman submarine cable project and funding in the European Union-Kenya Digital Partnership.