[h=2]Zuma seeks stronger ties with Kenya[/h]
PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma has intensified his efforts to smooth relations with Kenya, strained since the apartheid era when the African National Congress (ANC) believed the East African state did not provide adequate support to the liberation movement.
After attending Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta's inauguration last month, Mr Zuma held talks with the Kenyan leader on the margins of the World Economic Forum in Cape Town last week, where discussions centred on bilateral issues - a diplomatic euphemism for ironing out issues of contention.
The talks came after Mr Zuma had made similar overtures to Nigeria, where South African business has headed for 20 years, but where sound political relations did not always follow. Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan made his first official visit to South Africa last week, after Mr Zuma's visit to Abuja last month.
Former president Thabo Mbeki did not make a state visit to Kenya during his term, and Mr Zuma had not been to Kenya on a state or official visit since he took office in 2009. This had dismayed Kenya's political leaders as South African leaders skirted around Kenya while visiting Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda or Ethiopia.
At the weekend, Mr Kenyatta told a gathering of Kenyans in Cape Town that relations with South Africa were looking bright and that a third meeting with Mr Zuma was on the cards. "We agreed that we will meet at a more formal level, with appropriate ministerial delegations, to chart the way forward on a number of issues of interest to both countries," he said. "Issues such as trade and regional integration will be discussed."
A date for the formal Kenya-South Africa talks, where foreign relations experts say a binational commission may be created, will be set as soon as Mr Kenyatta's cabinet is approved by parliament, in line with Kenya's constitution.
This is expected to happen in the next fortnight.
It was significant that in their public comments at the weekend, both Mr Jonathan and Mr Kenyatta emphasised that African countries should see themselves as complementary rather than competition.
There has always been low-scale rivalry and tension between Nigeria and South Africa on the one hand and South Africa and Kenya on the other, African diplomats say.
This culminated in Nigeria and Kenya opposing the candidature of Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma for the post of head of African Union Commission when the first round of elections was held.
It is understood the two countries relented only after Mr Zuma intervened to state South Africa's case.
Mr Zuma has held talks with several Southern African Development Community leaders over the past few days. Yesterday he met Lesotho Prime Minister Tom Thabane.
