U.S. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin on Monday arrived in Kenya for talks with President William Ruto.
The Pentagon chief has already met defence officials led by Aden Duale, and engaged about security and counterterrorism.
A Defence cooperation agreement has also been signed between the two countries.
Austin who will also meet military and other personnel involved in counterterrorism operations in the country, arrived from Djibouti where he met US troops and had talks with the Djiboutian leader as well as President Hassan Sheikh of Somalia.
At the tail end of his visit, the Pentagon chief will also travel to the site of the deadly 2020 Manda Bay attack that left 3 Americans dead.
Al-Shabab extremists in 2020 overran a key military base used by U.S. counterterror forces in Kenya, killing three American Department of Defence personnel and destroying several U.S. aircraft and vehicles before they were repelled.
Al-Shabab at that time claimed that there were 17 U.S. casualties, nine Kenyan soldiers killed and seven aircraft destroyed. The U.S. Africa Command dismissed the claims as exaggerated and said U.S. and Kenyan forces repelled the attack.
Kenya is a key base for fighting al-Shabab, one of the world’s most resilient extremist organizations.
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