EDITORIAL: Harris visit another big step in relations

US Vice President Kamala Harris arrives in Tanzania today for a two-day official visit. Her trip is significant in that it is the first time a sitting US vice president is visiting Tanzania.

Ms Harris is more than just a US vice president. She is the first woman to hold the second highest office in the world’s biggest economy and only superpower. This makes her one of the most powerful and influential individuals in the world.

Her visit is yet another ringing endorsement of the economic diplomacy policy pursued by President Samia Suluhu Hassan, who is currently the only female head of state in Africa. Ms Harris is fittingly visiting as Tanzania marks President Hassan’s highly successful first two years in office.

Ms Harris’ tour is further testimony – if any were needed – to the long-standing and cordial bilateral relations between Tanzania and the US, which can be traced back to the early 1960s.

It also shows that Tanzania is firmly back in the international community fold after embracing – with disastrous consequences – isolationist and inward-looking policies for a number of years.

Gone were the days when Tanzania, despite being a developing nation, punched far above its weight in international diplomatic circles. The country had to all intents and purposes retreated into a shell and stayed there, watching the world go by.

All that has now changed, which partly explains why Tanzania is one of three countries Ms Harris will visit during her weeklong and first official tour of Africa as US Vice President.

It is worth noting that Tanzania has so far hosted three sitting US presidents – a very rare feat in Africa. Mr Bill Clinton came here in 2000, followed by Mr George W. Bush and Mr Barack Obama in 2008 and 2013, respectively.

Solid foundation

Tanzania’s founding President, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, made an official visit to the US in 1963 in one of his very first foreign tours after coming into office and laid a solid foundation for relations between the two nations.

It is therefore no wonder that the US has consistently been one of Tanzania’s most important development partners for more than six decades.

The numbers speak for themselves. At least 266 American investment projects worth $4.778 billion (Sh11.178 trillion) have been registered with the Tanzania Investment Centre (TIC). Nearly 60,000 jobs have been created as a result of these investments.

Also, 100,600 Americans visited Tanzania in 2022, making the US our biggest source of tourists coming from outside Africa.

Tanzania is also a major beneficiary of the US President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar), the US President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI), Feed the Future initiative and other US-funded programmes.

We could go on and on, but suffice it to say that Tanzania is truly honoured to host Ms Harris and her entourage. To her, we say, “Karibu sana Tanzania, the Land of Kilimanjaro, Zanzibar and the Serengeti.”