Thanks to his trip to Barbados, President Uhuru Kenyatta crossed the 100 mark record, tripling that of his predecessor Mwai Kibaki who only visited 33 counties during his tenure.
With consideration to his latest trip Sudan, where he on Saturday witnessed the formation of a transitional government, Uhuru clocked visiting 45 African counties.
In his first term alone, Uhuru broke the record by visiting 86 capital cities across the globe, trips whose benefit to the country have been questioned by economist David Ndii.
“It can be a good thesis for someone studying international relations, you need to know the agreements that made the access to market among other things to be able to gauge,” the opposition activist is quoted as having said.
But also to be considered is the cost of the trips, considering that the President takes with him delegations and hanger-ons, which further balloons the cost of the trips.
According to Comptroller of Budget Agnes Odhiambo, Uhuru has so far splashed six billion shillings over the three years he has been on his second term.
On Friday, the National Treasury announced plans to allocate the presidency Sh9 billion in the 2019/2020 financial year, 8 million more of what Kibaki received in his final term.
This is even as Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Monica Juma defends the trips as beneficial to the economy, on grounds that Uhuru signs deals on behalf of the country when on foreign visits.
“In the Cuba trip between March 14 and 17, for instance, the president struck a deal for deployment of 100 Cuban medical specialists to Kenya’s public health facilities who are now working in different 47 counties,” she told the Sunday Standard.