British PM signs anti-graft pact with Kenya

By Andrew Wasike and Magdalene Mukami

NAIROBI, Kenya

British Prime Minister Theresa May on Thursday signed an anti-graft pact with Kenya, vowing to facilitate the return of stolen money that has been seized in the U.K.

May was greeted with a 21-gun salute as she arrived in Kenya, the last leg of her Africa tour in which she also visited South Africa and Nigeria.

In a joint news conference with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, May said her government will help Kenya fight corruption.

"We welcome your commitment and drive to fight corruption. We stand with you. Whatever is held in the U.K. will be returned to build Kenya,” she said.

“We signed an agreement with Kenyatta to ensure that any proceeds in Kenya that end up in the U.K. will be given back to the Kenyan people. The U.K. stands ready to support an inclusive building bridges process as you further work to strengthen your democracies and institutions.”

Kenyatta thanked May saying: “Fighting corruption is an important aspect of my legacy program, depriving people the proceeds of their crimes is one major deterrent against this vice, and we are determined to make it painful, unrewarding and expensive to get involved in corruption. As I have said in other fora, there is no turning back.”

He welcomed May's visit to Kenya, the first visit by a British prime minister to Kenya in four decades, and left the attendees laughing as he struggled to remember the name of former British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, instead calling him "the Bicycle Guy".

"Last year if you recall the foreign secretary then, Boris...Boris...Boris Johnson...the bicycle guy was here.”

The U.K. also renewed a security pact which will enable Kenya to receive critical support for border control and aviation security.

The U.K. said it is setting up a cybersecurity center to track issues of human trafficking and child sex abuse in the region.

May assured that trade between the two countries will not be affected following Brexit.

In a first, May also announced a new aid package for the African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM), praising Kenya for the role it has taken for peace in the region.

The U.K. has become the third international partner -- after Switzerland and Jersey Island -- to support Kenya’s war on graft through the signing of agreements aimed at repatriation of assets and monies acquired through corrupt deals back into the country, the Kenyan presidency said.