​(Communicated by the Prime minister's Media Adviser)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, today (Tuesday, 5 July 2016), in Nairobi, made the following remarks at a joint press conference with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta:
 
"We just heard something very important from the President of Kenya who said very clearly that he and his colleagues, whom I met with yesterday, would work to restore Israel as an observer to the African Union. This is very significant from our point-of-view.

Africa is a continent with 54 countries. The possibility of changing their direction and their attitude toward Israel would be a strategic change in Israel's international position. This starts in one place, this effort, that the President has defined, to make Israel an observer to the African Union.
 
I think that this is significant. This will have an impact in Africa now, but I think that it will have very considerable effect regarding Israel's international relations in the future, vis-à-vis our effort to bring about a very great number of countries that support Israel."

"We've had enduring relations for many decades beginning with your late father, whose grave I visited today in a very moving ceremony. We know his qualities as a visionary, as a leader, as a founder of modern Kenya. And we also remember Kenya's assistance in the rescue mission in Entebbe.
 
Our pilots landed here afterwards and in retrospect we know that this was not merely an act to save innocent Israeli hostages but it was an act dealt a devastated blow to international terror at the time. Yet, we are engaged in the resurface, resurfacing of a new form of terrorism that threatens all our countries. And we must join forces at this. We discussed it in some length. And I may say that I think we see eye to eye on the nature of this problem, and I think Africa and Israel overwhelmingly see eye to eye on this. And therefore I welcome your remarks on helping us to restore observer status for Israel in the AU. This is a concrete goal and I think it tallies with our desire to join with African countries, creating a new partnership for security and development.
 
That partnership is so natural here in Kenya because Israel and Kenya are natural partners. We face common challenges, the first among them is as I've just said, terror. We all remember the horrific carnage in the Westgate shopping mall and in the Garissa University. Innocent men, women, children hunted down by blood thirsty murderers, and tragically we in Israel have also experienced such attacks on our oil soil against our own civilians. I have to say that the terrorists see us all as one enemy. And that is why we must remain united in our common war. We are.
 
And I know that working together will help us defeat the scourge of this terror even faster. And when I say working together it's Kenya, Israel and other African countries that have an equal stake in defeating the forces of this radicalism that threatens all our societies.
 
Now, alongside these common challenges, Israel and Kenya share common opportunities in technology, water, agriculture, cyber and much more.
 
You know, Israel is a small country. It was founded without any natural resources. The only natural resource we had was our brain and our heart. And we've learned to do a lot, to do more with less. We have less water, natural water today, substantially less water than we had at the founding of Israel but our population has grown tenfold and our GDP per capita has grown 40 times. But we don't have a water shortage, we have a water surplus. It's all because we use technology. We do more with less. The same is true of agriculture, the same is true of energy and so many other areas. We are more than happy to partner with you because we believe you have the same potential. We believe that Africa is a continent on the rise and the rising tide will help everyone. A rising tide lifts all ships. And working together we all stand to benefit. And people, citizens of Kenya who are listening to this should know that the practical result of our cooperation can be greater prosperity and greater security for each and every one of them.
 
This is something that could not happen without your leadership, President Kenyatta, and without your friendship and I want to thank you for both. Thank you my friend."

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta's Remarks at Joint Press Conference:

Good afternoon, everybody.
 
Let me begin by welcoming our dear friend Prime Minister Netanyahu and his team to Kenya and indeed to the African continent. This is a very historic trip for him but also for us. It’s the first time in over two decades that an Israeli Premier has set foot on African soil and it is remarkable on that account alone.
 
We are honored that one of the countries that he has chosen to visit is Kenya, which attests to the strong and enduring relations between our two nations. As I'm sure most of you are aware, this trip holds even greater significance for the Prime Minister because on this day 40 years ago, just across in Uganda, we had a hundred Israeli commandos who risked their lives to liberate hostages from the death grip of terrorists.
 
As a country, we stood with Israel both in practice and in principle, as they carried out the operation in Entebbe in 1976. And indeed, as a country we also paid the price for many of our people who were subsequently killed in Uganda by Idi Amin as a result of the support that we gave.
 
With the large-scale success of Operation Entebbe, goodwill eventually prevailed over evil, right over wrong, and today indeed as we remember that heroic undertaking and the valiant efforts of those including the Prime Minister's own brother, it should be a source of incredible encouragement and hope to a world that is increasingly standing together to counter the callousness and cruelty of terrorism, something Kenya and Israel have always done together.
 
So indeed on that account, I thank the Prime Minister for honoring our country with a historic visit at a very significant time, and indeed, it is fitting that the historic security cooperation between our two countries, which is a priority concern for both of us, and as they have done for years, the Prime Minister and the Israeli people continue to extend invaluable support to Kenya, helping us build capacity and to bolster internal as well as regional security.
 
We are in ongoing talks about how to strengthen and expand that cooperation so that we can gain from Israel's expertise in cyber security, amongst other things that we also discussed.
 
Prime Minister Netanyahu and I also discussed other areas of mutual interest – agriculture and water and its related elements, health, and these projects and these are areas that we wish to continue to benefit from the indispensable technical support that Israel continues to give, and indeed, Israel earlier this year agreed to increase the number of students that they will train, especially in the agricultural and irrigation initiative, from 30 to 45. We'll be flying off a number of those students today.
 
And we will continue engaging to ensure that cooperation in these developmental areas continues in a sustainable manner.
 
We also had the opportunity to discuss the issues of Israel and the region as well, and we as a country continue to encourage peace talks to be held between both the Israelis and the Palestinians and I believe in the spirit of friendship. We ourselves, with our own limited experience of a crisis in 2007-2008 demonstrated the importance of dialogue amongst leaders, especially when the lives of their people are at stake.
 
And I believe that that same dialogue can help us get a way forward in resolving that particular issue. Kenya, without doubt, is committed to supporting a peace process in whatever way she can and we continue to see Israel as a critical partner, a friend, an ally, which is all the more reason we desire peace in that region and in that part of the world.
 
Finally, we have just also witnessed, as we concluded our official engagement, we're witnessing the signing of a couple of agreements that will see us cooperating more closely in areas of health and immigration. The agreements will allow us to build the capacity of our health systems and professionals in the area of emergency preparedness and resource, as well as specialized medical services.
 
Our immigration agreement will see the abolition of visas for holders of diplomatic passports in our two countries, and these agreements build on 50 years of cooperation, and I am confident that with their implementation we will find more ways of collaborating, and the relationship between Israel and Kenya can only grow stronger.
 
We also discussed ways and we agreed that there is need also to see how we can get to have Israel re-establish her relations with Africa and we think this is important. We think that the world has changed. The nature of the global problems that we now share are different from what they were some 30 years ago.
 
And we need to partner with each other, we need to be able to deal with the security threats that we have together and we believe that there is need for us as a continent to once again begin re-engaging Israel on a more positive basis, with an understanding that our partnership can help make this world that much more secure.
 
And this is something that Kenya will continue to push, to see how Israel can regain her observer position at the African Union and I believe that this is not just good for Kenya. It is good for Africa, it is good for global peace, it is good for partnership.
 
And we can together, as I have just said, resolve issues through dialogue. You cannot resolve issues unless you have the capacity to talk to one another. We must be in a position where we can engage because it is through engagement that we find solutions, and this is something that Kenya is very keen to see.
 
So as I conclude, Prime Minister, mine is once again to say that we are truly happy to have you here. We look forward to our continued partnership and we look forward to even further engagement as we move forward for the mutual interests of our two nations and for the prosperity of our two peoples. Welcome, Prime Minister. "