Kenya Embassy Ireland

H.E. Catherine Muigai Mwangi visited Cork city accompanied by Kasiva Mbithi, a political officer at the Embassy from 20^th to 21^st May to promote Kenya. During her tour the Ambassador held a detailed meeting with Dr. Michael Murphy, President of University College Cork to discuss possible collaborations between the University College Cork and Kenyan Universities. She acknowledged that the college’s department of Food Science and Technology was well respected in the areas of food science and sought of ways that the University would cooperate with some of the Kenyan Universities to share knowledge.  After productive discussions, Dr. Murphy gave the Ambassador a brief tour to Stone Corridor at the College and showed her the ancient alphabet of Ogham that had been rescued and restored by the college.

The Ambassador’s next stop was at the Barry Tea factory where she was met by Mr. Tony Barry, the Managing Director and other senior officials of the company. The Ambassador was visiting the company to its continued support of Kenyan tea.  Barry’s tea buys 75 – 80% of its tea from Kenya.  Mr. Barry led the Ambassador and the other members in a brief tour of the factory and the tea tasting chambers, where the Ambassador was able to see tea consignments from different tea factories in Kenya and witness the complex process of tea tasting.  Barry’s main tea blends include, Classic, Gold, Original, Decaf and Green Tea.

On 21^st May 2010, the Ambassador joined other dignitaries in a mini conference hosted to mark Africa day. The conference was opened by Cllr. Kieran McCarthy, Deputy Mayor of Cork who urged people to be positive in their activities.

In her Speech to the participants the Ambassador highlighted the numerous achievements made economically, socially and politically in Kenya and informed the participants that Kenya has moved with the times to remain robust and relevant. She further detailed Kenya’s development agenda and gave an exhaustive account of economic, social and political achievements to date.

At the same conference, the Ambassador of the Republic of South Africa, H.E. Mr. Jeremiah Ndou, gave an account of South Africa’s achievements and urged the African Diaspora to be positive while judging their mother land. He noted that the speed of development in Africa might not be what the world expected, but it must be acknowledged that a lot had been achieved in the last ten years.