US Vice President Kamala Harris starts official visit to Tanzania

By Hassan Isilow

JOHANNESBURG (AA) - US Vice President Kamala Harris arrived in Tanzania Thursday for an official tour of the East African nation, where she will meet President Samia Suluhu Hassan.

Harris and her delegation landed at the Julius Nyerere International Airport on Wednesday night after spending three days in Ghana.

US ambassador to Tanzania Michael Battle thanked Tanzanians for giving Harris a warm welcome.

“Tanzania is famous for its hospitality and last night was a great display of it. Asanteni sana (Thank you very much) for the wonderful warm welcome given to @VP Kamala Harris and @SecondGentleman Douglas Emhoff,’’ Battle wrote on Twitter.

Harris was welcomed by Tanzania’s Vice President Philip Mpango and Foreign Minister Stergomena Tax, amid music and dancing from entertainers as she walked on the red carpet.

Harris tweeted minutes later: “Great to be here, Tanzania.”

Local media outlets have also welcomed her visit with The Citizen newspaper describing her visit in its editorial as “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.”

While in Ghana, Harris pledged a new era of partnership with Africa expressing her vision for "a future that is propelled by African innovation."

She highlighted the continent's innovation in emergency health care supplies, vaccines, farming and mineral processing.

“We must invest in the African ingenuity and creativity, which will unlock incredible economic growth and opportunities,” Harris said from Independence Square in Accra, where thousands gathered waving US and Ghanaian flags.

She said the US must be guided "not by what we can do for our African partners, but what we can do with our African partners.”

Harris will conclude her Africa trip in Zambia later this week.