The FBI director Christopher Asher Wray met president William Ruto among other top security officials when he was in Kenya for five days.
Wray and his team landed in Kenya Saturday June 8 for a series of meetings.
Details have emerged he met Ruto on Tuesday June 11 at State House for a meeting that lasted hours.
He is said to have briefed Ruto on his mission in Kenya, which took five days. The meeting between the two has not been made public.
Among others, Wray also held separate meetings with National Intelligence Service Director General Noordin Haji, Director of Criminal Investigations Mohamed Amin, Ethics and Anti Corruption Commission CEO Twalib Mbarak and Director of Public Prosecution Mulele Ingonga.
He also met officials from the military who are tasked with handling intelligence.
Later on Tuesday afternoon, Wray had a luncheon at the NIS headquarters where he met all members of the security and intelligence community in Kenya.
The details of the discussions are yet to be made public.
But officials suspect Wray had a serious intelligence related message he wanted to relay to Kenya and the region at large.
This include the threats of terror and instability in Sudan, Somalia, Yemen and DRC.
When he arrived, there were speculations on his mission here.
The visit was kept under the wraps even as some speculated on the mission.
But when asked on the mission, Wray said he was simply visiting a great partner in various areas to enhance operations for general stability in the region.
“We have a great partner in Kenya and that is why we are here to enhance our partnership,” he said.
Security officials termed the visit historic given among the places Wray visited included the Nairobi National Park, Dusit D2 Complex and a number of malls.
The visits were in low key but were felt as some roads were closed for his movement.
He was at the DusitD2 Complex to witness the impact of terrorism in the country following January 16 2019 terror attack that left 22 civilians and five terrorists dead.
Officials said Wray with his team discussed with the security chiefs areas of mutual cooperation between the institutions.
Cyber crimes, terrorism and corruption topped the agenda of the meetings.
Amin said the visit by the FBI boss and his team was a testimony of the seriousness the US government has in the region at large.
He said FBI has been leading in training and kitting DCI personnel in many areas to enhance their capacity in the was on crime.
Wray said they will continue to cooperate with Kenyan institutions in training and tooling for the security of the country and region at large.
He said he came to Kenya to say thank you for the outstanding collaboration and cooperation they have with FBI.
“Part of the reasons for my visit is to say thank you for that outstanding collaboration with the DCI and other agencies we work with in Kenya,” he said.
Wray said FBI’s move to launch the Joint Terrorism Taskforce (JTTF) with Kenya is a lynchpin in the fight against terrorism.
“We are working with partners here in Kenya to provide cutting edge tools so that they can get those tools in the hands of investigators on the ground and identify the threats and stay ahead of those threats.”
“We have been working with partners at the DCI to bring together partners in and around this region to talk about threats we are all seeing to share lessons learnt and share new ways to work together to combat terrorism threats and coming over the horizon,” he said.
It came days after President William Ruto visited US for days and met his host Joe Biden.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency.
It enforces federal law, and investigates a variety of criminal activity including terrorism, cybercrime, white-collar crimes, public corruption, civil rights violations, and other major crimes.
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