The White House (America) has cited three reasons for inviting Kenyan President William Ruto on Thursday for a Pomp-filled State Visit. The state visit by President Ruto will also break the 16-year drought during which no African leader has been honored in the White House.

Those include the two governments’ shared democratic convictions and their like-minded approach to leveraging the private sector to meet government aims.

But the primary reason is Kenya’s recent decision to assert itself globally by offering 1,000 peacekeepers for Haiti. The first tranche of boots on the ground are expected to hit Haitian soil this week.

“We chose Kenya for a few reasons; No. 1 is the Kenya-U.S. partnership has grown from a regionally focused one to a globally focused one. We’ve been pleased by the way that Kenyans have stepped up to play leadership [roles] beyond their region.” Said Frances Brown, senior director for African affairs at the National Security Council, USA

One is the cooperation between Kenya and the United States has grown from one that focuses to one that focuses on international. We are very pleased with the way Kenyans have come forward to perform duties outside the region they participated.

Meanwhile, the Kenyan leader says his focus is on debt restructuring, and activists in the East African nation are sounding the alarm over human rights concerns.