Kenya is likely to host the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) Summit in 2016, the first ever in Africa, after Ethiopia, which had earlier shown an interest, withdrew its bid.

In a reciprocal offer, Kenya has dropped its bid to host the United Nation’s Security Council Summit scheduled for 2017–2018, and will instead support Ethiopia in its bid to host it.

“Although we had already received support from 70 countries, we opted to leave it in favour of Ethiopia because the Ticad Summit is nearer, and has more benefits,” said Amina Mohamed, Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Foreign Affairs and International Trade.

Kenya’s interest in hosting international conferences is part of the country’s renewed efforts to support the tourism industry which has been hit by fears of terror attacks linked to Somalia’s Al Shabaab militants.

“By hosting such conferences, we expect to receive high level dignitaries from around the world, which will give us the opportunity to market ourselves as a tourist destination and boost the country’s image as a holiday maker’s choice,” said Ms Mohamed.

READ: Ebola, terrorist attacks now weaken convention tourism

Gambia in the race

Although Gambia had also shown an interest in hosting the 2016 Ticad Summit, Kenya had not known about it earlier.

“We just learnt of Gambia’s interest and would have addressed it earlier if we had known. We will despatch a high level delegation to Gambia and hope an amicable agreement is arrived at as soon as possible,” said Ms Mohamed. “Available options include holding the technical committee meetings in Gambia and then the summit in Nairobi.”

Japanese parliamentary Vice-Minister Takashi Uto has urged the two countries to expedite consultations and reach an agreement as a matter of urgency within timelines of the summit so as to facilitate the planning.

Kenya is the largest recipient of official development assistance from Japan to Africa, which makes it a natural choice to host the summit.

Ticad is held every five years with the objective of promoting high level policy dialogue between African leaders and development partners.

Kenya also won the bid to host the next biennial meeting of the World Trade Organisation scheduled for December, after Turkey withdrew from the race.