British Prime Minister Theresa May is in the country for a one day visit seen as crucial for Kenya’s trade ties with the UK.
The premier is on a three-nation Africa whistle-stop tour coming months before Britain leaves the European Union. Theresa May is scheduled to hold talks with President Uhuru Kenyatta and sign what the foreign affairs ministry terms as crucial agreements.
The British prime minister is expected to hold bilateral talks with President Uhuru Kenyatta at State House and later address a public lecture at Strathmore University.
But who is this woman who leads one of the world’s economic and military powerhouses?
Here are some interesting facts about the British leader:
Theresa Mary May is the second woman to hold the position of British prime minister after Margaret Thatcher, who held the position from the year 1975 to 1990.
Also like the late Mrs Thatcher, Mrs May is the leader of the Conservative Party, since 2016.
She joined active politics in 1997 when she ran and was elected as the MP for Maidenhead.
She was a student at the prestigious University Oxford, from where she graduated in 1977 with a degree in geography at St. Hugh’s College.
Besides politics, Mrs May enjoys cooking. She owns 100 cook books.
In January 2017, Mrs May was the first foreign leader to meet the then newly elected US President Donald Trump.
She was appointed Home Secretary in May 2010. She held the position until July 2016.
Theresa May was responsible for the ban of the exportation of khat (miraa) from Kenya and its use in the UK, against the advice of experts on drug use.
The UK Prime minister is diabetic. She was diagnosed with diabetes mellitus, also known as Type 1 diabetes, in 2012 and injects insulin daily.
She co-founded Women2Win, an organisation dedicated to increasing the amount of women in the Conservative Party in Parliament.
She was introduced to her husband, also a student at Oxford, in 1976 by Benazir Bhutto, who later became the prime minister of Pakistan.
She is a practicing Anglican.
