US Vice President JD Vance has cancelled his planned trip to Kenya later this month after President Donald Trump announced that no US officials would attend the G20 summit in South Africa, Kenya’s government confirmed on Monday.
Vance had been scheduled to visit Kenya, a key US ally in Africa, following the G20 summit set for November 22–23. Trump cited alleged human rights violations against South Africa’s white Afrikaner minority as the reason for withdrawing US participation, claims that South Africa has consistently denied.
Kenya’s foreign ministry said in a statement that Vance’s visit had been called off as a direct result of the G20 withdrawal. The ministry stressed that the cancellation “will not affect the strong and enduring ties between our two nations.”
Nairobi has been seeking a US-Kenya trade agreement by the end of the year. The East African nation was designated a major non-NATO ally by former U.S. President Joe Biden in 2024, though recent moves to strengthen relations with China have drawn criticism from some US lawmakers.
The White House had not provided a comment at the time of the report.