U.S. officials say Ruto will be in Washington for a diplomatic visit focused on strengthening relations between the two nations.
Kenya and the U.S. share democratic convictions and their like-minded approach in leveraging the private sector to meet government aims, the White House said.
Speaking to VOA, Frances Brown, the new senior director for African affairs at the National Security Council said the primary reason behind Ruto's visit is to discuss Kenya's decision to assert itself globally by offering 1,000 peacekeepers for Haiti.
The first tranche of boots on the ground are expected to arrive in the violence stricken Caribbean nation this week.
"We chose Kenya for a few reasons," Brown said, adding, "number one is the Kenya-U.S. partnership has really grown from a regionally focused one to a globally focused one. We've been really pleased by the way that Kenyans have stepped up to play leadership [roles] beyond their region."
SEE ALSO: Kenya troops to deploy to Haiti within weeks, says senior government officialBrown said Washington aims to use the visit to reach agreements in areas like technology, climate management, debt relief and health.
And on the Haiti mission, U.S. authorities have signaled their approval with $300 million in support.
Brown said Washington has been "working really closely," with Nairobi.
"As you may know, there's been planning underway for a number of months. It has included policing experts from around the world working to develop a concept of operations. Kenya is not going it alone," Brown said.
Cameron Hudson, a senior fellow in the Africa program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies said a state visit "is the highest diplomatic honor that our president [Joe Biden] can bestow."
"It's typically an indicator of a very close and important bilateral relationship. And so, elevating Kenya to the level of, let's say, a Japan, which was the most recent country to have a state visit, I think it is symbolic." Hudson said.
"It's important for all the reasons that I just described as far as Kenya being on a level that we would give it the same privileges as one of our oldest and longest security partners," the fellow added.
FILE — Kenya President William Ruto is pictured after laying a wreath at the tombs of Martin Luther King Jr., and Corett Scott King, during a visit to the King Center on May 20, 2024, in Atlanta.
Ruto, in Atlanta for his first stop of his four-day U.S. visit, said he'd use his time in Washington to "make a case for many countries in Africa, including Kenya, seeking to adjust international financial architecture."
"Many countries are in economic and debt distress occasioned by climate change and compounded by an unjust international financial architecture and also an imperfect multilateralism," the Kenyan president said.
"We now run the escalating risk of democracy and free markets being associated with poverty, and lending credit to the widespread lamentation that democracy is or has been on the retreat in many parts of the world, including Africa," he added.
But human rights advocates in Nairobi told VOA they hope U.S. leadership will also raise what they see as serious concerns, like reports of abuses by Kenyan police, who are taking the lead in the Haiti mission.
FILE — Kenyan police patrol the streets of Nairobi, on March.12, 2024.
Irungu Houghton, the executive director for Amnesty International Kenya said the meeting between Ruto and U.S. officials is "a really excellent opportunity to focus on governance, human rights and rule of law, for many reasons."
"Both the United States and Kenya are nations that projected themselves as essentially nations that believe in these values and the state dinner is an opportunity really to focus on that," the executive director told VOA.
Some analysts say the meeting between the Kenyan and U.S. authorities will also address the ongoing war in Gaza, an issue which the East African nation has kept largely quiet on despite other African nations criticizing Israel for its position on the conflict.
Demas Kiprono, the leader of the Kenyan section of the International Commission of Jurists said some Muslims in the East African nation have tried protesting "but they had a very, very hard time having access to the streets, because every time they go out, the police arrest them."
Kenyan activists like Yvonne Muthoni say they hope the Biden administration will voice concerns over a pending Kenyan law that targets sexual minorities.
"It's criminalizing things even like pronouns. It's criminalizing things like using [gender] neutral toilets. It's a horrible, horrible law that is being financed by Family Watch International — that's the same organization that financed the Uganda bill and all the (LGBTQ)-related bills basically in Africa and even in the U.S.," Muthoni said.
Family Watch International is a conservative Christian American lobbying group. The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks extremist groups, says it "works within the United Nations and with countries around the world to further anti-LGBT and anti-choice stances."
Muthoni said "we are looking at violence that is coming from this. Whether it's online or physical violence, we are seeing a rise in the number of cases that are being reported, in the number of complaints, in the rallies that are being called for. So, it is quite a scary time for Kenya right now."
Farhad Pouladi contributed to this report from the White House.