Four days into official visit, Tillerson falls sick in Kenya, cancels engagements

Four days after U.S. Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, started his first diplomatic trip to Africa, and the second day he arrived Kenya, he has fallen ill, and as a result cancelled his engagements.

Before arriving Kenya, he had visited Ethiopia, Djibouti and still scheduled to visit Nigeria and Chad.“The secretary is not feeling well after a long couple days working on major issues back home such as North Korea and has canceled his events for the day,” spokesman Steve Goldstein told reporters traveling with Tillerson.

“Some events will go ahead without him, while they are looking at the possibility of rescheduling others,” said Goldstein, under-secretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs at the State Department.

Goldstein later said the secretary’s health had improved. “The Secretary is feeling better and will resume his normal schedule tomorrow (today),” he said.During the trip, he has also been involved behind the scenes in discussions within the administration on a possible meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Tillerson had been scheduled to lay a wreath at the site of the 1998 bombing of the U.S. embassy in Nairobi, in which more than 200 people were killed, and attend an event to highlight U.S. health assistance in Africa.