51 heads of state from Africa have comfirmed that they will attend the summit.

According to Uganda’s minister of Foreign affairs, Sam Kutesa, the heads of state were invited because of their strong historical links to Africa.

"African Union has invited 13 leaders of Caribbean countries. AU has invited them because they are blacks and are very much interested in African affairs."

He said that Uganda government had at first not been informed about the invitation of the Caribbean leaders until only two weeks ago. "We have just started preparing for them. We did not have them on the list of those expected to attend the summit and had not prepared for them. We were only informed about their coming two weeks ago," Kutesa said.

The heads of government expected are from Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica, St. Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis and St. Vincent. They will join the 51 African heads of state for the summit.

He said that leaders from Mexico and Palestine are also expected to attend, but only as special guests.

The theme for the summit will be “Maternal, Infant and Child Health and Development in Africa”.