Recently, there have been arguments about the President’s travels abroad. The 39 foreign trips so far have been beneficial to the country and this is in sync with Kenya's foreign policy vision and mission as stated in the Kenya Foreign Service Act.
The President is the nation's chief ambassador and CEO. Our constitution expressly vests in him the executive powers to lead our foreign relationship. To recapitulate, therefore, Kenya’s foreign policy is his prerogative.
The President is the vision bearer of ‘THE PLAN’ and understands his manifesto like the palm of his hands. In the comprehensive Hustler government manifesto, we recognise that Kenya is an integral part of the global community — not an island in the League of Nations.
We hold in high regard the principle of global interconnectedness and firmly believe that the realisation of the BETA plan necessitates a strategic commitment to thorough scrutiny, evaluation and involvement of both our internal dynamics and the external global environment.
Our foreign aspirations, as enshrined in the Kenya Kwanza manifesto, was and still is to make Kenya respected and valued abroad, play a cog role in regional and pan-African affairs, collaborate with international partners, uphold our commitments to the international community and to expand Kenyan markets abroad.
President Ruto's foreign visits have over-achieved these objectives. They have led to the indisputable rise of Kenya as a diplomatic powerhouse, a regional hub for business, and a key voice for the region and the continent at large. Today when Kenya speaks, everyone listens!
Several high value bilateral and multilateral agreements have been signed, and ocean-width opportunities and investment collaborations secured.
The recent trip to Riyadh unlocked 350,000 job opportunities for Kenyans to work in Saudi Arabia. This will expand our Kenyan workforce in Saudi Arabia to over half a million and earns us more foreign exchange. Currently, Diaspora remittances are the leading foreign exchange earner to the tune of more than 400 billion.
In terms of injection to our economy, the President has inked deals worth more than Sh2 trillion in the long run. For example, in December last year, he secured Sh50 billion towards the PEPFAR health project, Sh55 billion funding for Green Mobility for Nairobi BRT 3, Sh12 billion EU grant for green investments, over Sh130 billion from Development Finance Cooperation to finance health, MSMEs and agribusiness, among other multi-billion shillings investments in the country.
Notably, PepsiCo, a global leading beverage company, has chosen Nairobi to be its African hub in its efforts to tap the African Market. America's NBA will also set up offices in Nairobi to help in the development of the sport in the country.
To further affirm our authority as a diplomatic powerhouse, Nairobi is set to host United Nations Office for Project Services, aside from UNEP and UN-Habitat which we currently host. This will translate to many jobs and business opportunities worth billions of shillings for Kenyans, through the various projects that the UN will be implementing.
President Ruto's leadership transcends our boundaries. He is a recognised global leader. He chairs the committee of African Heads of States and Government on Climate Crisis. Africa loses 15 per cent of its GDP growth due to the ravages of climate change. President Ruto's lead role in mobilising resources and action to address climate change across the world is timely and commendable.
Last year alone, Kenya lost 2.5 million livestock to drought resulting to an economic loss of over Sh230 billion. Resultant effects of climate change like floods and drought have big effects on agriculture, wildlife, school attendance health and other key sectors.
Further, Kenya hosted the inaugural Africa climate Summit, setting pace for climate action. As a follow up, several initiatives have been put in place to realise our aspirations for a better environment.
Monday, November 13, was gazetted as National Tree Growing Day as a key measure to achieve our country’s ambitious program of growing 15 billion trees in 10 years for landscape and ecosystem restoration in the country. Under this programme, 10.6 million ha will be restored through agroforestry and rehabilitation.
The programme has adopted a whole of government, whole of society approach with government, citizens, private sector have roles to play in tree growing in order to achieve a greener and sustainable Kenya.
So far, more than 150 million trees have been planted in this season with 10 million trees already documented in the Kenya Forest Service's Jaza Miti app, which documents numbers of trees grown for timely reporting. The target is 500 million trees.
Our listening government takes note of the skyrocketing cost of living, which we never shy to attribute to the omissions and commissions of the previous government. We are committed to addressing the issue of cost of living through intentional and deliberate subsidisation of production at the expense of consumption as was the case before.
The low cost of fertiliser has reduced the cost of production of farming. A 2kg packet of unga today retails at between Sh145 and Sh175 from a peak of 250 when we took over government. Milk prices have also dropped from more than Sh60 to between Sh43 and Sh50, depending on brand and markets.
Fuel prices had been projected to rise to Sh229.37, Sh223.29 and Sh206.70 for petrol, diesel and kerosene respectively.
However, the fuel stabilisation fund has been used to cushion Kenyans from the projected increase resulting to a drop in the prices of diesel and kerosene, and maintaining the status quo for petrol.
Better day lay ahead, let’s not give up. There is hope.
The author is the government spokesperson
