China is Taking Over The World

Banks fail and Clueless Janet gives a speech identifying the main international financial problems as racism, abortion, and climate change. More banks fail and Janet gives another speech saying it was caused by a failure of the regulatory system which she was instrumental in establishing but it is not her fault; we need more regulations.

Credit Suisse fails. The Saudis are the largest shareholder. They, and other Gulf Arab investors, who own 25% of Credit Suisse because of recent investments to prop it up, hate to lose their investment so propose a takeover plan to save it. They are stiffed by the Swiss government which will only accept a “Swiss solution.”

Joey gets a series of fist bumps from the Saudi Crown Prince. Right to the gut. But Joey does not seem to know it. First, the Saudis accept a detente with Iran brokered by China. This does not make them pals, they have been enemies for centuries. But it does mean they will not actively shoot at each other and will work together on common problems - such as increasing the oil price. Then, the Saudis announce they are joining the Chinese-led Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and BRICS, both organizations dominated by China which offer international financial options to supplement China’s Belt and Road system. 

The SCO has 21 full members and affiliates waiting to become members. BRICS has 14 members and affiliates. Some are also SCO members. Other Arab countries and OPEC members can be expected to follow the Saudi lead to join these groups. 

These moves by the Saudis not only re-align the power structure of the Middle East but of the world. China is now dominant not only in the Middle East, but also Central Asia, Latin America, and Africa and has a “no limits” partnership with Russia.

Most of the world does not care about the “U.S.-led International World Order.” China is knocking it down before our eyes. Most of the world does not care about Ukraine. Most of the world does not care about U.S. or European sanctions on Russia, Iran, Venezuela, or anybody else. Even Japan has broken away from the Order and is now buying Russian oil above the “price cap” established by the U.S. and Europe.

These are profound changes. The U.S. Administration seems unaware.

After establishing this power re-alignment, the Saudis, Russia, and OPEC announced they would extend last October’s production cuts to the end of the year and add another million-barrel-per-day cut as well. Oil prices jumped back up into the 80s. Joey said this was “inadvisable.” Of course, no one was listening. Most people do not listen to the babblings of a fool.  

All this seems less a repudiation of U.S. leadership than a recognition that the current U.S. Administration is incapable of leading anything – much less the Free World. Its president has to be led off the stage after a poorly-delivered speech which makes no sense to anyone but him. The Diversity Cabinet is unanimously incompetent. The Secretary of Energy is silent about these events - which profoundly affect energy markets and supplies. These events mark a massive failure of our foreign policy and the Secretary of State seems not to notice. The Secretary of Defense faded away a couple of years ago and hasn’t been seen or heard since.  

China is winning the competition for world dominance. It is winning not because it has a strong economy, financial system, or an attractive social system. It does not. China is in bad shape economically, demographically, and financially. It is winning because it has a strong leader. It is facing an opponent with a society trying to figure out what gender it is.  

The U.S. is left with a few reluctant floundering allies, mostly in Europe and they are also in terrible shape. Many of them are finding that willy-nilly subsidies for renewable energy and mandates against fossil fuels are either unaffordable or leaving them unemployed and freezing in the dark. Policy according to teenage hysteria. 

New estimates for future oil demand are out. Despite the economic damage caused by climate mandates, various OPEC, EIA, IEA, and Goldman forecasts estimate world oil demand will increase between 2.0 and 2.3 million barrels per day (mb/d) in 2023. Oil is still a major component of the world economy. Thankfully, many projects for new supplies have been announced recently. 

Years ago, British Petroleum was government owned. It was a rather stodgy unimaginative company surviving on what was left of the Empire.   

But then BP was privatized, bought several U.S. major integrated companies, and grew into an aggressive international oil company. Recently, however, British government mandates against fossil fuels, as in Europe, crippled BP and other energy companies and distorted their business. They caused a major energy shortage, exorbitant costs, and a crisis in the British economy. 

Yet roughly half of the British people think a re-nationalization of the energy business will fix the problem.

And, with all the obvious failures of the Biden Administration it still has about 40% support of the American public. Go figure. Is this because the public does not know or understand what is happening or is it Stockholm Syndrome? Whatever the reason, it demonstrates how democracy will eventually vote for its own destruction. 

Trump raves against the United States president following a brief arrest, saying "World War III is likely under Biden, and the dollar will lose its value."

"Our currency is crashing and will soon no longer be the world standard, which will be our greatest defeat in 200 Years," Trump said while speaking at Mar-a-Lago.

After a brief arrest in the hush money case, Donald Trump on Tuesday launched a scathing attack on US President Joe Biden and accused him of destroying the country. He said the world soon witness World War III under President Biden and the dollar, which countries keep as a reserve currency, may no longer be the world standard. "Our currency is crashing and will soon no longer be the world standard, which will be our greatest defeat in 200 Years," Trump said while speaking at Mar-a-Lago.

On Tuesday, Trump was criminally charged in a Manhattan court for falsifying business records in connection with hush money payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels. He pleaded no guilty to 34 felony counts and later said the only crime that he had committed was to "fearlessly defend our nation from those who seek to destroy it". Trump said the Democrats had weaponised America's system of laws like the USA had never seen before.

The former president, who is preparing to run for another term next year, said the world is likely to face an all-out nuclear World War III under Biden. He said that there were open threats by various countries of the use of nuclear weapons, something which was never discussed by other nations during his administration.

"This could very well lead under the Biden administration's leadership to an all-out nuclear World War III can happen. We're not very far away from it, believe it or not," Trump said, in an apparent reference to Russia which recently announced that it will station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.

Trump said America was now in a mess under Biden, who took charge as President in January 2021. "Our economy is crashing. Inflation is out of control. Russia has joined with China. Can you believe that? Saudi Arabia has joined with Iran," the former president said, adding that China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea have come together as a "menacing and destructive coalition".

China recently brokered a peace deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia. Beijing is also deepening its relationship with Moscow as they both are opposed to the US-led global order. Russia has already adopted the Chinese Yuan as one of the main currencies for its international reserves and overseas trade in the face of Western sanctions.

China's yuan has replaced the US dollar as the most traded currency in Russia, Bloomberg reported on Monday. The yuan surpassed the dollar in monthly trading volume in February for the first time, and the difference became more pronounced in March, the report said citing data from daily transaction reports from the Moscow Exchange.

Last month, the government said the RBI had allowed banks from 18 countries to trade in the rupee. Recently, noted economist Nouriel Roubini said the Indian rupee could become one of the global reserve currencies over a period of time. 

"One can see how the Indian rupee could become a vehicle currency for some of the trade that India does with the rest of the world, especially South-South trade. It could be a unit of account, it could be a means of payment, and it could become a store of value. Certainly, the rupee over time could become one of the varieties of global reserve currencies in the world," Roubini said during an interaction with Economic Times.

High-level pressure that compelled Ruto and Raila to negotiate

President William Ruto and Azimio One Kenya leader Raila Odinga kept secret their talks to end the twice-weekly protests that had started hitting the economy and jeopardized lives and property.

The two played their cards close to their chests, keeping details of their discussions secret even from their closest allies after they were warned to be wary of vested interests from their respective political groupings.

It has also emerged that the President opted to climb down to avoid yet another violent confrontation with Azimio leaders and supporters yesterday.

At the same time, reports indicate that Delaware Senator Chris Coons — credited for playing a part in the President Uhuru Kenyatta-Raila 2018 “handshake” that ended a similar stand-off, played a major role in efforts to break the ice between President Ruto and the Azimio leader.

Although they were kept in touch with each other over the weekend, President Ruto and Raila never met in person, only engaging through a senior official in the Office of the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) who acted as an intermediary and who relayed messages from one party to the other.

Some sources indicated that the President turned down a proposal for a physical meeting that religious leaders were pushing for. In the absence of direct talks, the senior official was engaged to act as a go-between relaying the two leaders’ respective positions.

So secretive were the negotiations that only three people on President Ruto’s side were aware of the developments; Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki, his Transport counterpart Kipchumba Murkomen and Kericho Senator Aaron Cheruiyot. On Raila’s side, only his 2022 presidential campaign running mate, Martha Karua, and Wiper Party leader Kalonzo Musyoka were looped in.

Former Defence Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa, Roots Party leader George Wajackoya and the rest of the Azimio leadership was in the dark over the goings on until the last minute. “The stakes were high and we told the two leaders that they would be held responsible should the country burn, and therefore they had to take up the initiative,” Mombasa Catholic Archbishop Martin Kivuva, who also chairs the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB) and was part of the initiative, told People Daily yesterday.

The clerics approached the two leaders directly after they realised that the talks were being frustrated by hardliners in the respective corners. As a result, the negotiators asked the two leaders to leave out their allies considered to have taken hard-line positions.

International community

Sources privy to the talks indicated to the People Daily that though there had been several initiatives geared towards brokering a truce between the two leaders, they were later whittled down to two.... one led by the international community and the other by KCCB (see separate story).

The initiative by the international community was spearheaded by Coons, who led a US delegation into the country and first held a meeting with Gachagua on Wednesday before meeting Raila later in the evening.

An initiative by the Inter-Religious Council of Kenya (IRCK) was shelved after Raila’s camp reportedly raised reservations over the presence of a leading clergyman in the team, whom they accused of being partisan.

Senator Coons, a close ally of US President Joe Biden, also met retired President Uhuru Knyatta and later President Ruto on Friday before departing for the US later in the evening. According to one source, President Biden had dispatched Croons to broker the talks.

Yesterday Daadab Member of Parliament Farah Maalim, a Kalonzo ally, attributed the success of the talks to Coon’s intervention. “The biggest game changer here is not the church, the religious sector, or the political class. It is the American Senator Chris Coons who talked to everybody and told them to stand down,” said the MP.

Before the Sunday announcement, there had been fears over the future of the talks after allies of President Ruto and Raila appeared to harden their positions.

For instance, Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua had been highly critical of Raila, with some of his allies saying that any talks could only centre around Raila’s permanent retirement from politics and calling off the protests.

Gachagua had on Saturday heightened tension when he claimed that Monday would have been the last day for Azimio to hold any demonstrations before the government “asserts its authority”.

Speaking in Malava, Kakamega County during a thanksgiving ceremony of the area MP Injendi Malulu, Gachagua said: “I want to assure the people of Kenya today from Kakamega County that tomorrow, nobody, and I repeat nobody, will be allowed to destroy property anywhere in the Republic of Kenya.”

A day earlier, Raila had claimed that Monday, April 3 would have been the “mother of all protests”.

Sources within his camp had told the People Daily that Azimio had threatened to storm the Nairobi Central Business District (CBD), a threat that Inspector General of Police Japhet Koome had vowed would have been met with “the full force of the law”, meaning that this would have ended up as violent confrontation between protesters and police.

The government was determined to keep Azimio out of the city centre as it is considered the heart and soul of government and commercial operations.

Azimio protests centred on the need to reduce the high cost of living, including the price of unga, the opening of last year’s presidential election servers for a forensic audit, stopping the reconstitution of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) and respecting multi-party democracy to allow all parties to flourish without the government enticing opposition legislators to its side.

On the other hand, President Ruto’s side had ruled out discussing anything related to the outcome of the 2022 General Election, which the President said was settled by the Supreme Court judgement.

The team also ruled out discussions on the constitution of a new IEBC team, a position that the President vacated on Sunday during his address to the nation from State House, Nairobi. Talks have already started to make this a parliamentary process since MPs must pass a new law once they agree on how the new commissioners are to be selected.

On the high cost of living, President Ruto had insisted on being given more time to enable the measures they have put in place to start working. And on Sunday, he said consignments of foodstuff would be arriving in the country’s ports this week and, once in the market, they were expected to ease the cost of basic goods, hence manage inflation.

Meg Whitman: Why Africa, Why Kenya?

Today I will answer the question: Why Africa, Why Kenya?

It’s been a whirlwind eight months since I arrived in Kenya to assume the duties of the United States ambassador.  As I’ve told many, when President Biden asked me to serve as ambassador to Kenya, he had me at hello.  I believe after this two-day summit; Kenya will have you at hello too.

The U.S.-Kenya partnership is strong, built on sixty years of shared values and interests.  Our partnership has enhanced security, increased prosperity, and improved the lives of Kenyans and Americans.

It only takes a few visits around this country to observe Kenya’s development and growth potential.  There are many reasons why global businesses should consider Africa – and specifically Kenya – for trade and investment opportunities. Today I will answer the question: Why Africa, Why Kenya?

When I was a CEO – I’ll be honest – I probably thought of Africa about 1% of the time.  Many of the businesses I managed were heavily involved elsewhere.  But if I were back in the boardroom, Africa would be on my radar for two simple reasons:  supply chain diversification and net-zero emissions.

If the War in Ukraine and the COVID pandemic taught us anything from a business perspective, it is that single sourcing from any one country is not smart.  Single sourcing is a recipe for supply chain disruption and shortage.  No business can sustain that kind of vulnerability to succeed in such a competitive environment.  In fact, the businesses that will succeed and prosper will be the ones that move the fastest to the newest markets.

What the War in Ukraine and the pandemic did to spur supply chain diversification, climate change has done the same for energy use.  Businesses are pushing for net-zero emissions to meet their climate change mitigation goals. Kenya currently generates 93% of its electricity from renewable sources and this percentage is only going up with increased investments in solar, geothermal, and wind. Kenya is well on its way to meeting their green targets and if you invest in Kenya, you will be well on your way to meeting your companies Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions goals.

So, if you have not thought of investing or growing your business in sub-Saharan Africa, ponder these words from a CEO of a major consumer tech company I recently spoke with.  He said, “supply chain diversification is now an essential element of our business and so is the need to be totally green.  In that sense Kenya seems to offer us a one-two punch to success.”

Some of you may know that I love data and I often say to my team “let’s muck around in the numbers.”  At the Embassy, we’ve been doing a LOT of mucking around in trade and investment data.  What I’ve learned over the past eight months has been surprising and paints a much more dynamic business outlook for Africa than most Americans realize. Now those of you who are already invested here in Kenya probably know these data points.  Here are some I found particularly interesting.

By 2050, one in four humans, a quarter of the world’s population, and one in three working-age people, will live in Africa.

Africa is a young continent – the youngest in the world with 60% of the population under the age of 25.

Africa is the last, and largest, emerging market and offers the last big supply chain and consumer prospects, with opportunities like the ones Southeast Asia presented 20 years ago.

Do I have your attention?

You now know Why Africa should be on your radar.  But let’s zoom in on Why Kenya should be your target destination.

Here are some reasons:

• Kenya is the most stable democracy in East Africa,
• Kenya is the gateway to the East African market of almost 500 million consumers,
• Kenya is the regional logistics hub,
• Kenya is the leading regional finance hub,
• Kenya is the leading destination for foreign direct investment and venture capital,
• Kenya has the Silicon Savanah, with super smart engineers, and an excellent workforce,
• Kenya generates over 90% of its energy from renewable sources, and,
• Kenya’s largest export market is the United States.

Let me repeat:  Kenya’s largest export market is the United States.  And we feel Kenya is ready for export lift off as it diversifies.  Let’s unpack a few of these areas:

I arrived in Kenya days before the August 2022 general elections.  What I witnessed was nothing short of remarkable.  Kenya held what many analysts and commentators say was the freest, fairest, and most credible election in Kenyan history.  The election was observed by international and local election organizations and upheld by the Kenyan Supreme Court.  Power was transferred orderly and peacefully at the time.

Kenya’s population is 56 million, and as I said, Kenya is the gateway to East Africa, with a combined population of about 500 million. Eighty percent of East African regional trade passes through Kenya’s Mombasa Port.  In addition, Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi is the busiest airport in East Africa, served by 40 passenger airlines and 25 cargo carriers, including FedEx and DHL.  Kenya has some excellent infrastructure.

Nairobi’s vibrant technology community is already known as the Silicon Savannah and the Kenyan government is committed to establishing Nairobi as the premier destination for tech sector investment and innovation in Africa. Many U.S. companies have already figured this out and decided that they need to be in Kenya, including the names you see on the screen.

Less known, but also hugely impactful tech companies like Copia Global, Semiconductor Technologies Limited, Twiga Foods, Market Force, Power Financial Wellness, and many electric vehicle startups are here too.  I’ve met these companies, visited their operations, and what I see happening here has many of the critical components that make Silicon Savannah a reality.

At the nexus of finance and technology sits one of the most impressive companies I have ever seen: MPesa.  MPesa mobile money was developed by Kenyan innovators in 2007, and by 2010, MPesa had become the largest mobile money network in the world.

MPesa generates annual revenues of $1.3 billion, $360 billion flows through the platform yearly, and has an open API with 60,000 developers. It solved one of the biggest challenges in the mobile money market sector:  mobile, secure, ubiquitous, low-cost payments.  MPesa has over 50 million customers in 7 countries, is involved in over 70% of Kenyan transactions, powers over 5 Million businesses, and 59% of Kenya’s annual GDP flows through it. Let me tell you something: I know a little about this industry having bought and owned PayPal at eBay.  I assure you MPesa is extraordinary. MPesa alone demonstrates the brilliant business minds at work here devising Afrcan solutions to Global problems.

Kenya leads in foreign direct investment and venture capital too.  While venture capital flows decreased by 35 percent globally last year, total funding in Africa actually increased by 8 percent.  And more impressively, while venture capital to Nigeria was down 36 percent and essentially flat in South Africa, funding to Kenya increased by 33 percent, one of the highest growth rates on the continent.

Adjusted for GDP, Kenya receives significantly more venture capital than anywhere else on the continent, generating roughly triple the venture capital to GDP ratios of Nigeria, Egypt, and South Africa. Unlike its continental competitors who attract predominantly fintech led investments, Kenya’s venture capital flows are more diverse, led by e- commerce and cleantech, followed by fintech, agritech, and enterprise investments.

And what’s even more unique for Kenya, in 2022, Kenyan female-founded startups raised $146 million in equity, again more than any other country on the continent.

More than 90% of Kenya’s on-grid electricity is currently generated from renewable sources, primarily geothermal, wind, and solar.  A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of visiting Kipeto Wind farm in Kajiado county.  Kipeto, the second largest wind farm in Kenya, is proudly supported by the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation and PowerAfrica.  It’s amazing that Kenya has committed to reaching 100% renewable energy by 2030 and is already close to achieving its goal.

From a workforce perspective, Kenya is English-speaking, has high literacy rates, and a strong primary, secondary, and tertiary education system.  In fact, 86% of the labor force has some post-secondary education, outpacing the regional average of 72% and the country boasts some excellent universities. Every firm I have talked with raves about the quality of the Kenyan workforce.

In 2022, the United States became Kenya’s largest export market, edging ahead of neighboring Uganda.  In total, Kenya exported about $890 million in goods to the United States last year.

In addition, the United States exported around $600 million in goods to Kenya.  $1.5 billion in total U.S.-Kenya trade is fairly balanced and is expected to increase as the United States and Kenya negotiate a first-of-its-kind bilateral trade agreement between the United States and a sub-Saharan African country.

The Strategic Trade and Investment Partnership – commonly known as STIP – is definitely a STIP in the right direction.  Sorry, I couldn’t resist.  This agreement, once signed, will be a model for the rest of the continent.

What does this mean for you?  Well, entering Kenya now provides first-mover advantages for your business because the labor, intellectual property rights, regulatory, and other standards set here will help shape the business environment in the rest of the region.

So now you know why I am so enthusiastic about the Kenyan investment climate but I will note, however, there is room for improvement.  The Kenyan government has made great strides and is committed to creating a business-friendly environment.  If it is to accomplish this goal the government will have to address the following items. And the first is taxes.

Kenya must have a consistent, transparent, and fairly administered national tax policy to attract and retain foreign direct investment and accelerate economic development.  As you all know, more work needs to be done to establish a durable tax framework. We have worked with the President’s team on this issue and expect some changes to be announced soon.

Without a doubt corruption is also a critical issue and one that must be addressed for Kenya to reach its full potential in all areas of development.  Corruption leads to misuse of public resources, slows economic growth and job creation, and damages the investment climate.  Corruption also undermines equal participation in the prosperity of this country and erodes public trust in institutions.

However, while corruption does remain a challenge in Kenya, as in other developing markets, third-party measures of corruption indicate positive trends and modest progress in recent years.

According to the U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation’s country scorecards for 2023, Kenya’s score for “Control of Corruption” was 0.28 representing its third passing score in a row and highest score to date.  To put this number in context, Kenya’s 0.28 was superior to India’s 0.18 and Vietnam’s 0.19.

Kenya, like many developing countries, is burdened with high debt, limiting its ability to fund public services and infrastructure in line with its ambitions.  According to the IMF, Kenya’s debt to GDP ratio is 69% but this number is not an outlier amongst regional averages.  For comparison, Malaysia’s debt to GDP stood at 69% in 2021 while India’s ratio was 83% in 2022.

Another issue I often hear about is cargo clearance.  Despite improving logistics infrastructure, the delivered cost of a container shipment to Kenya does remain significantly higher than for container shipments landing in Europe or Asia.  While there is room for improvement on the cost, clearance times at the Port of Mombasa have been reduced from over 11 days in 2010 to 3.5 days in 2022.   This reduction occurred despite cargo consistently increasing over the past five years, from 27 million metric tons in 2016 to nearly 35 million metric tons in 2021.

This is an excellent opportunity to put to rest the argument that Kenya is not a manufacturing country.  True, Kenya has room to grow in this sector, but manufacturing is happening here.  Let me give you a few examples.

• Gearbox, a high-mix low-flow electronics manufacturer in Nairobi, runs a state-of-the-art surface-mount assembly line and in November 2022 began manufacturing Raspberry Pi’s Pico product for the African market.  Gearbox’s production quality meets or exceeds that of Raspberry Pi’s other production sites in Wales and in Japan, producing a first pass yield of 99.6%.
• Semiconductor Technologies Limited (STL), a U.S.-owned semiconductor manufacturing and nanotechnology company domiciled in Kenya, is growing rapidly, and has hired more than 80 Kenyan engineers in the past two years.
• Kenya’s Revital Healthcare is one of the largest manufacturers of medical products in Africa, producing 48 devices and exporting to 28 countries.
• Isuzu’s East Africa assembly plant has been operating in Nairobi since 1977, selling more than 90,000 units with over 15 models.
• There is also a robust and growing electric vehicle manufacturing and assembly industry in Kenya.
• Kenya is the future for Africa’s two- and three- wheel e-mobility and e-buses.
• Lastly, when we talk about trade, we must talk about apparel and apparel manufacturing.  Last year Kenya recorded its highest ever apparel exports to the United States, over $540 million, employing nearly 200,000 Kenyans, mostly young women.
• Leading U.S. apparel brands sourcing from Kenya include PVH, which includes Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein; Kontoor, which includes Lee and Wrangler, and several more including Walmart and Levi’s.
• And what we hear is these brands want more Kenyan apparel manufacturing, both because of the high quality of labor and for Kenya’s leadership in renewable energy.
• Brands are steadily moving production operations to Kenya from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, and China because of what Kenya has to offer.  And more of this is on the way.

In the words of Canadian American rock band Buffalo Springfield from their 1967 song, For What it is Worth – I bet some of you are going to have to Google this – “There’s something happening here.”  But unlike the song’s second line, “But what it is ain’t exactly clear,” does not apply to Kenya.  It is abundantly clear to me, and I hope by now it is abundantly clear to you.  If you’re not convinced, here are a few more data points to muck around in.

• Major U.S. companies have already made the jump to Africa with regional or continent-wide headquarters in Kenya, many previously mentioned.
• Major multinationals have regional offices in Kenya, including powerhouses like LG, Toyota, Volkswagen, Peugeot, Standard Chartered, and Old Mutual.
• The medical ecosystem in Kenya keeps expanding with Hologic, GE, Cigna, Pfizer, Abbott, and Varian Medical Systems already here.
• And there are more exciting developments happening every day.  American sports associations like the NBA, the NFL, MLB, MLS, and entertainment icon, The Grammys, are all currently looking for a foothold in Kenya.
• The television and movie industries are discovering Kenya – just look at the fact that Kenya now has a Real Housewives of Nairobi!

Stay tuned as President Ruto has more exciting announcements to make tomorrow.

Since my arrival, my team and I at the Embassy have been working to strengthen the U.S. -Kenya trade and investment relationship along with the American Chamber of Commerce and the Kenyan government. As Secretary Blinken said in his Vital Partners, Shared Priorities speech from South Africa last August; “The United States and African nations can’t achieve any of our shared priorities… if we don’t work together as equal partners.”

You now know why investing in Africa, and Kenya, makes so much sense.  I’m delighted to be working with the Chamber, the Kenyan government, and all of you to promote our shared prosperity. I’m excited to see what new relationships and deals come from this summit and wish you nothing but success.