Kenya Set To Reap Big As Ruto Begins His 3-Day State Visit To USA
The Mt Kenya Times 
President William Ruto
By: Joseph Mutua Ndonga
Worth Noting:
- For starters, this will be a big honor for President Ruto. He will join the six world leaders who had been hosted by a sitting President of US for such forum at White House. They include Prime Ministers of Japan and India.
- Notably, this is not the first time that President Ruto is visiting the US. The only difference is that this time he is there on a state visit.
- We recall Kenya had reaped big in the previous visits.
- The latest visit is a land mark one and so President Ruto will come back with bagful of more goodies.
President William Ruto left the country yesterday for a 3-day state visit to United States of America (USA).
When the host, President Joe Biden, sent out this invitation, it emerged that he had reached out to Dr Ruto and discussed the issues that will feature during the bilateral talks.
The talks will be held at White House, the seat of American power.
Taking cognizant of the fact that the visit coincides with 60 years of diplomatic relations between Kenya and US, the two leaders will do reflections and engage in candid and robust discussions.
The final communique will come up with a clear road map towards strengthening and fast tracking these ties.
For starters, this will be a big honor for President Ruto. He will join the six world leaders who had been hosted by a sitting President of US for such forum at White House. They include Prime Ministers of Japan and India.
Notably, this is not the first time that President Ruto is visiting the US. The only difference is that this time he is there on a state visit.
We recall Kenya had reaped big in the previous visits.
The latest visit is a land mark one and so President Ruto will come back with bagful of more goodies.
Considering that Dr Ruto is an intellectual and a good orator, there is no doubt about this.
He will manage to enumerate socio-economic, security and other challenges facing Kenya and convince his host to support us.
I’m sure this visit will also give Dr Ruto an opportunity to review the progress of the deals and agreements he had signed earlier with chief executives and industries of US big companies.
In one of President Ruto’s previous visit, I wrote an article that goes.
Upon arrival, the president immediately started meeting the chief executives of leading American based companies, industries as well as top businesspeople.
The talks have borne the fruits as he had managed to woo them to come and invest in Kenya.
In one agreement, he secured a grant amounting to Sh8.7 billion.
This support was offered by Mellennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), an independent US government foreign aid agency. MCC focuses on undertaking programmes meant to alleviate poverty.
These funds will be spent in assembling and rolling out of the electric buses in the city of Nairobi.
This placed President Ruto in that vintage position where he would kill two birds with one.
First, this would help to mitigate the effects of the climate change in a big way.
The use of fossil fuels which are biggest polluters of climate and environment would drop drastically.
President Ruto has curved a niche of being a global leader rallying the world behind this noble course.
His visit to US comes just a few days after convening Africa Climate Summit in Nairobi.
The adaptation was one of the key agenda items.
On this, the delegates passed a resolution outlining the strategies to move away from non-renewable energy to renewable energy.
They agreed this will be done gradually.
In Kenya, this has started in earnest. President Ruto is pioneering this process meant to save humanity from extinction.
Raom Center, the assembling company of 51-seater electric buses will based here in Nairobi.
Once charged, the bus will cover a distance of 200 Kilometers. The recharge will take two hours.
Some of these electric buses will be plying intercity.
There will be no cause for alarm. The charging stations will be established around the country.
Let me now go to the second point.
President Ruto have brought the dream of rolling out Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) to a reality. This dream had be delayed for a long time. I remember it was first conceived by former President Mwai Kibaki. President Uhuru Kenyatta’s efforts to revive this project also failed to bear the fruits.
Majority of Kenyans, who use public transport every day to travel to and from thier places of work, will become the biggest beneficiaries. This is because the electricity is cheap. So, the bus fares will drastically come down.
Again, buses are comfortable and health friendly. They will not emit greenhouse gases which is harmful to human health
President had earlier visited Silicon Valley in Fransisco. We saw him being warmly received and welcomed by the Presidents and Chief Executives of the giant tech companies, including Google, Microsoft, Intel and Apple.
Reducing the cost of their services and sharing their experiences with Kenyan techies and innovators topped the list.
Dr Ruto’s diplomatic and oratory skills would once again shine as he managed to convince each company to buy his ideas and plan.
He had witnessed members of his delegation sign a number of lucrative deals tailored to promote and elevate Kenya as a technological hub in the region, Africa and globe.
Noting that the rollout of digital technology stood out as one of the key pillars of Kenya Kwanza’s Bottom Up Economic Transformation Agenda during the campaigns, this left no doubt that the President was walking the talk.
For starters, I politely call on them to bear this in mind. The world had become a global village courtesy of technology a key enabler of the economic growth and prosperity.
Therefore, countries with advanced technology were the leading economies and richest.
President Ruto was also aware about the important role of the internet in these endeavours.
Therefore, he would not leave the Silicon Valley without meeting the President of the world leading internet provider.
The high cost is one of the issues that Dr Ruto would bring to light. This paved the way for signing of the agreements to reduce the cost.
Sometimes Kenyans face the challenge of the Internet failures. The President of this company assured Dr Ruto that they will address the matter.
Before he wrapped up this visit, Dr Ruto delivered a keynote address to United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York.
The host, US President Joe Biden, opened the meeting.
This is the second time that the Kenyan head of state have gotten an opportunity to address the Assembly.
He first addressed the gathering at the same venue just a few weeks after being sworn in. Then, he made a very powerful presentation which dwelt on a raft of global challenges and lined up concrete interventions.
It was rare to see African leaders being given this opportunity.
So, this demonstrated the world leaders held him at high esteem. His leadership resonated very well.
This recognition is majorly hinged in his style of governance of his country Kenya.
Since he assumed power, Dr Ruto has curved a niche of being a democrat and a strong believer of the Kenyan constitution and rule of law.
The global leaders would only give this rare opportunity to an African leader who understands and is well conversant with world’s geopolitics.
Well, the critics would resort to politicizing the matter.
The Americans were out to pursue thier interests in Kenya and Africa and business was thier main focus.
They knew that Kenya is a gateway to Africa. So, this is the reason why the US government is reaching out and luring President Ruto.
I disagree. Azimio leader Raila Odinga, his brigade and their sympathisers have been making these allegations simply because the US refused to sanitize thier white lies and raw propaganda.
This is in relation to outcome of 2022 presidential elections.
Raila had alleged he had been rigged out but would not prove any of his claims when he filed a petition at the Supreme Court of Kenya.
While dismissing his petition, the seven-judge bench of the apex court ruled that none of his prayers contained an iota of truth. This was a hogwash.
The local and international observers had also given the poll a clean bill of health.
In separate reports, they concurred with the decision of the IEBC chairman to declare Dr Ruto as the President-elect.
Your democracy is anchored on universal suffrage.
So, this was based on who got the majority of votes.
Therefore, the turnaround of the Azimio leaders reeked of hypocrisy and insincerity.
We recall that Raila was a key player during the clamor for multiparty democracy in Kenya. Some members of his inner circle also participated in this struggle.
I want to remind him that at the time he fully supported the American government.
Fast forward to 2007, Raila showered the US with praises because they supported his claims that he had been rigged out.
He was challenged to prove his allegations beyond reasonable doubt. He declined and resorted to mobilizing his supporters to participate in street protests.
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