President Ruto's Speech At The Kenya Tourism, Wildlife and M.I.C.E. Week 2025 | KICC

And there you are. You can travel to Kenya without any restrictions. The numbers you see today are not by accident. We have created a seamless portal that enables people who want to come to Kenya to find their way here without barriers and complications. Kenya Wildlife Service had difficulties in running their show. There was pilferage in the resources they were collecting. We did then instruct that all payments of government and I'm not just talking about KWS digitization let me speak about broadly digitization has enabled us to cut down on corruption, on theft, on pilferage of government resources. In 2022, we had 300 government services available on a digital platform. Today we have 23,000 government services available on a digital platform. Not just services, including payments for whatever you want, whether you want to pay for whatever government service and Kenya Wildlife Service was not left behind. I remember when we finally made a decision that you can no longer pay cash to go to any of our tourist facilities that you had to pay on a digital platform. There was a lot of resistance. In fact, I remember on one occasion in Masai Mara, there was an orchestrated jam of tourists to show how difficult it was for us to pay on a digital platform. I want to congratulate KWS. They stood their ground. Look at what has happened. They used to collect between four and five billion shillings every year. Last year they collected 7.95 billion. Why? Because there are no fake tickets anymore. There is no way of you bribing somebody and getting into the park. You must now on a digital platform be able to have been identified. So that is the case in many many other government services. E-Citizen is a Kenyan innovation just like M-Pesa and today E-Citizen collects on behalf of the government of Kenya about two billion shillings every day. It is collected on E-Citizen and end to end you can follow transactions. You can know who paid what. There are no more paper receipts for things and those kind of stories. There's however one group of people who are still hiding. They want to continue with the paper receipts, but I will sort them out. So we are transitioning to a digital space. As we look into the future, I am very confident that our numbers will be going up. We have huge ambition for this space because we know very well what tourism, wildlife and MICE can do for our country. It will not only create jobs for millions. It will make sure that we have a thriving agricultural sector. We have a whole chain of facilities and a big ecosystem of micro, small and medium enterprises that grow on the back of tourism and therefore it is front and center of our plan and it is the reason why this year's Jamhuri celebration is themed around tourism, wildlife and MICE. So that I can conclude it's not just about numbers. It's not about the number of tourists. It's about money. Yes, it's about money. In 2022 from tourism the numbers were 268 billion in 2022. Last year 2025 it was 452 billion. Our target is five million visitors by 2028 and a trillion shillings from tourism. We have gaps which we can translate into opportunities. This KICC magnificent KICC was built in 1972. I don't know how many there are some people here who are not born in 1972. Many people here are not born in 1972. Right? And it has taken us from 1972 to now 50 years to now build another facility because this facility has done as well but you know tests have changed, conferences have the design, the architecture of conferencing has changed. I am very proud to stand here from KICC and say that the Bomas of Kenya International Conference that we have always wanted to build. In fact, the Bomas of Kenya International Conference has been in our cards as a nation for the last 25 years. But I can now confirm to you that we will have... Thank you very much. I can now confirm to you that what KICC has done for us in a few months, what we have always wanted to do to build a new conference facility in Kenya. Many of our neighbors have gone ahead of us. We've seen what has happened in Rwanda. We've seen what has happened in Uganda and many of our neighbors. But I can now confidently tell you as the citizens of this great nation that by April next year, we will have built the largest conference facility in East and Central Africa right here in the Bomas of Kenya. It is one of the things that I really wanted to do for our nation. Whenever I get a few minutes in the evening, I go there to see. And if you follow what goes on there, it is being built 24 hours because I have given a timeline that we must begin to use that facility and begin to make money from that facility from May next year. Yes. So it has already been booked. Just imagine it has already been booked before it is complete. It has already been booked for France Africa summit in May 12th 2026. We already have a booking for it. Okay. If you leave and I am very confident that with the infrastructure we are building, with the creativity that we are putting behind our tourism product, we have agreed and I want to say my sister here, the chair of the task force which we launched, and some people this year went to court as is tradition of Kenya but finally I think we can now re-engineer our product as Kenya so that it speaks to the holistic product that we have, the different cultures, the different cuisines, the beautiful people and warm people of Kenya, our wildlife, our landscape, our heritage, the fact that Kenya is the home of wonder, you know, so we are packaging it properly and I am very confident that with what we are doing on the software, with what we are doing on the hardware, improving our facilities, as we are talking, we are building a few airports and airstrips around Kenya in Meru, in Narok, in Kericho, in Bungoma, in Omar Bay, you know. So all that is being put together so that we can make it easier for people to visit different places. On Monday next week we will be in Turkana for Tobong. On Wednesday, we will be in Migori for Piny Luo and we've just come from Loyangalani last week and it's on and on and on because we want to bring culture into the equation into our tourism product. I just thought I should say a couple of things just so that I can give you an idea of where we are and where we want to go. And I want to ask all of us, all the stakeholders, the people who run our tourism facilities, the people in the hotel sector, our people in tour guides, the people who train our staff, Kenya College and all the other colleges and every Kenyan that all of us must be ambassadors of this great country. The highest level of integrity is patriotism. To believe in your country, to believe in yourself and never to speak negatively about who we are. I want to say thank you very much because that's how we are going to be ambassadors of our country. We cannot mention the fact that we are a great sporting nation. Some of our best ambassadors are our sportsmen and women. We have many marathons around the country and many many other products that we want to package into what Kenya is as a destination. So asante, I thought I should make those few comments. Hopefully I can deflate many of the questions that people wanted to ask me. But I don't know whether I have succeeded but anyway we can then proceed from there. Asante sana. I do not want to say many things because I'm going to make a national statement tomorrow which will carry quite a bit of what tourism does to us otherwise. Okay, I'm told there are some people who want to ask me questions.

Good afternoon, my dear. How are you?

Yes.

Thank you very much. Sharon, can I take maybe another one or two questions? Yes. We have a gentleman there in branded green. Okay.

Thank you John.

Thank you. I'll answer you. Maybe I can take another Yes. Maybe a lady this time.

Okay.

Thank you so much.

Thank you very much. Bucket list. Maybe I'll take one more from somewhere behind. Yes. My good friend here.

Thank you very much. Maybe I could answer those questions. Thank you very much. Sharon, I think the question you have asked me is primarily what is the space around tourism? What are we doing? You know, and I have explained to you that we began at the go to look at tourism for what it is. I told you tourism creates jobs. Tourism supports enterprises. Tourism supports our farmers. And tourism of course brands Kenya and makes Kenya what it is. And we have done that consistently. We started the refurbishment of this KICC two months after I got into office. We went to the hiring of more rangers because our wildlife were being threatened by poachers and people who wanted to undermine the whole tourism sector. We had to step in. We have had to do digitization so that we can ease travel. So we have done many things to make sure that our tourism product is elevated. When I had a conversation with the tourism sector before the last election, they told me it is not just numbers that is important. It is what type of numbers. They told me that we want to promote Kenya as a high-end destination so that we can get value for every tourist who comes into Kenya. And that is precisely the interventions we've been making because the first thing is to make Kenya safe, to make our national parks, game reserves and tourist spots safe and that is why we had to hire men and women to take care of that. We have to promote the tourism infrastructure. You need a proper working KICC. You need other spaces. I said for example, we have gaps which we can turn into opportunities. There is space for us and for investors to invest in new hotels in Kenya. I'm very happy for example that part of the contract we have given to Bomas of Kenya is that there will be three new hotels at the Bomas of Kenya not built by the government of Kenya but built by the private sector and we are insisting that they must be among the best hotels in our republic because we have a shortage of bed space especially in many of our tourist facilities are a bit aged, whether it is at the coast or even in our parks. We have to rethink the renewal of all that space. So to your point, our focus is razor sharp on making sure that we deliver results and the results speak for themselves today. Our tourism numbers are up by almost a million. Our park visitors have increased from about 2.1 million to 3.26 million. Is that correct? Yes. People visiting our parks. Delegates coming for conference facilities. We had 23,000 in 2022. Today we have 37,000 as of last year. Actually this year, beginning this year and the numbers are growing. The tourist earnings are growing in fact exponentially and that is the trajectory we want to push. John, Mr. Go Green. The same way you are looking for an opportunity to work with me, I also want to work with you especially in that space you have mentioned the space around the environment. I have just come from UNEP. I came straight here from UNEP discussing matters environment because we have the United Nations environmental assembly going on in Kenya today because Kenya is not only the environmental capital of the world because we have UNEP here but Kenya is also a great champion on matters environment. I picked it up and because it is one of the areas that I understand very well by my background in training and it is a contribution we can make to not just our country not just to our region but also globally. Today Kenya is recognized as an environmental champion. We are the biggest sponsors of the climate change conversation and what needs to be done and so you and your Go Green and the matters environment and I'm very happy that you are passionate about engaging young people. We have many interventions that we can work with you. We can work with you on the space around. As you know, we have at the moment a whole cleanup of Nairobi River that's going on here in Nairobi. That cleanup today is hiring 45,000 young people in the city of Nairobi. In fact, hopefully before I break for Christmas, I will be going to check on how far I have promised the city of Nairobi, we cannot be the environmental capital of the world and have a river in our city that has sewage. It's not possible. It's contradictory. And therefore I have committed that by January 2027 on the 15th we will have completed cleaning the Nairobi river. And it will not just be cleaning the Nairobi river. We will have a whole new city with housing, with markets, with playgrounds along that Nairobi river and the government of Kenya is going to spend close to 40 billion shillings to do that. It's going to be the highest investment in matters environment in the city of Nairobi. We are moving on to Gongo River and John I will want to recruit you and your team to work with me. And I hope somebody is taking some notes so that we can bring John and his team on board when we are working on the Gongo River which all of you know that we had even a club here on what was called Nairobi Dam which now is a sewage that we are going to clean up. We are finalizing the designs because we started with Nairobi river. We are going to go to Gongo River and Go Green John and your team. I'm going to bring you on board on how we are going to work with the young people that work with you on matters environment. I think there is no better evidence of your love for the environment. I think your dressing speaks it and so that's how we are going to work together. Habiba has asked me the question whether this is she says maybe she's not persuaded that tourism is at the heart of the bottom-up agenda just so that you know Habiba that in fact it is. This year's Jamhuri celebration is themed around tourism. Just to confirm to you that we have never lost focus on the place of tourism and all the interventions we have done and the forward plan that we have. I've asked Rebecca here and her team to work with Mary Marian there. They made a presentation to me on how we can reposition Kenya and our product in a way that we can elevate our destination. You have my support 100% and I look forward to sharing with you that product so that we can take it forward together. So we not only had a plan in 2022, we have a plan going forward that involves new tourism products, involves new facilities for meetings, that involves a better strategy on how to secure our wildlife. Just two days ago, I went to Tsavo to launch the largest rhino sanctuary in the world in Tsavo. In fact, one of the presenters there was saying it is the largest rhino sanctuary on earth. So it just speaks to the strategy that we have as a country and what we need to do to be able to make our product better. And I did announce there that we are already in discussion with five international hotel chains that want to put up facilities in Tsavo just because they want to be part of the largest sanctuary in the world. And that is going to create more opportunities for the young people of our nation. It's going to bring us more tourists. It's going to bring us more revenue. And it's going to enhance the productivity of our country. Freda, you said no. She has asked me about bucket list. What is it? What is on offer? If a tourist comes to Kenya, what is on offer for us as a country? And she has asked me a very difficult question. Where would I propose you know this person to go? I mean if I were to tell somebody to go somewhere and get I would tell them to go everywhere because you have different things in different places. No one place is the same as the other. You know if you go to Samburu and Laikipia you will get a different big five in Laikipia and Samburu. You have a different zebra there. You have the reticulated giraffe. You have a different set of animal wildlife. If you go to Masai Mara you have a different set of experience. If you go to the coast, our beaches, it's a completely different experience. If you want to sample culture, whether you go to Loyangalani or you go to Tobong or you go to Piny Luo or you go to the next, you go to Lamu for the Lamu cultural festival. So it's a buffet of tourist destinations and products that one can sample around our republic and we are packaging our product so that it is about wildlife, it is about culture, it's about cuisine, it is about heritage. It is about history. Kenya being the cradle of mankind and it's about innovation. Many people want to know where the M-Pesa innovation came from. It's about Konza City and the kind of creative economy that it is building and many many other products. So I would be proposing to that person, they would be spoiled for choice. And then Jared has said we should eat the animals. I think Kanga, you need to attend to this man. Mr. Lumbassi has a very interesting proposal. He says there is something called consumptive utilization of wildlife. That people should be allowed to keep three, four antelopes. If they become 10, they can eat two. Well, we are a meat eating society. In fact, just so that you know, Kenya has the third largest livestock herd in Africa. And part of what Kenya is about is nyama choma. It's about meat. And you will find nyama choma everywhere. You will find in a kiosk. You will find nyama choma in a five-star hotel. You will find nyama choma on a roadside. You'll find nyama choma in people's homes. You'll find whatever. So maybe I will ask TRF the CEO of TRF is here. TRI this man to do some research on what Mr. Lumbassi said. He says maybe if we provide people with an opportunity to keep some of these wildlife, we might actually grow our wildlife numbers because he says the wildlife numbers in Tanzania and all the other places are more than us and yet they are allowed to eat. So please do some research so that we don't make a mistake because I don't think I have a quite an answer for him. Now the only answer I can think about is for Kanga to deal with him, not to eat the wildlife. So I think we can take another set of questions. Yes, there is a lady there. You can get your name.

Are you Kenyan?

No, I'm just saying. So are you a Kenyan citizen?