Joy, excitement as President meets, interacts and addresses Kenyans living in Finland!!

Like that dress. Hello.

All right. One of the companies there, I don't know who was there with me. Malia, you were there with me. Were you there with me, Lee? They said themselves that the Kenyan workforce is better than any they have come across. They said the Jokata Jwat produces some of the best graduates in blue economy. It was not me saying, it was industry giving testimony. And we needed to create the correct connection, and that is why I came. Then, secondly, as part of our energy generation, we need investment. One of the countries that has the largest sovereign wealth fund is Norway. They have $2 trillion of resources. One, we needed to understand how they got there, because we are now doing our own sovereign wealth fund as a country. In fact, we are now going through the process of public participation. We should be able to have our own sovereign wealth fund in the next month or so. I met the minister for finance, and he told me something phenomenal. He told me the sovereign wealth fund of Norway was put in place when he was minister for finance then, 30 years ago. In 30 years, their sovereign wealth fund has grown from zero to $2 trillion. One generation. So when I tell you guys it's possible to move Kenya from a third world country to a first world country in one generation, you don't need a miracle. You just need to have a good plan, and you can do it. No way has done it right. They are ready to invest in our energy space, because they are already investing in geothermal. They have invested in Lecturana wind power. They have invested in Globlex, which is doing something in Menangai. Their ask of us was, how do we make it work faster? They are willing to deploy their resources to generate the energy we so much need. So we are building networks that will help us achieve what we are looking for. I came to Finland because it is important for us to build a solid relationship, especially on human capital. Today we had a most consequential meeting with Nokia. Nokia is going to work with us on data centers. We already are working with Huawei. We are already working with Ericsson. But Nokia has a better footprint for us. That is why I asked the president of this country, and Nokia was kind. They actually did not just host us, they hosted our business meeting. That is where I was with these two, with these many great people here. This is our tech companies. All these people are very rich. These people have a lot of money. Equin Bank is here. I don't know who is here. All the good guys are here, including this good man here with a beard. We want them to plug in. Sit down, ladies and gentlemen. We want to open doors for them. I was telling them, government can sign agreements. We can sign memorandums of understanding, but it is companies who sign contracts. They are the ones who turn the agreements we sign into products, into business. That is their business. I open the door, they do what they have to do. I was looking at one of the headlines in the newspapers: 'William Ruto is traveling again.' I wish they knew the kind of schedule that I have. I wish they knew what I've come to do. I have not come here as a tourist. I have not come here to waste time. I have come here pointedly to make sure that we achieve certain things. Just for the record, I am the chief diplomat of our country. People want to know what Kenya stands for. I was in Brussels, and there were two fundamental things that I wanted out of Brussels. Number one, we have an economic partnership agreement that is working that has a bit of a problem. I needed to agree with them on how we don't disrupt, and how we recruit the rest of the countries of the East African Community, so that by 2031, when we need to scale up that agreement, we don't run into trouble. Number two, we needed to sort out something on data adequacy. Why data adequacy? Technology is the next arena, and data is a very important part of what is going to happen next. Technology, whether you're talking about artificial intelligence, cyber security that will come with it, or the whole technology space. We've been discussing this with the EU, but I had to come so that we agree with them. I'm very happy that we secured an agreement that by September this year, going into August, we will have a framework. It will be taken to the EU Parliament, and hopefully by early next year, Kenya will be as good as any European country. I had to speak to the commission. I had to speak to the council. I went to parliament at the EU just to let them understand what is Kenya's perspective and what is Kenya's ask. It can only be done at my level if we want results, and it's part of my KPI as a president. It's part of my job to do it. Number two, I came to Norway because there are two fundamental things that we need to achieve out of Norway. Number one, Norway is a very big shipping, in fact, the largest shipping companies are out of Norway, and Kenya is slowly becoming a maritime country. We have never used our Kenyan coast as efficiently as we should. I have taken the decision and I did at the state department for blue economy intentionally, because we can actually scale up our revenues from the blue economy from about 20 billion Kenya shillings to 120 billion Kenya shillings. If we do the right thing, we can double it six times. We can increase it six times. That is why I took the decision that we need to engage. Kenya is a stable country. I can tell you without fear of any contradiction, we are transforming our nation, and we are doing so unapologetically. I will tell you five things as to what has happened the last three years. Number one, our economy was really beaten because of the COVID issues, because we had huge debts, because we had difficulties with inflation. We had difficulties with foreign exchange. But we have had to make some very tough decisions, some very difficult ones. Today, I can confirm to you that our economy is in a much firmer position than we were three years ago. Our inflation has come down from 9.6 to, it has come down actually to 2.8, but because of the challenges we have had with Iran, it has gone up to about 5.7. But we have brought down inflation. We have increased our foreign exchange reserves from about 5.7 billion dollars to now $13 billion. We have managed to slow down interest rates, and today our economy is at 142 billion dollars as our GDP. We are now the sixth largest economy in Africa. 300,000 houses are under construction. I have given out houses that are ready in Machakos, Kakamega, Homa Bay, and many other places, and that process is continuing. We are building close to almost 500 new markets, modern markets across Kenya. We are building hostels for students. 180,000 students will be housed by our hostel program as we speak, and that process is continuing. That housing fund has generated investments of $9.3 billion. How much? North Kenya shillings? 9.3 billion. This is not money we have borrowed. This is not money we have gotten from somewhere. This is our own money, Kenyan money. If I were to look for that money from the World Bank or IMF, I would grow gray hair before I get it, because you would have to be in this capital and that capital and meet this condition and meet the other condition and go look for the certificate of your grandmother. It would be very difficult. But look at what domestic resource mobilization can do. The skyline of Kenya is changing. Maybe some of you have not been in Kenya lately. When you come to Nairobi, just go look around. Go to anywhere. We are building close to 100,000 housing units in Nairobi alone. Huge buildings, 20 floors, 28 floors. We are now going to 30 floors in Nairobi. Go to Kisumu, we are building almost 5,000 units. If you go to Mambu in Kisumu, you will be shocked. If you go to Kakamega, you will be surprised. If you go to Wajir, I was in Maja this last weekend. The housing there is phenomenal. Mandera, Garissa, Mombasa, Lamu. I was in a place called Tezo in Kilifi a few weeks ago. Is there anybody from Kilifi here? You come from Kilifi. You should go to Tezo and see what we are doing there. The housing units are changing the skyline of Kenya. Many of you know Kibera, right? Just give us another seven years, you will not find a slum in Nairobi. That is what is called transformation. Forget about the nonsense on social media. We are going to change our country and we are going to shame the guys on social media. We are very funny people. Some time back, you know, some of our guests... just imagine, people used to be taken to Kibera to be shown the largest slum in Africa. Today, whenever I have guests, I take them to the same place, but I go and show them how we are changing the place. So many colleagues of mine, friends, we have gone to show them the kind of transformation we are making, and it is giving the rest of the world better ideas about what Africa can achieve. We need people who believe in Kenya. We have a great country. We have a great nation. We have great people. Look at what Odamo just said here about Kenyans who are here. I have said this before: go to any company, go to Microsoft, go to Amazon Web Services, they will tell you among the best workers they have are Kenyans. If there is an opportunity for a company to hire, and there are others and there is a Kenyan, I bet you the easiest person to be hired is a Kenyan. I have said we speak very good English, which is true.