Kenya is Open for Trade and Investment, Ruto Tells American Investors 

Kenya is offering robust opportunities for trade and investments to local and global companies and businesses, President William Ruto has said.

He said the country has undertaken radical, but attractive transformation measures in the trade and investment regime, including creating Special Economic Zones.

“All major brands in need of an African foothold starts in kenya. This has led to a steady rise on Kenya’s global appeal,” Ruto explained.

Ruto outlined the numerous opportunities in agriculture, banking and finance, construction, mining, blue economy, human capital development renewable energy and the digital economy, among others.

Ruto spoke Thursday during AMCHAM Business Summit in Nairobi.

Also present were United States Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, Kenya Investment and Trade Cabinet Secretary Rebecca Miano, US Ambassador to Kenya Met Whitman and representatives of many American and Kenyan companies, and government officials.

Ruto spoke of a paradigm shift in the way the world views Africa, saying the old narrative of Africa as a place of challenges has been debunked.

Instead, he pointed out that Africa is appropriately being seen as a continent of opportunities and solutions where investment would give a good return on investment.

“In the past, the continent was perceived as a region about war and diseases. But as African leaders, we have made a deliberate decision to showcase Africa as a continent of opportunities,” he said.

Ruto said Kenya and the United States enjoy cordial relations grounded in shared values of democracy and trade.

He pointed out that the government aims at eradicating poverty under the country’s Bottom Up Economic Agenda.

Raimondo said President Biden’s government was embracing a win-win relationship with other partners, including Kenya.

“Africa is shaping global economic culture and politics. The narrative has changed completely and my job is to tell the story back home and let the multinationals know what Kenya has to offer,” she said.