 I want to thank all of you for having come to this inaugural press conference of briefing between my office, office of the government spokesman and the members of the public I want to recognize my two capabilities, Gabriel Duma who is in charge of new media and one Aisha Kizuga who you all know who is in charge of the mainstream media and the team from my office. We were appointed on the 4th of October and we have been taking time to settle them and today is our first detailed engagement with you in order to bring you on certain issues that affect the Kenyan society from the point of view of government. So I'm going to read a statement and then thereafter I will call upon you to ask questions when Aisha will guide us on that and we hope and believe that we are going to have a very good engagement. Press statement by Honorable Dr. Isaac Mora, government spokesperson on the presidential foreign trips, national free planting and the cost of living during this media briefing. The Kenyan foreign policy is anchored in a vision of peaceful, prosperous and globally competitive Kenya and a mission to project and the one is project, promote and protect Kenya's interests and image globally through innovative diplomacy and contribute towards a just, peaceful and equitable world. Our foreign aspirations are enshrined in the bottom-up economic transformation agenda planned, commonly known as the planned is to make Kenya a respected and valued partner abroad in playing a leading role in regional and Pan-African affairs to collaborate with international partners to uphold commitments to the international community and to expand Kenyan markets abroad and please underline, expand Kenyan markets abroad. His excellence in the president is a nation's chief ambassador and chief executive officer. The conduct of foreign affairs is one of the executive powers expressly vested in him. To recapitulate, therefore, Kenya's foreign policy is the prerogative of his excellence in the president on behalf of the great people of Kenya. Since his assumption into office, President William Samoy Ruto has stepped up diplomatic outreaches with various countries with the aim of diversifying economic ties and deepening foreign relations. The president has made 39 foreign visits and we have hosted over 30 heads of states and governments. The last one being the president of Romania who we had a reception yesterday. We have also been able to sign mega bilateral and multilateral arguments for the stamping Kenya's authority as a diplomatic power. So many Kenyans are asking what are the benefits of these foreign trips. The president's visits have yielded numerous benefits for our nations emphasizing our commitment for fostering international relations that enhance our economic prosperity and global influence. These visits have secured investment partnerships and signing of agreements, some of which include. Number one, over 350,000 jobs opportunities for Kenyans to work in Saudi Arabia and investments in renewable energy. Now you ask yourself 350,000 jobs, assuming you get a low-skilled job that would pay a Kenya maybe 13,000 Kenyan shillings. And you translate by 350,000 Kenyans, you can see the amount of remittances that would actually come to us as a country. And currently, as you may be aware, we are actually able to get over 600 billion shillings, actually to be precise is about 750 more than actually. If you go by the rate of the dollar, that is now coming from the Kenyans who are sending money from abroad. So if we have 350,000 Kenyans going to Saudi Arabia, you can see how many households, how many homes will not only be supported by their sons and daughters working in Saudi Arabia, but also the amount of money that will also circulate in a local economy. And you need to visit Kenyans who are, families of Kenyans who are working abroad to see the kind of living standards that have been improved as a result of that. And it's also a foreign exchange and a blow for our country. Currently, the people who are in Saudi Arabia, by the last statistics, they are about 100,000. So if we increase by about 350,000 going forward, then you are talking about close to half a million Kenyans helping us to actually grow our economy and also getting jobs that we discussed here at home. It is really a great deal. The President has also held talks with UK Prime Minister Misha Sunak, an act, a deal worth about 900 billion Kenyans. Now, that's quite something. And it should be remembered that Rishi Sunak, the father actually was born and brought up here in a Kenyan of Asian origin. And it should not be lost that the President actually visited, the first visit of the King was in this country. So if you have actually 900 billion shillings worth of investment here in the country, it is going to be a game changer. And the biggest project they have is the railway city here in Europe that is going to revolutionize our urban transport system. So very, very interesting. The President has also been able to have Kenya open its embassy in Senegal. Now, what this means is that we have now a new engagement in Senegal. And that means it's a new market for our products. People can visit easily and Senegalese can also benefit from us. One of the most popular things that the President has done actually is to invite Africans to come here without visa. That would be made more concrete going forward and sometimes become very popular in Africa and you can see even countries like Wanda are also taking it up on the same. The other benefit that has also emanated from the 39 foreign trips is that he has signed and ratified the East Africa One Area Network for mobile telephony with his Wanda counterpart, President Paul Kadame. What this means is that when you are going to call Wanda, it's going to be much, much cheaper. That means there is a higher connectivity and also business and communication for that matter. Then Kenya has also been able to establish the Kenya Djibouti Business Council because Djibouti relies quite a bit on our market and also we have to do quite a bit on that. Remember EGAR is there. So it's a very critical outpost in terms of our business and market in that event. The other issue is that the President has been able to sign various MOUs in trade, investment, energy, ICT, transport, education, security, tourism, culture, agriculture and the blue economy with the Congo Brotherhood counterpart, Denise Sasson-Gresson. And one of the good things about it is that now there was a flight that was flying to Brazil but it had stopped. Now it has resumed and that means that we have more business opportunities. And further to that he has also opened a resident mission. So there is now a mission in Brazil. So we have now proper diplomatic relations in that regard. The President has also been able to sign another deal, a program the Millennium Challenge Corporation and this again is going to enable us to have over 900 billion actually. Sorry, over 9 billion, I beg your pardon, that we really have in terms of getting electric vehicles. And you may ask yourself why this is important. If you change your vehicle from diesel or petrol to electric you are going to spend only 10% of what you are spending earlier on. So again the cost of fuel and the efficiency is very important and this is for buses so we can see how it's going to really revolutionize this place. The President has also had talks with the President of Ukraine Valony Miel, Zelensky and the whole idea is to have a green park or have in Novasa. You ask yourself why because a lot of wheat is actually imported from this country. So it will actually help China to cost the herb and therefore distribute to the rest of East Africa. And of course it will cheapen the costings of wheat and all of that. It is also very impressive that the United Nations Office for Project Services has actually picked Kenya as it is a national network. So over and above UNHUB, other agencies we now have a new quota for UN agencies, United Nations Office for Project Services. And that's a great deal because it means we are going now to get the development dollars you can call them that way. They are going to actually increase. And also over 129 billion Kenya shillings have been agreed upon by the Development Finance Corporation to fund Kenyan companies especially the SMEs in agriculture and in business. So again a lot of money for private equity and private enterprise financing that was not available before. And Kenya has also backed $75 million in terms of green investments that's also a lot of money that will help in terms of open action. And the Chinese themselves have also signed an MOU because you see the bill so that there is more market to the 1.4 billion people for our products and of course they have also cancelled all the visa appointments as a result of that again. I think that's a very commendable issue because you don't need a visa to go to China. That's one of the greatest new benefits that we've gotten from this. And of course the other MOUs have been signed by Chinese. Then there is also the Huawei deal between ourselves and them so that we can have transformation of our digital infrastructure. So they are going to be really helping us and Pepsi has actually expressed interest as a result of his visit in America in setting up corporations in Nairobi. So Pepsi of course may arrive at Coca Cola. So you can see ladies and gentlemen they have had the benefits of almost close to 2 trillion shillings that have been sealed in terms of MOUs. And you'll ask the question then why can the ambassadors do it? It's not that simple. You have to give that trust as a president when he is committed and when he shows up the power of showing up it's really very important. And it is important because Kenya does not have a lot of fiscal help you know what I'm talking about. Because we borrowed a lot so we need to find other ways group between fees public private partnerships and all of such so that then we are able to leverage on new ways of financing our development. And I think this is very, very important. For example the funding of renewable energy by Saudi Arabia we have a potential of up to 26 gigawatts through wind and solar. So we really have a lot of potential that's why you can see going forward the Chinese the Saudis want to see how they can market these. Now let's come to the other issue of the national tree planting and climate action ladies and gentlemen I really want to thank all Kenyans who showed up on Monday the 13th of November to plant trees across the country. The executive office of the president was situated in Nairobi led by the head of public service the office of the government's post person is under the executive office of the president and you are able to create a stop in Nairobi and eventually we ended up at the POMAS in Kenya and I was able to find a lot of people including school going children who are doing a great job by investing into the future. So we must really commend Kenyans that they actually were able to do so and it was also very impressive to see even the members of the opposition or as me also because it is nothing to do with politics it is basically a national endeavor so that is really commendable and Kenyans we really want to thank you for that as government. Africa loses about 15% of its GDP growth to climate change last year Kenya lost 2.5 million livestock to drought resorting to an economic loss of more than Kenyans 9.5 billion you can imagine a family whose only wealth is life talk is a cow is a goat, is a sheep is a camel and now they lost all of that because of drought so people have become poorer because of climate change and that's how it's affecting us livelihoods are being affected if you have someone who is having and all of them die of course they are poorer than the way it was before so climate change is real the resultant effects of climate change like floods like the ones we are witnessing right now and drought have effects on school dropouts because people cannot go to school as you can see some of them are going to do the floods wildlife, human wildlife conflict, agriculture and other key sectors they call me the Kenyans administration targets to plant 15 billion trees in a span of 10 years that is to mean 1.5 billion trees every year for landscape and ecosystem restoration in the country the program targets restoration of 10.6 billion hectares across 11 intervention areas namely the habitation of degraded dry land landscapes growing of agroforestry trees on farmlands establishment of commercial private forests commercial private forests I must insist there because you can make money out of it rehabilitation of degraded water towers because our rivers are shrinking wetlands which are under threat and riparian areas outside gazetted forests cover new grounds the greening of infrastructure like roads railways and dams so that there are green spaces like in between lands and tree planting for biocopies and ministry departments and agencies and you can also add their commissions reputation of degraded natural forests in gazetted forests and water towers establishment of bamboo woodlots and plantations rehabilitation of degraded mangrove ecosystems growing of fruit trees and woodlots in schools, colleges, universities and other institutions the stalking of forest plantations in gazetted forests and the establishment of urban forests very important even for our kids arboretum green spaces and roadside plantings including even plantings within our homes so that is quite we have a lot of indoor space to work with the program has adopted a whole of government whole of society approach where all government entities private sector players and the citizen have a role to play in a tree growing that is strongly anchored on the bottom-up economic transformation agenda visualize to be a game changer towards achieving the objective of the program during this short train the ministry of environment climate change and forest tree targets to grow 500 million trees by the end of the season the national tree growing day and please let me emphasize there national tree growing day not planted, growing day provided a significant impetus of accelerating the number of seedlings planted the manual tiling as of 14th of November that is yesterday, 2023 shows that the country planted over 150 million trees so far a total of 10 million 794,000 604 trees have been documented in the Jazz Amity app the government encourages all Kenyans to record the tree growing in Jazz Amity app and it's available on Play Store to enable the ministry of environment climate change and forestry to track and report for decision making so 10 million trees have been surveyed according to almost 11 million but minimal one planted like for me that day alone I think I planted about 12 trees so you can see the ministry of environment climate change and forestry has mounted capacity building and skills development of MDAs, private sector and local communities to enable timely reporting of all trees grown the ministry is therefore calling upon all stakeholders to support growing programs our tree growing programs so as to achieve our short rein study further all state departments and agencies are encouraged to take this as an initiative under the clarion call Kupanda meeting so basically one will actually ask why are we emphasizing on tree planting because tree is live and because of the reduction of forest cover you can see the calamities that are happening the depletion of the ozone layer and the threat to live new ones so we must spend money on it it's not a luxury it is a must but we should do it it is for us our current and future generation and I've seen people asking so why then do we have cabinet secretaries and senior government officials hoping from one place to another yes because leadership is singular you've got to be there and to show to the people you must live from the front because people follow what the leaders are doing and the first for example a cabinet secretary would have it's not the same as that of a county commissioner yes they are there but it's important to live from the front especially this being the first national holiday in particular so I think that is something that we can always discuss the benefits of achieving this target of 15 billion far outweigh the costs that are involved so let us not just be kinetic about this issue because even when you look at this whole initiative it is funded by other well wishers and other corporations it's not just the Kenya government and Diva and also further ladies and gentlemen when we are also talking about those who are involved in ensuring that our leaders you succeed in providing living from the front they are also Kenyans they are also drivers they are also engineers it helps in terms of the economic activity of the day which also still ends up benefiting Kenya and also towards what the cost that invests not only the current but also the future let me finally talk about the cost of living the government is doing all what is possible to bring down the cost of living so as to give our people a comfortable and affordable way of life and from the outset I must say as the government talks we appreciate and we stand with Kenyans because the cost of living really has kind of been that one we must say is not easy for many Kenyans and we are fully aware of that of that reality this is manifested in the efforts employed so far even as president Ruto's administration faces the challenges of saving the country from the unsustainable debt or rather huge debt now and in the future by ensuring self-reliance in financing the national budget when this administration came into power we knew let me say this very categorically unequivocally we knew what we were getting ourselves into we knew we knew we were going to inherit a country that was reeling from a lot of public debt and therefore it left very little room for anything to be done without coming up with some new ways of financing and the only way you can finance you know you know the development is to reduce costings which have been done by up to 500 billion by debt of budgets but also looking for new ways of raising capital or revenue because if somebody else will pay we'll use some of their money but they have saved and then you'll end up actually paying through the loss and that's what we are doing now so that's why of course there are measures taxes but it is a pain that I'm going particularly to fellow Canadians that we have to endure because eventually we'll get out of there because we are trying to rebuild a foundation we are trying to get under President William Routo and the Kenyans was an institution the government has actually been able to do quite well in terms of ensuring that we don't seek fire it will have been much, much worse so I really want to call upon Kenyans to humiliate so that we re-stabilize things in the next two years or so one to two years we for sure will start seeing changes we have to take the painful road or we must take the pain killer because we have the pain but that pain killer is not as sweet in the mouth and that's it and if it's not something that is new as far back as 2014 I was on record then I was a member of parliament saying whoever will be president in 2022 we have no country to run that's the truth and that's why you are seeing the president moving from one country to another to find new ways of financing on the cost of fuel as you may be aware there were some changes yesterday and these changes would have gone as far high as the cementations but of course due to the stabilization fund there were some interventions at least the increase was marginal for example for kerosene we are really trying to do something the Kwanzaa government is a listening government the government has stabilized fuel priced by up to kerosene 19.82 per liter resulting to a reduction in the retail pump price of diesel and kerosene this price stabilization has cushioned canyons against the projected increase in fuel prices attributed to the rise of landed costs of imported fuel without this stabilization petrol would retail at kerosene 229 diesel 223 and 206 for kerosene saving consumers kerosene 12.01 for petrol kerosene 19.82 for diesel kerosene 3.64 for kerosene kerosene 3.64 for petrol so this is in addition to a raft of other initiatives including subsidized fertilizer whose price was reduced from 6000 to 2500 according so the reduced cost of fertilizer has actually led to increased yields and therefore contributing to food security and this has in essence seen the cost of Unger drug from as high as 230 to 250 a year ago to between 145 to 175 as was addressed by the president during the state of the nation address