26 Aug Interview with Hon. Dr. Musalia Mudavadi, Prime Cabinet Secretary and Cabinet Secretary for Foreign and Diaspora Affairs of the Republic of Kenya
Kenya was the first African country to host the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) in 2016. What were the outcomes and achievements from 2016 when Kenya hosted TICAD?
Kenya has been part of the TICAD initiative since it was started in 1993. The first ever meeting that was held in Tokyo was attended by our then vice president the late Professor George Saitoti. Since then we have been active participants of the TICAD process because we think it has been a very important initiative for Africa and it continues to be from the time of inception. When we hosted the TICAD VI (2016), it gave us quite a number of opportunities because we had 11,000 visiting delegates and 35 heads of governments. I have seen tremendous collaboration with Japan in areas of infrastructure, health, education and technology and we have seen a growth of private sector participation in Kenya. We now host close to 104 important Japanese companies in Kenya, perhaps the largest number of companies in Sub-Saharan Africa. We have a very robust engagement and we intend to continue participating in these critical areas of collaboration.
The TICAD VI, which was hosted in Nairobi, was a great milestone for us. We hope that it will also provide an opportunity for us to see similar kinds of engagement. There has long been a very interesting debate that many African heads of state are always going out to conferences and meetings in different parts of the world and not necessarily within Africa itself. Therefore, TICAD VI broke the ice on that score and we have seen that it provided a good example for Africa to host some important global collaboration initiatives like the TICAD.
There was a lot of emphasis on the need for partnerships between the private sector and other players in development matters. TICAD was a very good occasion and that was one of the pillars of strengthening the role of the private sector in development. It marked an important dimension and broadening of the TICAD initiative.
The President of Kenya visited Japan in February this year. What feedback can you give to our readers about this visit?
Japan has been a foremost development partner for Kenya and Sub-Saharan Africa over the years. Our partnership is indeed extremely important. Therefore, the visit by the president to Tokyo was to cement this relationship. We were able to look at new areas, for instance, aspects of climate change and the need to strengthen investment in areas that are more climate-friendly were areas that were discussed.
Secondly, we were able to raise capital through a Samurai bond from the markets in Japan, which we see as a very significant development based on our initiative under the Bottom-Up economic program of the president. We were also able to interact with several key companies like Toyota Tsusho Corporation, who want to expand their activities here. They want to be able to tap into the geothermal potential in Kenya. They want to be able to work on electrified vehicles and promote the green agenda to broaden the investment in the solar energy sector. We were able to interact with a number of key institutions like the Japan International Cooperation Agency, and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation and we signed a number of memoranda of understanding.
What is your vision concerning the next step that TICAD could take particularly for Kenya, but also for the conference in general for next year?
One of the things that we must admit at least from my perspective is that the TICAD relationship has been very focused on critical areas affecting the continent of Africa. One area that requires continued emphasis is going to be enhanced investment in the infrastructure area. I believe that we need to increase or accelerate the interconnectivity of African countries. We have the African Continental Free Trade Agreement as an example, however, when we look at the numbers, we find that the level of trade among African countries is not robust enough and still very low in comparison to what the numbers are in relation to the international community that is away from the continent of Africa. There is a need to make sure that we can actively improve the interconnectivity of African nations. Today, if I want to travel to some countries in North Africa or West Africa I first have to fly to Europe and then fly back to Africa. In addition, when I am coming back to Nairobi, I fly back to Europe again or the Gulf and then fly to Nairobi. This is not tenable and we need to do something about it.
In terms of trade, it would be good to strengthen the rail network and the road network amongst countries. The same also goes for digital technology and connectivity. This is very critical in promoting growth and development in Africa. We would like to strengthen the connectivity even from the Eastern coast to the Western coast. These areas would have a serious and positive impact on the African continent. We need to continue to focus a lot on matters of climate change. We need to have friendly development. We need to look at the mining and minerals, but make sure that they are being utilized positively and for the good of the people and maintaining climate-friendly approaches. Other aspects that remain critical are education, health and food security.
We are particularly pleased with Japan because, with the President’s visit to Japan, Japan was able to provide a facility of $23.2 million to the Kenya Medical Research Institute for further research in the health sector. Japan is pushing a lot to help us with food security. They are involved in the expansion of a critical rice team in Kenya, MWEA, and a smaller one AHERO. They have also invested heavily in a dam to help in irrigation and increase the production of rice. They continue to support us on critical infrastructure like the special economic zones in Mombasa and we look forward to the construction and development of the Mombasa Gateway Bridge, which might be quite similar to what is in Tokyo.
We need to continue lobbying for an improved financial architecture. TICAD will provide a good opportunity for this so that developing countries can have greater access to concessionary funding because the debt challenge remains very substantial in Africa. We need concessional funding to be able to do this. Japan has been very pragmatic on this because a lot of the support they have given has been primarily concessionary, with very modest interest rates, good grace periods and a fairly elaborated repayment period, which enables us to engage in programs in a way that does not provide strain to the limited resources that we have. This kind of initiative and focus, in my view, will be very critical for the TICAD-9 in Tokyo.
Is there anything that you would like to add?
I just want to reemphasize that the visits of the president and the visit from Prime Minister Fumio when he was in Kenya also as chair of the G7 underpins the strong partnerships that Kenya and Japan have. We would like to consolidate and grow this relationship. We have seen some very good growth in the number of companies that are now operating in Nairobi from Japan. They are now 104, from less than 100 by the time we had the TICAD VI. There has been tremendous growth and we would like to see more Japanese entities coming to Kenya. We definitely cherish and value our partnership. Japan has been supportive and dedicated to support.