Why I have met 11 presidents in February - Trade CS Moses Kuria

Investments, Trade and Industry Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria says he has met 11 presidents in the month of February alone.

In an interview with Citizen TV on Monday night, Kuria said he had been appointed a special envoy by President William Ruto, tasked with rekindling trade relations with Kenya’s business partners.

Among those he had met, Kuria said, was retired Tanzanian leader Jakaya Kikwete.

“In this month of February, I have met 11 presidents; 10 sitting presidents and former president Jakaya Kikwete. In all these tours I was not sending myself, I was appointed as a special envoy by President William Ruto to talk to our neighbours and try to re-establish our leadership in terms of the region, trying to push through a couple of agreements that we feel are of strategic value and importance to the country,” Kuria told Trevor Ombija.

The CS noted that some of the trade projects between Kenya and the respective countries had stalled and that he has been working to push them forward after taking over the Trade docket from Betty Maina in October last year.

“Some of those have been stuck for some time and we felt like only presidential-level decisions would unlock them. But it was not about defence and diplomacy; my mission was purely about the economy, business and trade,” he said.

In the same light, Kuria also said he has so far travelled to major business cities across the world to benchmark with the world’s leading economies.

Explaining his decision to set up new offices at Two Rivers Mall, an upscale shopping complex along Limuru Road in Nairobi’s Ruaka area, the CS said he seeks to give global investors a world-class taste of the country.

The NSSF Building at the city’s central business district which houses the Trade ministry headquarters, Kuria explained, did not make the cut as a world-class facility offering investors the environment needed to leave them with an ideal impression of the country.

“I visit many countries and I know the environment which the investors enjoy in those particular countries. I benchmark with many countries and I am going to give investors an environment that ranks equivalent to what the other countries do,” said Kuria.

He said he had seen how business moguls are treated to entice them to invest in respective countries.

“This is about how we treat investors. I go to the US, Europe and know the kind of ambience that investors are treated with.”