Uhuru Kenyatta - Afrikan Heroes

President Uhuru Kenyatta to Chair United Nations Ocean Conference in Portugal

June 26, 2022

President Uhuru Kenyatta will tomorrow, Monday, 27th June, co-chair the second United Nations Ocean Conference in Lisbon with his Portugal counterpart Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and UN Secretary General António Guterres.

The conference, which is being co-hosted by Portugal and Kenya was initially scheduled for the year 2020 but was postponed to this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, is aimed at accelerating the adoption of science-based innovative solutions to challenges facing oceans and the global marine ecosystem.

Speaking ahead of the Kenyan Head of State’s arrival in Lisbon, Kenya’s ambassador to Portugal, Prof Judi Wakhungu revealed that besides the UN meeting, President Uhuru Kenyatta will pay a two-day state visit to the Portuguese Republic on Tuesday and Wednesday.

“Our two Heads of State will be presiding over the high-level opening of the ocean conference together with the UN Secretary General.”

“This is very special. It is historic because this is the first time in history that a Kenyan Head of State has been recognized by our hosts, the Republic of Portugal,” Prof Wakhungu said in reference to the two-day state visit.

Ambassador Wakhungu said that despite the global meeting having been postponed twice in the past due to Covid-19, Kenya and Portugal were ready to co-host a successful 2022 UN Ocean Conference. The two countries were declared hosts for the conference after the 2017 inaugural UN Ocean Conference co-hosted by Fiji and Sweden in New York.

“I must applaud Portugal and Kenya for staying the course, for their tenacity and finally hosting this important meeting,” Prof Wakhungu, who also serves as Kenya’s envoy to France, Serbia, Vatican City and Monaco, said.

Oceans cover up to 70 percent of the earth’s surface and are home to over 80 percent of all life in the world. They generate 50 percent of oxygen needed by humans, absorb 25 percent of all carbon dioxide emissions, and capture 90 percent of heat generated from anthropogenic activities.

As such, Prof Wakhungu said oceans are a key aspect of human life, emphasizing the importance of the conference not only to Kenya but to the world especially now that humanity is increasingly facing the negative impacts of climate change.

“The conference is focusing mostly on the Sustainable Development Goal 14. All the Sustainable Development Goals are connected, but 14 deals specifically with the oceans…Over 70 percent of the earth is the ocean. We sometimes take this for granted but it is indeed very important,” Prof Wakhungu said, adding that 30 out of the 54 African countries are maritime nations. Globally, there are 83 maritime nations.

Ambassador Wakhungu said Kenya had priotised blue economy as a key driver of her socioeconomic transformation agenda, adding that the conference builds on the successes of the inaugural UN Sustainable Blue Economy Conference held in Nairobi in 2018.

“Kenya registered its intention that the blue economy must be part and parcel of our livelihoods. We must protect our marine life, marine security is important to Kenya,” Prof Wakhungu said.

She added: “Our maritime training must be enhanced. Most importantly, we need to protect our oceans from illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing which has continued to be a dearth in our marine ecosystems. But also very importantly, from an environmental point of view, we must expand our marine protected areas”.

Prof Wakhungu said Kenya was globally renowned for its green strategy which she said the country was expanding to include the blue economy so as to broaden its sustainable development agenda.

“We are now combining the green and the blue. We signified our intent to elevate the blue economy strategy to global standards when our President, His Excellency Uhuru Kenyatta hosted the 2018 UN Sustainable Blue Economy Conference in Nairobi,” she said.

On the two-day state visit, Prof Wakhungu said President Kenyatta will lead a Kenyan delegation for bilateral talks with their Portuguese hosts during which several agreements will be reached and signed in areas such as tourism, education and training, commerce, culture, transport and communication.

Skaleet Partners Mobiblanc for Cutting-Edge Technology to Banks Across Africa

“At the same time we shall also promote trade and investment between Kenya and Portugal. Our two countries have continued to enhance and enrich their bilateral relations,” Prof Wakhungu said.

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry

No More Sale Of Personal Data To Third Parties Under Kenya’s Proposed Data Rules

January 14, 2021

Apart from passing a set of data protection rules last year, Kenya is, again, set to confront the activities of data collectors under its jurisdiction. According to the office of data protection commissioner Kenya, in a draft guidance note published on Tuesday, entities must issue consent forms to individuals before embarking on collection of personal data.

“Under no circumstances should the data collected be sold to third parties or transferred out of the country, unless the concerned individual consents to the transfer. The transfer of personal data to another country shall only take place where sufficient proof has been given on the appropriate safeguards with respect to the security and protection of the personal data,” the draft guidance policy reads.

Here Is What You Need To Know

Under the proposed new rules, mobile applications requesting access to personal data shall publish policies on the information being collected.
Again, any person who requests for personal data will be required to enter into a data protection and sharing agreement with the entity or person having the control of data.
Under the proposed rules, public entities are also expected to channel all personal data requests to their respective ministries and state agencies.
Furthermore, the commissioner will require entities to endeavor to collect personal data in an anonymized format ensuring that individuals cannot be re-identified.
The new policy is coming on the heels of the Data Protection Act passed at the end of 2019. The Act is Kenya’s first piece of legislation on personal data.
The draft guidance note is geared at responding to the increased need for personal data under the COVID-19 pandemic.

“For instance, health data and geo-location may be necessary for contact tracing. Innovations built in response to pandemic including apps and related services, may request some access to personal data from a government or private entities to enable the development of a product,” added the note.

Data Protection Laws in Africa, as at 2015. Source: ResearchGate

Kenya data rules Kenya data rules

What Are The Implications Of This For Startups In Kenya?

For consumers or data subjects in Kenya, this is a welcome development in an era of intense data mining. For startups, there is now an official regulatory hurdle to leap over, although application play stores such as Google Play Store and App Store already require such consent to be obtained from the data owners before the data are collected. However, the new rule will, notably, change what happens to the data after they have been collected. For instance, once the rules are effective, it will no longer be enough to obtain consent at the point of the initial collection, neither would it be enough to just insert in the privacy policy or terms of use of the app a clause that data collected may be shared with third parties. It is now going to be mandatory, especially for data auditing purposes, that the sharing entity seek the data subject’s consent as well as execute a data share agreement with the third party seeking to collect data. This is coming in the wakes of several data scandal and compromises, including the recent incident of Facebook — Cambridge Analytica.

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning writer

Africans “know and understand what development ought to look like Say Uhuru Kenyatta

November 26, 2020

The Kenyan President, Uhuru Kenyatta has urged African governments to put their citizens at the centre of delivering service during Africa Delivery Exchange 2020, a virtual event that opened Tuesday.In remarks to open the two-day workshop, Kenyatta noted that on a continent of around 1.3 billion Africans with a median age of around 20 years, there is a very tangible underlying sense of urgency when it comes to expectations of government.

“Our people know and understand what development ought to look like and what benefits it should bring to their social-economic wellbeing. Therefore, any failure to quickly address the missing middle within the development paradigm could create a deficiency of trust between the electorate and those in positions of leadership,” Kenyatta said. The event was jointly hosted by Kenya President’s Delivery Unit, the African Development Bank and the Tony Blair Institute (TBI) for Global Change.

Kenyatta recognized the Bank and the TBI’s support in advancing Kenya’s development, thanking African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina and Former Prime Minister Tony Blair, who joined him on a panel. “Without the lessons from TBI, we would have had to reinvent the wheel, but instead, we started with a tried and tested model, and we have improved on it to reflect our unique circumstances here in Kenya.”

In his remarks, Blair observed that leadership demands have changed and that governments are expected to do far more than they ever were traditionally. “They’ve got to deliver services for their people; they’ve got to put in place the right environment for their economy, they’ve got to deal with all sorts of huge crises, of which COVID-19 is just the latest example. All of these require extraordinary focus, clarity and decision making.”

To meet these delivery expectations, governments must focus on prioritization, policy, personnel and performance management. “Performance management is the most critical one. What’s difficult is that each of these systems you’re trying to change will have interests that often will obstruct. They’ll need areas that need you to go across the whole of government, to get something done in one area of government; they’ll have complicated politics around them.”

Adesina commended Kenyatta for focusing on ordinary citizens and praised the Kenyan government’s ‘Big Four’ agenda, which prioritizes food security, affordable housing, manufacturing, and affordable healthcare for all, and noting a fifth area in which the country had made great strides. “Mr. President, you’re doing exceptional work on energy. You’re connecting your people all over the country in an amazing way with last mile delivery. If you add in energy, you’d actually have a big five.”

The Bank president set out some delivery lessons: A clear vision; publish delivery expectations to create accountability; establish a culture of accountability; rigorous results measurement; ensure sustainability. “The Bank is currently developing a new Africa public service delivery index that will help to rate African countries including sub nationals on the delivery of public services,” he added.

This is not the first pandemic we’ve faced, Adesina said, but it must never happen again that the continent is caught unprepared. “Africa has underinvested massively on healthcare. We need to change and give Africa a quality health care defense system to make sure we have excellent primary health care.”

“One question is, how do you keep the sense of urgency that you had when dealing with the disease and carry that same sense of urgency and focus into building back better afterward?”

The African Development Bank has formed strategic partnerships with Government Delivery Units in Kenya, Morocco, Tunisia, and is working toward approval of a fourth in Senegal. In January 2019, the Bank led the launch of the African Delivery Units Network to provide a platform for sharing knowledge, experience and expertise among African governments’ delivery units.

The two-day event includes technical sessions and presentations by specialists, including representatives of national and city government, multilateral development institutions and other development partners.

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry

Kenya Cuts Tax For Local Vehicle Assembly Companies

March 10, 2020

Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta has asked the National Treasury and the Kenya Revenue Authority to immediately institute actions aimed at reducing taxes for vehicles that are fully assembled locally.

“Further, to make locally assembled vehicles more affordable and available to Kenyans, I have also directed that the National Treasury and the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Cooperatives hold discussions with financial institutions to create special products for locally assembled vehicles,” he further stated during his address to the media outside State House, Nairobi.

Here Is All You Need To Know

Uhuru made the demand at the launch of two of the first locally assembled Mahindra vehicles.
The Mahindra Scorpio Single and Double cabin pick-ups were assembled at the Associated Vehicle Assembly (AVA Kenya) plant in Mombasa -AVA is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Simba Corporation Limited.
Uhuru emphasised on the need for motor vehicle assemblers, in consultation with the National Treasury and the Ministry of Industry, to work out a mutually agreeable framework that will ensure the benefits accruing from the tax incentives are passed on to the consumer.
He then lauded Mahindra Motors, stating that the car manufacturer has joined the list of other globally renowned automotive brands that have chosen Kenya as their home such as Toyota, Peugeot, and Volkswagen.

“We appreciate your sustained investment in Kenya as it is a vote of confidence in our ever-improving business environment.

“This fact has encouraged my administration to continue to make every effort to revitalize the contribution of the manufacturing sector to the economy,” the President told the Simba Corporation leadership team that was led by Group Chairman Adil Popat.

At the beginning of 2019, the government proposed to implement a National Automotive Policy which effectively would see an eventual ban on imports of second-hand passenger and commercial vehicles.
However, this was faced with stiff resistance from the used car industry with the government eventually having to suspend their push to change the regulations on May 7, 2019.
Data from Kenya’s Road Transport reported that there were 3,280,934.000 registered car units in Dec 2018, which was an increase from the previous number of 2,989,788.000 units for Dec 2017.
According to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), a middle-class Kenyan is anyone who spends between Ksh23,670 and Ksh199,999 a month, which sees them well placed to take full advantage of the effects of tax cuts in the motor vehicle industry.
However, it is important to note that a recent economic survey by KNBS (2019) states that loans and advances from banking institutions increased by 12% to Ksh442.3 billion in 2018 from Ksh358.6 billion in 2017, which could imply that this specific class -identified with massive spending, may be borrowing to sustain their lifestyles.

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning writer.
He could be contacted at udohrapulu@gmail.com