And that comes from the top. And so I very much applaud President Kenyatta for initiating this campaign. It’s going to require the support of the Kenyan people, and it’s going to require some visible prosecutions. Because I mentioned to him — people aren’t stupid. If they see an elected official and they know that their salary is there, and suddenly they’re driving through town in a very big car, and they see their cousin driving through town with a very big car, and they’re suddenly building a new house, and all that doesn’t seem to match up with their salary, they don’t have to be a forensic accountant to know what’s going on.
And so when that happens, people have to be held into account. And the ideal that the President is putting forward is the right one. And now it’s up to execution. And that won’t be just the President’s job alone; it will be the job of leadership both locally as well as nationally.
PRESIDENT KENYATTA: I think mine was with regard to looking east. And the first thing I want to say is that I couldn’t agree more. We’re not talking about a renewal; we’re talking about a deepening. The United States, from the time of our independence, has been a very strong partner and ally. Kenya has benefitted from AGOA, benefitted heavily in our health sector, in education all these years. And that has never stopped. It’s been continuous and ongoing.
The key point is what I said when we were opening the summit this morning, and the fact is that Kenya is a country that’s not looking east or west. What we’re looking to do is to make progress; is to develop our country; is to bring prosperity; is to build infrastructure. And we are looking to partner with our friends, old and new, to help us achieve the Kenyan dream — to help us achieve our social-economic agenda. And the U.S. happens to be a very strong partner of Kenya in that objective — as are many other countries in the world.
So I see no conflict, no contradiction. Actually, I just see deepening of partnerships that already existed, all with the objective of improving business for Kenyans, for the U.S., improving the social life of Kenyans, and deepening our people-to-people partnership, as well, through trade and investment.
So there is no contradiction whatsoever. We are just strengthening already good relations that exist between our two countries.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Juliet Eilperin.
Q Thanks. President Obama, while you’ve launched multiple policy initiatives on Africa, it is unclear whether any of them will outlast your presidency. What do you think needs to happen to ensure you have an Africa policy legacy as enduring as those of Presidents Bush and Clinton? And to what extent do you think you’ve met the expectations people here had of you as a son of Africa?
And speaking of your African roots, what did you talk about at dinner last night with roughly three dozen of your relatives? And had you met all of them before?
And then I have a question for President Kenyatta, as well. President Kenyatta, could you spell out in concrete terms what’s different in Kenya today because of President Obama’s election, how his connection to Kenya has shaped your discussions today, and what aspects of his Africa policy do you think will endure after he’s left office? Thank you.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Let me, first of all, underscore that I am really proud of the work that previous administrations did here in Africa, and I’ve done everything I could to build on those successes. This isn’t a beauty contest between Presidents; this is the U.S. government and whatever the policies that need to be put in place in order for us to help our partner countries.
I’ve said before, and I’ll repeat — I think President George W. Bush’s PEPFAR initiative was as significant an achievement internationally as anything that we’ve done over the last several decades. It saved millions of lives — which is why I’ve increased funding substantially for PEPFAR during the course of my presidency, and continue to build on what was initially a matter of just getting antivirals and treatment for HIV, and are now building greater capacity within those countries that have received PEPFAR funding so that they can do even more themselves in terms of their health care infrastructure.
So the bottom line is, I want to build on what’s already been done, and then we want to fill gaps that still need to be filled. Along those lines, if you look at our Feed the Future program, for example, we’ve got millions of farmers across this continent who, as we speak, have benefitted from increased yields, increased incomes, greater access to small loans that are making them more productive, greater access to market, linking up with technology in ways that assure that they get a fair price — all of which, since Africa is still disproportionately rural, is increasing incomes and spurring growth and building a middle class in the entire continent. And we can document the extraordinary progress that’s been made there, and it is a model that’s working and then has been supplemented with private sector investments that is further advancing the development of a more productive agricultural sector across the African continent.
With respect to Power Africa, which was just launched a couple years ago, we set initially a goal of 10,000 megawatts of electricity being generated in sub-Saharan Africa. We were sufficiently successful in lining up interest and investments that we’ve now tripled that and set a goal of 30,000. And we’re on our way to achieving that goal. We are well on track.
I noted that there was an article in a U.S. publication suggesting, well, there’s no electricity being generated from this yet. The next time somebody is interested in how electricity gets generated, go back home and find out how long it takes to build a power plant. I mean, sometimes these are long-term projects, but we have billions of dollars of transactions already locked in, and billions more in the pipeline. And that is just on the traditional power grid side. That doesn’t include all the innovative, off-grid electrical — or power generation that we witnessed just in those booths that we were passing at the entrepreneurship summit, using solar and other — bio-tech and other innovative ways to generate power in rural communities that are not going to be connected to the grid anytime soon.
So that’s just two examples of initiatives that I’m confident will have a lasting effect, not because they were initiated by me, but because they fill an extraordinary need. If we can get sub-Saharan Africa to be electrified at the same levels as Asia is, that alone is going to drive economic growth exponentially. I mean, the productivity that is delivered as a consequence of just access to power — kids suddenly being able to read and do their homework at night; women relieved of some of the burdens of collecting firewood and how they are able to use basic appliances that we take for granted; farmers being able to improve their yields — it’s a game-changer.
But we’re not going to know exactly what that looks like 10 years from now. And I suspect that the next President, building off of what we’ve already set up, will learn what’s working really well and what’s not working so well, and make some tweaks. And I don’t have pride of authorship. I hope that they figure out even better ways for us to continue the things that we’ve started just as we, I think, have refined and improved the excellent work that was done by Presidents Clinton and Presidents Bush.
In terms of what I was talking about with my family, mostly we were just catching up. There’s more immediate family that I had known well from previous visits. There was some more extended family that I had not met before. My sister, Auma, who I’m very close to and stay in close contact with, I think helped to make sure that everybody was represented. I think the people of Kenya will be familiar with the need to manage family politics sometimes. (Laughter.) In these extended families, there are cousins and uncles and aunties that show up that you didn’t know existed, but you’re always happy to meet. And there were lengthy explanations, in some cases, of the connections. (Laughter.) But it was a wonderful time.
Part of the challenge that I’ve had during the course of my presidency is that, given the demands of the job and the bubble, I can’t come here and just go upcountry and visit for a week and meet everybody. That’s partly, actually, what I had to explain was — begging for forgiveness — that once I’m a private citizen, I will have more freedom to reconnect and to be involved and engaged in some of the work that needs to be done — because some of these communities are very poor.
I’m more restricted, ironically, as President of the United States than I will be as a private citizen in terms of some of the hands-on and direct help that I’d like to give — partly just because of schedule, but partly also because of making sure that in my relationship to Kenya I am understood to be operating as the President of the United States, and that my interaction is with the government and the non-for-profits and the organizations that represent all the people of any particular country.
PRESIDENT KENYATTA: There’s one area — and it’s not specifically African, because I think all the initiatives he’s mentioned we’re all happy and proud of — but the one initiative that I would really want to focus on is the fact that I think President Obama will strongly be remembered in Africa for his focus on the youth of this continent; the focus on the young people of this continent to be able to extract their talents, their abilities. And he’s been very focused on this both with the Young Leaders initiative, with the GES that we’ve just been attending — really helping us unblock the full potential of Africa’s youth and young men and women.
So this, I think, will be the key legacy that President Obama will be remembered for on this continent for a long time to come.
That’s said, Judy — or Jackie, rather.
Q President Obama, and President Kenyatta, you spoke about direct flights. Are you working on that to launch them as soon as possible? How soon? If soon, can we know that?
And, President Obama, the U.S. has been issuing travel advisories against Kenya. This has had a devastating effect on its tourism. It’s the second foreign exchange. And is the U.S. planning to take it easy on that? And finally, what are your personal plans for Kenya after your presidency?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: With respect to direct flights, there are very specific protocols and security issues that have to be worked through and sorted out. We sent representatives of our Department of Transportation and Homeland Security to work with Kenyan officials. I think real progress has been made. I don’t have a date certain in front of me, and I wouldn’t want to make a guess and then if we’re late you’ll call me and say, you lied. (Laughter.) But I think that — I anticipate that if we can get all the issues squared away that this is something that has great potential and obviously would have a beneficial impact on U.S. travel to Kenya — both for business and for tourism.
With respect to the travel advisories, this is not something that I meddle with. This is something that our State Department and our intelligence communities make assessments on. They are provided in part for our embassy staff and personnel so that they can be mindful of circumstances. But we are bound to also then provide the general public protection — or the same information that we provide our teams on the ground, for understandable reasons. I think the general public would be disturbed if we were saying one thing to folks who are working here and another thing to an ordinary tourist who was traveling.
I recognize the concerns and I do think that despite the seriousness of the terrorist threat posed by al-Shabaab, that — in part because of media attention probably even more than travel advisories — that threat can oftentimes be exaggerated. And that’s unfortunate. And part of my answer I guess to that problem is to come here and visit, and to show this extraordinary country and the extraordinary progress that’s been made.
But the specifics around travel advisories — those are a judgment call that are made by our experts. It’s not something that I weigh in on. It’s not something that is subject to political decision-making. And my solemn goal is to make sure that we are working urgently with President Kenyatta and the administration so that there’s no need for the advisory because we will have greatly reduced these threats.
And there may be ways in which we can refine them so that, for example, traveling to game parks may be different than being in other circumstances. And that’s something that we can always discuss and explore at a staff level.
Oh, did I — there was a third question — what are my plans? Well, here’s what I can guarantee. I’ll be back. The next time I’m back I may not be wearing a suit. (Laughter.) The first time I came here I was in jeans and a backpack. And one of the challenges of traveling and visiting Kenya is that I’m much more constrained now than I will be. And I think that you can anticipate not only me being back, but probably more important for everybody, Michelle being back, and Malia and Sasha coming back, because they have a great love for this country and its people and its beauty. And obviously I’ve got family connections.
And my hope is that some of the philanthropic work that I do after my presidency is over builds on some of the things that we’ve been doing now. I’m not going to stop being interested in the young people of Kenya and the young people of Africa, and developing the talent and the leaders — talented leaders and entrepreneurs that are going to help make this country and the world prosper. And so you can anticipate that I’ll continue to make those contributions where I can.
All right? Thank you very much, everybody. Asante sana. (Applause.)
END
5:44 P.M. EAT
