Kenya High Commission UK

Kenyan Elections - Martha Karua on BBC's HARDtalk

In a HARDtalk special programme first broadcast on 9th January 2008, Stephen Sackur talks to Martha Karua, Kenya's Justice Minister, and Sir Edward Clay, Britain's former High Commissioner in Nairobi.

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KENYA HONOURED BY WORLD BANK AS A TOP REFORMING COUNTRY

LONDON, October 14, 2007 – LONDON, October 14, 2007 – Hon Amos Kimunya, Kenya's Minister of Finance, was in London on Friday to pick up an award to honour Kenya as one of the world's top reforming economies.

The award was presented by Michael Klein, World Bank Vice President, at a ceremony sponsored by the United Kingdom's Department for International Development (DFID).

On receiving the award, Amos Kimunya said; "I am very happy to accept the award on behalf of all the people of Kenya. I am delighted that the reforms we have been undertaking have been recognized internationally. We have made Kenya a much better country in which to do business. We have removed the bureaucracies of doing business and cut away lots of red tape. Our economy is reaping the rewards. We have had sustained economic growth now for four years, transforming Kenya into a working nation."

Commenting on Kenya 's achievements, Michael Klein said "the changes have streamlined business start-up and cut both the time and cost of getting building permits."

Mr. Kimunya added that the reforms that the Kibaki administration has pursued have reduced poverty levels in Kenya by more than 10%, allowing more than 2 million people to escape poverty.

This award is one of many that the Kenyan government has received this year. Others include a United Nations honour for introducing civil service management contracts. Within the private sector Kenyan banks like Equity and KCB have also been recognised internationally for their stellar performances.

Mr. Kimunya said, "We are now rated globally as being in the top half of the easiest places to do business on the planet. We are fast emerging as the business destination of choice in Africa. We won't be satisfied until we graduate into the top quarter of the world. To achieve this and move towards the realisation of Vision 2030 we will be putting Kshs 500billion over the next five years towards transforming Kenya into a middle income country," he said.

Notes to Editors:
Doing Business 2008 Report Overview
Doing Business 2008 ranks 178 economies on the ease of doing business based on 10 indicators of business regulation.

The top-ranked countries in Sub-Saharan Africa are Mauritius (27), South Africa (35), Namibia (43), Botswana (51), and Kenya (72). The rankings track indicators of the time and cost to meet government requirements in business startup, operation, trade, taxation, and closure.

The top 10 reformers globally are, in order, Egypt, Croatia, Ghana, FYR Macedonia, Georgia, Colombia, Saudi Arabia, Kenya, China, and Bulgaria. Reformers made it simpler to start a business, strengthened property rights, enhanced investor protections, increased access to credit, eased tax burdens, and expedited trade while reducing costs. Worldwide, 200 reforms—in 98 economies—were introduced between April 2006 and June 2007.

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Related links
http://go.worldbank.org/0YHU8F4UL0

VP CRITICISES THE ‘FOOD MILES’ CONCEPT

LONDON, August 21, 2007 - Vice President Moody Awori has asked the Kenya high commission in London to aggressively lobby policy makers in the United Kingdom against imposing restrictions on airlifted horticultural produce from Kenya.

Addressing staff at the mission in London on Tuesday, the Vice President expressed fear that if implemented, the move will harm the country’s horticultural industry noting that the sector is a life-line to millions of Kenyans.

Mr Awori said horticultural exports earn the country substantial amounts of foreign exchange, and described the ‘Food Miles’ concept as not only punitive but heavily flawed and selective.

Under the ‘food miles’ concept, as the debate is commonly known, a campaign has been on-going in the United Kingdom and other European countries to discriminate against long haul transportation especially of air-freighted goods.

Environmentalists are lobbying leading supermarket chains and policy makers in European capitals to discourage consumption of long-haul air-freighted goods on the basis that transportation of goods over long distances such as from Africa to Europe contributes to global warming through carbon emissions by aircrafts into the atmosphere.

The campaign is gaining momentum in the United Kingdom where leading supermarkets are labelling fresh horticultural produce from Kenya with an airplane symbol to signify that the product was imported through a medium that contributes to depletion of the ozone layer and should be shunned.

This, according to Kenya’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom Mr Joseph Muchemi who also spoke at the meeting, will affect Kenya’s perishable goods industry which can only be exported to European destinations by air since they have a short shelf life.

Mr Muchemi recently launched a counter campaign dubbed ‘Grown under the Sun’ at Britain’s largest agricultural trade fair in Coventry last month to inform British consumers about the development benefits associated with sourcing fresh produce from Kenya.

“The ‘Grown under the Sun’ logo will appear in UK supermarkets to remind consumers that purchasing fresh Kenyan fruits, vegetables and flowers helps to sustain thousands of Kenyans who depend on trade with Britain,” said Mr Muchemi.

Mr Awori challenged the High Commission staff to urgently bring the matter to the attention of the highest level of decision making in the UK saying that the ‘Food Miles’ concept was mischievous and unfair.

“Developed countries have a duty to formulate policies that will uplift poor countries so that they are no longer a liability to them,” he stressed.

KENYA TAKES FURTHER CARBON STEPS

The Kenya Flower Council has said it is in negotiation with EU authorities to resolve the standoff between the council and retailers such as Tesco over the issue of the carbon footprint of Kenyan blooms sold in Europe.

KFC chairman Erastus Muriithi told delegates at a workshop at the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute that KFC, the Kenyan government and the EU authorities are handling the matter.

Muriithi has also urged Kenyans to develop a culture of buying flowers in order to boost the horticultural sector, which has become a major source of livelihood for more than 100,000 Kenyans. To this end KFC has entered into an agreement with Kenya's Equity Bank to provide loans to small-scale flower vendors to help them boost their trade.

And the horticulture industry in Kenya has also teamed up with the Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs) to enhance quality certification and meet the expectations of its European customers.

The standards body will now act as a guarantor and oversee how the Kenya Flower Council (KFC) is implementing international quality standards as part of efforts to improve the quality certification process and boost consumer confidence.

KFC had previously relied on its principal farm auditor John Njenga, for verification to ensure compliance with European standards.

Besides Kebs, Kenyan produce will also be verified by global certification group Bureau Veritas. The partnership means that all Kenyan produce will now bear the Kebs diamond mark of quality.

In return, Kebs will get 0.2 per cent or Sh98 million (£739,000) of all KFC sales based on last year's figure of Sh49 billion.