President William Ruto on Monday witnessed the signing of a wide-ranging memorandum of understanding between Kenya’s Ministry of Energy and Petroleum and China Energy Engineering Corp. Ltd. that aims to significantly modernize and improve the flexibility of Kenya’s aging electrical system.
The agreement specifically covers planning, designing and transforming Kenya’s outdated power generation facilities, transmission lines and distribution networks to optimize reliability and flexibility, according to a statement from State House. It also aims to boost Kenya’s use of renewable energy and advanced energy storage to support greater domestic energy self-sufficiency.
Speaking during a visit to China Energy Engineering’s headquarters in Beijing, Ruto urged Chinese companies and investors to actively pursue opportunities across Kenya’s energy, water and housing sectors. He touted Kenya’s wealth of natural resources and pledged that his administration would fully support foreign investors who bring value-added capabilities to extract and process those resources domestically.
“Kenya presents real opportunities for investment especially in transformative areas of our economy such as energy, water and housing,” Ruto said during brief remarks at the signing ceremony. “My administration is committed to supporting those who wish to invest in adding value to the abundant raw materials we possess.”
Ruto also witnessed the signing of a separate memorandum of understanding between Kenya and Chinese tech giant Huawei Corp. It aims to enlist Huawei’s help in developing Kenya’s lagging information and communications technology infrastructure and promote digitization of key sectors including transportation, e-government services, education and digital energy systems.
That agreement is vital to advancing Ruto’s Digital Superhighway and Bottom-up Economic Transformation initiatives, according to Kenyan officials.
“It will help cultivate vital digital skills in our workforce and enhance technological capacity building across critical emerging fields,” Ruto said. “I thank Huawei for its commitment to helping Kenya accelerate our digital inclusion efforts.”
The signings came as Ruto made his first visit to China since being elected president in August. He toured China Energy Engineering’s facilities and met with company executives and Chinese government officials during his three-day trip.
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