Transcripts For CSPAN Vice 20240702

To the u. S. Chamber of commerce here in washington, d. C. Vice president Kamala Harris and kenyan president william ruto are expected to participate in a forum there on u. S. Kenyon business partnerships. Live coverage begins now here on cspan. Pleased to lead us in a conversation in a topic thats been at the forefront of conversations this week as we hit we celebrate the historic state visit of the kenyan president of the United States. My name is kendra, im pleased to serve as president of the Agribusiness Center and i couldnt be more honored than to be joined by this august group of panelists here today as we start this conversation. In the interest of time, im going to let you know that the bios for our esteemed leaders are available on qr codes available in the room. We are going to have a chance to, as they say, allow those who need no introduction to present themselves to all of you. Im beginning to my right, again with a person who needs no introduction, the vice chair and president of niekro soft, mr. Brad smith. Welcome. Brad thank you. Kendra talk to us briefly about the connection that microsoft has to kenya. Brad weve been there for a long time and over the last five years it has been a huge source of development for us. We have employees, Software Developers working in the Software Development center in nairobi. I think that you have captured it well, it has been an extraordinary week and its fitting that today is the capstone for it. It is all about, i think, investment being driven not just by the potential of the future, but the reality of the present. For us at microsoft, that is all about partnering with others. Our most important partner for investing in kenya, its a billiondollar commitment to build a data center run entirely on green geothermal energy. I know that kendra will get more into it, but its about connectivity, skills, security, putting ai to work not only in english but in swahili, with a swahili english large language model. Its about making kenya the trusted hub for all of east africa with a trusted data zone being put together she with put together with the leadership of the kenyan government and the support of the u. S. And uae governments as well. V. P. Harris thats a tremendous kendra thats tremendous. Thats quite a connection, indeed. We are going to be joined by our esteemed panelists in a moment. Let me turn to dr. James, an imminent person with no introduction needed, but would you tell us about the work that Equity Group Holdings is leading, not just in kenya . Thank you so much. Equity group works out of Eastern Central africa. The forecast is at the bottom of the pyramid, one of the most financial inclusive groups. From refugees with small and Medium Enterprises and high range individuals. Broadly, we are big beneficiaries of the applications that Microsoft Offers in the region. Kendra thank you. Im pleased that we are joined by michael at mastercard. Quick introductions of the connection of your country to kenya. Thank you very much. Apologies for being late. Our connection to africa goes back about 15 years. Mastercard tried to unlock the entrepreneurial power of africa by providing Financial Inclusion opportunities and giving them the opportunity to be a part of the Digital Economy. What does it mean . It means making it possible to make and receive payments in an easy and secure pat fashion. That is what we do at mastercard. We felt that with one point 4 billion people, we have to make it available to everybody. For us that his longterm Market Building and commercial sustainability for each and every country. A big unlock to really deliver on the promise of the Digital Economy. Kenya is the host of our global Financial Inclusion lab where we took the solutions we had from around the world and today we are invested across 45 countries in africa, empowering the Digital Economy there. The thing is, though, the Digital Economy is not just about payment. Its about a broader set of digital payments. I listened to you, brad, from behind the stage. Heres the big unlock. The future connection to kenya should be around coordinating the efforts of the private sector and putting the might and the reach of the private sector to work in a coordinated fashion. Not all of us doing coordinated things. Im excited to announce a new initiative cochaired by the African Development bank at mastercard called the Maid Alliance made alliance africa. The effort is to deliver on the goals of pulling 100 Million People in businesses into Digital Services over the next 10 years. Our partners are here on stage, microsoft and equity bank. The whole idea was as follows imagine a farmer in kenya. The farmer needs 100 to buy seeds. Imagine the transaction is digitized in a way that works offline and online. Both were in kenya. Equity bank can give different working Capital Access to the farmer because there is a data track record for that. The same solution allows the farmer to be connected to global fair market trading prices. The virtual circle begins. That is exactly what the alliance is trying to do. One Company Provides connectivity. The other provides digitization and Capital Access. There is a set of foundation for scaling with other educational aspects in declared communities. There is an ecosystem change instead of everyone doing their own thing. 10 years, thats one of the Biggest Companies in the continent and in the world are on it. Its exciting. Kendra that is exciting. What is it stand for . Michael mobilizing access to the Digital Economy in africa. Kendra there you have it. We have some collusion here, we should have mixed up the seating, but i think it is connected to the work that some of you are doing as a response to the call for action from the Vice President . Is that connected as well . Michael absolutely. In april, Vice President harris said we needed the private sector to step it up, a clear call to action, will here is the answer. Kendra wonderful. Thank you. Congratulations for all the work you are doing in that space. And tell us about the work you are doing in kenya . Thank you for hosting this panel. I am really excited to hear about all of the transformations that are happening here. Black iv is a company that i founded 10 years ago and have been operating in kenya and tanzania. We focus on life essentials. Food, housing, health care, logistics. We build those businesses from scratch to establish a foundation and we go about ensuring that they are creating value for the region and the people where we are operating. In kenya we have the pleasure of doing Food Production with our number one partner, farmers. Ways that you can make one value chain to ensure guaranteed uptake. We have the privilege of being a partner with kfc, they are extending that kind of transformation with guaranteed optics after they have access to finance and after they have the kind of Technical Support that they need, but also they need a market that will be consistent with the kind of pricing that allows them to reliably invest in seeds and the kinds of investments that are there. We are deeply excited we know that it the end not only does kfc use 15 containers on the water every month but it means 1. 7 metric tons of Carbon Emissions that wont happen because the potatoes will be grown in kenya, processed in kenya. We are very excited about everything that each of you all are doing and of being good partners. Kendra thank you for that. Building value chains is a great priority and it speaks to the work being done in the digital space, building those value chains. If i might add to that point a bit, increasing access to open interoperable internet for african communities across sectors, we just heard an example, its essential for expanding Economic Growth across the continent. I might put this all of you and i may start with you, dr. Mwangi, to help us kicking that off, but what are the greatest obstacles to achieving that in kenya and how is Equity Group Holdings working to be able to expand greater access to Economic Growth . Dr. Mwangi thank you very much. It is true of Digital Inclusion, its essential for access to economic opportunities, for greater inclusion. Whether or not it is financial, its an inclusion of archives with essential disease essential digitization. Its convenience. And then empowerment, you give them the power to process and transact for themselves, with everything that goes with that. Essentially, for us particularly in the financial system, digitization adds up to significantly reduced costs of financial services. Customers serves them serve themselves. It also allows us to scale quickly and rapidly, based on that. Broadly theres been a holdback of digitization in the african continent. Initially, it was infrastructure. The back own infrastructure was missing. But we are excited, particularly working with microsoft or mastercard there, they started putting in the Backbone Infrastructure together with the government. The policy framework came too late, people didnt adopt interoperability fast enough. Without interoperability systems, it was a hamper to connectedness. The biggest challenge is the capacity of the head users. When you talk about the particulars around low levels of education in the population in the rural areas, they not only lack connectedness but they need to be capacity aided with data training. When we talk in technology terms, the consumer is not as enlightened in what we think is simple, which is not. Broadly what we have tried to address with these issues is to seek partnership. That is why today we will be announcing major partnerships to provide us with the entire infrastructure. Its more than infrastructure, being able to connect with the rest of the world. Its no longer about legacy systems. We must move with the technology systems. We are lucky that over the course of those 200 million up to the year 2030 that will provide us processing and storage capability. Then we are exploring crowd capabilities. Its that basic infrastructure that allows you to do it. The second aspect is partnership with cooperations. As microsoft said, when it comes to the smallscale farmers, the best way of digitizing them is to use massive Global Infrastructure and you can then use that infrastructure and outsource things to companies. Thank you. Kendra thank you. I would note that you talked about key tenants in the Digital Transformation with africa initiative. You just mentioned them, brad, in the context of the announcement you made, infrastructure being the real backbone of the scaling opportunities, workforce opportunities and policy mix for the ecosystem. Could you talk a bit about the work that microsoft is doing not just in responding to the call to action, but broadly the doing and that Digital Transformation agenda . Brad i would highlight two aspects and put them in the context of the opportunities and challenges that we have to address. First, connectivity. 54 Million People live in kenya. We need to bring Broadband Speed internet to everyone and one of the things we have to remember for all of africa is it is a continent where 43 of the population still lacks access to electricity. In so many ways, while the backbone is indispensable, it is the last mile thats the most difficult, especially when people dont have access to electricity. But there is so much cause for optimism and its all about the power of partnerships, the point that you made. We have been working on this in kenya for 15 years. We have partnerships with the company that has the swahili name for cloud, with liquids, which strive, with c2, we will bring Internet Connectivity to 20 Million People in kenya by the end of next year. Not the end of the decade but the end of next year. They have pioneered a Business Model to help people with electricity and the internet at the same time. We have to ensure that this moves forward in a way that starts to close the gender gap. That has been a priority for Vice President harris. She made it a big theme last year when she reached out to people like michael and me and asked what we could do to help across africa. Meg whitman, you, three extraordinary women. What it has brought together this week. So as we focus on kenya focus on skilling as we are, as google is, as others are, we need to recognize that we in the tech center are an industry where women are underrepresented. You see this in the United States and in kenya. Early numbers for ai adoption, it is unfortunately continuing this divide. Yet this is the time to close it. I think that is also calling for new initiatives of the sort that are being launched here this week. It can bring us all together on a sustained basis. Kendra thats wonderful. As you note, if there is no access, there is no ability to scale and the gaps continue to widen, creating more inequality that sets us back. Thank you for that and for the opportunity to call on a fourth extraordinary will woman this morning, cheryl mills, on our panel. In this conversation im struck that we are talking about scaling and partnerships, but agriculture in this conversation, it speaks to the impact of the Digital Economy has, once you have the infrastructure and have created the connectivity. Its beyond the tech sector and it impacts everything. I might ask you, cheryl, given your background on the government side in the business side, seeing the aspects of partnership in your work, could you maybe share with us how stakeholders in government and in the United States and across the continent collaborate to facilitate better investment and trade partnerships in the Digital Economy and in calling on the diaspora to be a part of this effort . Cheryl thank you for that question. Thank you for being called extraordinary. My mother would love that. Heres the thing, i have had the pleasure in the privilege of working at the state department and at that time with president obama and secretary clinton looking at agriculture and how we could go about investing in what would be longterm impactful. Weve come full circle in terms of saying how do we think about the digitization and Digital Economy and make sure we are applying it in the places that are impactful when you look across africa. Agriculture is an and part of the narrative. I love hearing about the partnerships here. We when we were on the government side it was so hard to figure out the partnership, so it is inspiring to see the level already happening. But i do think that the most important thing is understanding what it means to be accountable. We think of partnership is the day that we are on the stage but its really the work being done behind the scenes and then being accountable when they show up. The accountability starts with the United States government as well. We are important partners who have to deliver on our promises and commitments in a timely way. Its on the leadership of the people in kenya to speak to their partnership and needs on what works and what matters for them. When the private sector can be a thoughtful deliberate partner on delivering what they thought of as accessible in a meaningful way, the transformation happens this is what transformation looks like. Kendra i want to stick with you to help us go through closing thoughts and working our way down to brad. We have been talking a lot about that, enabling access for Digital Technology platforms that are critical for Sailing Technology in the Innovation Ecosystem that these leaders are at the heart of. We talked about government involvement and business involvement, but we havent talked about retail institutions and stakeholders. Perhaps some closing thoughts for each of you to share . How can the u. S. Government and the private sector in collaboration with regional institutions along with stakeholders strengthen the capacity of authorities to drive innovation across the ecosystem in kenya and the continent . Cheryl thank you for that. From my observations regional institutions are close to the ground in a different way and we are able to lean into their expertise and leadership to be able to see the kind of transformation that we seek. I have the benefit of having the United States government invest in usaid with us. Weve got skilling and other things important for farmers but the truth of the matter is that we have been looking at the other banks who are there that are right on the ground and can make a difference. From my perspective the opportunity is in recognizing each individual role, each institutions role and how to be excellent. When we do that well, the partnership is like an orchestra , everyone is playing their part and i hope we will see more of that. Thank you for letting me be here today. Nice to be here with everyone. Kendra thank you. Michael . Michael its a huge undertaking, opening up the Digital Economy for africa. It will require new thinking, entirely different business cases that are risky. These are longstanding business cases, 10 years for payback and so forth. You need regional institutions to come in and d risks some of that. You need government to work on private sector to try out new things, government coming to the table and being flexible in involving regulation for conversely sustainable Business Models and opening up the Digital Economy, it cannot be a philanthropic exercise. Publicprivate partnership is essential and we have the right partners on the table. Dr. Mwangi three things. The first one is all of us coming together to make it affordable to the micro Small Enterprises and individuals. Breadth of finance, bringing philanthropies, that can make that happen. The second one is government initiative. Particularly to digitize. If we do not digitize government the government in africa is huge. What they do from g to c, they could provide leadership. And the last one is to make sure that no one is left behind. We must ensure digitization brings inclusion for equal opportunities. Brad i would underscore two things. Government leadership is indispensable for creating the sustainable, stable rulebased framework to open up a larger market that brings together the entire east africa community. It is a part of what we are working on in terms of data hubs, data and Privacy Security laws that are needed. That will open up more opportunities for growth. In the world today it is not just countries of 50 million competing with others of 50 million, its often on to the regional collections like you see in europe. But something that it is so important to leave here with look at where we are, the American Chamber of commerce. This is about business. I think it is a good time for everybody to recognize that in part because of the great leadership of people like president ruto, the United States government, this is about longterm investment, in part, as michael mentions, but this is the right time for American Business to invest in kenya. It is the next best business opportunity. When you look around the world at markets that are reaching that point where you can see them really start to accelerate, i hope that the whole of the American Business community will look at that today and this week. Its Smart Business as well as smart Foreign Relations for the United States. [applause] kendra there couldnt be a better way to wrap this conversation. I might interpolate that, as i may if i may, as we close. President ruto is fond of letting us know that kenya means business and is open for business and you have added another layer by saying that this is about as this and this is our opportunity to work in tandem and promote the problem Publicprivate Partnerships that have been called out, like the one from the Vice President in the digital space, expanding the connectivity within the ecosystem so that we can attend to filling in those gaps. I thank you all for giving us food for thought today and for the opportunity to learn from you and learn more about the partnerships and great things you are doing in your respective sectors to make sure that we are scaling opportunities to promote Digital Inclusion. Please join me in thanking these tremendous panelists. [applause] please welcome the honorable gina raimondo, u. S. Secretary of commerce. Hello, hello, good morning. How is everyone . I am fired up. We are having a fantastic week with the kenyans. We have put a lot of effort into it and it has been a tremendous few days. It has been such an honor to welcome president ruto for this historic visit. I had the pleasure and honor to join him for a number of events. President ruto, president biden, ambassador whitman doing an unbelievable job. Everybody give the ambassador a hand. [applause] sec. Raimondo we were together in kenya month ago and im in all of your determination, commitment, expertise, its making a huge difference. In any event, ruto, biden, the ambassador, we were together on wednesday with a group of kenyan and u. S. Business leaders talking about what more we can do together. Of course, last night we had a beautiful state dinner and you could feel it in the room, sense the excitement in the room about what we had done, the momentum that we have, and where we will go from here. The buzz this week at all of the meetings and at the dinner last night was how do we seize the momentum of this historic visit to do what is next . We cannot go home in my case across the street, in your case back to kenya wherever we go to, we cant just go home, feel excited for the weekend and move on. We cant do it. President ruto said that in the u. S. Kenyan economic relationship, we have to go from ideas to action and opportunities to investment. That is what everyone of us has to think. Thinking what can i do to take the excitement, the buzz, the momentum, the ideas, put it into action that will lead to opportunity and investment . By the way, thats exactly whats happening this week. Incredible announcements from google, huge announcements in infrastructure with digital upscaling of millions of kenyans. Same thing with microsoft, a new data center. Upscaling, mastercard, the ceo was just up here. Cocacola, one hundred 75 million investment. Fantastic. Now, more. Right . How do we do even more than that . Under president rutos leadership, your leadership, whats happening in kenya, the entrepreneurial leadership, kenya is leading the way in changing the narrative in africa. The whole continent. Kenya is a scene of optimism, democracy, rule of law, entrepreneurial young population. A culture that encourages risktaking. Thats a very big deal. Not true everywhere. Increasingly, a desire on the behalf of the u. S. Investors, entrepreneurs, and Tech Companies to invest. So i was there a month ago and i felt it, i saw it firsthand. I took with me the president ial Advisory Council on doing business in africa. I met with Women Leaders in technology, i met with entrepreneurs. I met with large u. S. Multinationals. I met with Venture Capitalists. The fact is that when i was reading my book, preparing for the visit, i was told that kenya attracts four times as much Venture Capital per capita and in absolute terms than any other country in africa. After being there and experiencing it, i see why. I see why. The truth is, the policies that president rutos administration is pursuing, his deep and abiding commitment to democracy, transparency, and the rule of law, with the entrepreneurialism of the kenyan people, its unlocking new opportunities, changing the narrative in kenya and on the whole continent. The thing i have heard over and over again throughout the week and when i came back from kenya. From the Business Leaders that i took to kenya, it was that i didnt realize how much opportunity there was. So, thats the opening we have to walk through. The door is open and we have to walk through. The work that you are doing here today will help us to chart a future of shared prosperity. Not aid, though we do need aid, but more investment, on trick opportunity, entrepreneurship, and trade for Sustainable Development on the continent. So, i feel we have done so much, but honestly we are just at the beginning. Just at the beginning. Im thrilled to be here. Committed. Skilling miebach president ruto says to me you are a friend of kenya and its true, but more than that i am committed to doing the work that you all are working on every single day. Thank you, thank you to president ruto and his administration. Thank you to rebecca, my incredible counterpart who has so much energy for this work. Senator coons, who i have just seen, who has been committed to kenya and the continent for decades. We are all in. Yet. If senator coons were up here, he would be speaking to you in swahili, but i cant do that. I cant keep up with him on a number of fronts. We are all in, thank you. [applause] this event really changes the game and the relationship between kenya and the u. S. Not only here, but in the region. Your presence here is affirmation of the momentum we have here in kenya and broadly globally. There is a local approach. We remain optimistic and fully committed to the future of africa. Investing in africa is not impossible. Nothing is impossible. It means business. We can go forward with a clear recognition to build a stronger africa, and by doing so we enable africa to help support a better world. It is time to tip the balance and allow the current to finally flow. If done correctly, responsibly, fairly, it brings a future. The future that needs to be sustainable, meaning developing Climate Smart infrastructure that is accessible to all. Every Business Needs to be able to diversify the supply chain without relying on a single country. In kenya, africans are shaping the global economy. Now it is a continent of opportunity and solutions. Our challenges, our ambitions, our futures are linked between the United States and kenya. It is a market of 300 million , 1. 4 billion people in the whole of africa. Its the last frontier, really. Quote i really enjoyed this event. I have been to a number of summits. I have to say thats the way they process, this has been the best one and they are only going to get better from here. It has been transformative. Kenya is open for business. East africa is ready for trade and investment. Africa is ready for transformation. Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. I appreciate all of you. In our world these days, drink water and mind your own business. But we want to make your business our business, providing payment solutions. Be the ones who walk right into the store. Go ahead, get started with the solution that helps your business fly. Kendra good morning again, everyone. We are about to begin a deal signing ceremony at the chamber of commerce. This forum was conceived to have three really but really robust components. One, to give the president the opportunity to share his great vision with the American Business community for what is possible in the u. S. Kenya relationship. We will get a chance to hear that momentarily. The second was for the American Business community to give a rousing welcome and stand up in tandem to showcase the partnership that we also express in this collaboration. The third was to show, ways in which the United States and kenya are working closely together to be able to advance those collaborations. Today im pleased that we are going to feature a series of signing ceremonies that will take place on this stage momentarily. We will have six different signings taking place. As you may be aware, we have been simultaneously running a deal that has continued to further advance and accelerate what the concrete partnerships can contribute. In this regard, these relationships are cementing government to government partnerships to advance commercial investment ties. They are government to business. They are also businesstobusiness. So, in every sphere there is acceleration and expansion of what we can together to make sure the u. S. Kenya relation ship continues to be vibrant. You just heard from the secretary of commerce, with whom we were grateful to be able to join in nairobi a few weeks ago during the American Chamber of Commerce Business summer summit. Again, as a part of the strategic cadence of elevating the partnership we were able to demonstrate that partnership and the deals announced there. We are pleased to continue that and here today to feature six different signings that will take place. As soon as we have the president stand in place, we will begin that process. To give you a preview of what is coming, we will first have a signing taking place between the government of the United States and the government of the republic of kenya to cement a partnership to be able to expand collaboration, as i noted, in the business to Business Space to make opportunities available for american and Kenyan Companies to work closely and reducing the barriers that prevent closeness. We will be looking forward to, beyond that, celebrating deals taking place across sectors. Notably you have heard quite a bit. In part its about zeroing in on the economy and Digital Inclusion and we will have a number of exciting partnerships that you will see here with us that showcase the ways the Publicprivate Partnership continues to expand and grow. Additionally, you will hear from leaders working closely together , cementing what it is i can happen when we put our minds to elevating a partnership. That is at the heart of what we do here at the u. S. Chamber of commerce, we not only create the enabling environment for conversations facilitating deals, but it is our pleasure as well to bring those forward. At this time, i am going to go ahead and begin our ceremony. We were anticipating the First Signing to take place, it is a memorandum of understanding to establish the u. S. Kenya commercial investment partnership. It is my honor to be able to welcome to the stage our first group of signers. We will be joined by the United States department of commerce secretary, gina raimondo. We will also be joined by the cabinet secretary for the ministry of trade, investment, ministry of investment, trade, and industry of the republic of kenya, her excellency Becca Rebecca miano. We are happy to have on stage those upcoming who include her excellency, ambassador meg whitman, the United States ambassador to kenya, for whom we all feel a special debt of gratitude for her collaboration in todays proceedings and convenings, having been an effective leader in business and continuing to champion business in her current role as u. S. Ambassador, facilitating those collaborations. Then we will be joined on stage by our most esteemed honorable witness, his excellency dr. William s ruto, president of the republic of kenya. In terms of the run of show for the ceremony, following the First Signing, we will convene five others. Following this, we will have a chance to her directly from the president , as he is welcomed into the room by a closing keynote from the honorable United States senator from delaware, chris coons. And a participant in the deal signings to come will give her perception when she introduces the president and we will have the opportunity to hear directly from him. While the president will be participating on stage in this moment in a ceremonial fashion, i want you all to take note that he will most certainly be sharing his vision with all of you today, and we are very honored to be able to do that on the occasion of this state visit , a very successful demonstration of the 60 years the United States and kenya have been in partnership in recognition of their bilateral relationship and that which can be ushered in as a result of todays celebration. So, with that, let me turn to my producing partners and see if we are ready to bring our first signer onto the stage so that we may begin the signing ceremony. Ladies and gentlemen, it is my honor to welcome to the stage for our First Signing the secretary of the department of commerce, the honorable gina raimondo. Cabinet secretary of the Kenyan Ministry of trade, industry, and investments, her and excellency rebecca miano. They will sign a memorandum of understanding. [applause] mr. President , welcome. The honorable secretary will now sign a memorandum of understanding to establish the u. S. Kenya commercial investment partnership. [applause] [cheering] the u. S. Kenya commercial partnership is built on a history of robust bilateral operation between the countries and is intended to institutionalize engagement that seeks to remove constraints to investment and identify and facilitate commercial opportunities to advance shared economic priorities in key sectors. A critical feature is the enhanced role for private sector stakeholders on both sides of the atlantic to collaborate among themselves and with the government on the process of developing priorities and projects for collaboration. Congratulations to both governments for taking this meaningful step forward. [applause] indeed. Congratulations on taking this meaningful step forward. We will capture the moment here for posterity. [applause] you dont need the pen . [laughter] we thank you, honorable secretaries. We thank you, your excellencies, for being our honorable witnesses as we now introduce our next signing. I am pleased to welcome to the stage the government of the republic of kenya, as well as google, who will be tubing on to the mou joint statement between google and the ministry of education in the Digital Economy on accelerating Digital Transformation in kenya. I invite charles, the regional director here in africa, engineer john annuity, secretary for the state department and icp of kenya, to the signing table, with your respective witnesses. This joint statement of collaboration will lead to enhancing digital infrastructure, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, facilitating datadriven innovation, empowering digital upscaling for the people of kenya. [applause] congratulations. Your collaboration is a testament to the shared visions of our nations and we commend this signing. The third mou will be signed between Acorn Holdings limited and the United States International Development finance corporation. At this time lets welcome the ceo of Acorn Holdings, edward, and scott, ceo of the u. S. International Development Finance corporation, with their respective witnesses. Welcome, gentlemen. We are pleased to be joined at this time by our colleagues at marathon digital, who will be participating in a signing ceremony that reflects their Mou Partnership between marathon digital and the ministry of energy and petroleum of the republic of kenya. I believe that at this time we are being joined by the honorable prime cabinet secretary as a signatory. Welcome. [inaudible] we are pleased to be joined by mr. Fred fuel, chairman and ceo of Marathon Digital Holdings, and the honorable dr. Cabinet secretary for foreign and Diaspora Affairs of kenya. They will be signing the partnership on behalf of the ministry of energy and petroleum of the republic of kenya and Marathon Digital Holdings. This agreement, you may begin signing, this agreement will be deliver over 80 million in investment in establishing Green Data Centers to boost Energy Utilization and optimization in kenya. [applause] congratulations. We will have you stand for a ceremonial photo, if you would, excellencies. Thank you. Congratulations to Marathon Digital Holdings and the republic of kenya on this deal to boost optimization and energy in kenya and we look forward to the fruitful outcomes of your collaboration. Thank you so much. Our next signing ceremony, i believe, will involve the honorable prime cabinet secretary. We are pleased to begin the process of our next signing ceremony. This partnership is a partnership between siemens and rbl health care of kenya. Please welcome, seated at the table, the managing director for the middle east and africa for siemens, and mr. Mukala, founder and ceo of the red hill cancer centers, joined today by honorable witnesses as they cement an agreement that will help establish a center of excellence for cancer care in kenya, intending to open in 2025 and serve patients in kenya and across east africa. [applause] were going to leave this briefly to fulfill our more than 45 year commitment to live coverage of congress. The house in session