It is time to promote country and region

Equity CEO James Mwangi (centre), Group Chief Operating Officer Julius Kipng’etich and Equity Foundation Managing Director Hellen Gichohi during the announcement of the lender’s third-quarter results in Nairobi on October 30, 2014. PHOTO | DIANA NGILA |  NATION MEDIA GROUP

 

In Summary

• The presence of world economic and diplomatic leaders is the latest signal of improving relations between Nairobi and the wider community of nations.
• It is to be hoped that Kenya’s leaders have used this chance well.

By EDITORIAL
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The presence of world economic and diplomatic leaders, among them UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, in Kenya this week is the latest signal of improving relations between Nairobi and the wider community of nations.

This is important, not just for the country’s diplomatic influence, but also because there is important business which can only be tackled with the help of, and in the context of, world powers and important multi-lateral actors.

What affects any of the countries in the region also affects Kenya and nations further afield.

For example, the economy, and particularly tourism, is battered by terrorism, a transnational problem whose solution can only be found by the international community acting in concert.

Kenya, along with other African countries, are at war in Somalia, confronting Al-Shabaab under the banner of the African Union and the mandate of the United Nations.

On Thursday, the World Bank announced that it was making available an additional $100 million to get foreign medical workers to the three countries in West Africa battered by Ebola.

Traditional lending institutions are venturing into new ways of partnering with African countries to tackle emerging challenges.

To the government, civil society, and the public sector, this is an important opportunity to present African perspectives on the region’s issues and to form new partnerships to confront them.

If Africa wants to be taken seriously, its leaders must aspire to be respectable.

They must treat their people well and they must allocate public resources efficiently.

They must also obey the law and be informed and passionate about solving the continent’s many problems.

It is to be hoped that Kenya’s leaders have used this chance well.