REMARKS OF H.E RAILA ODINGA; EGH, HIGH REPRESENTATIVE FOR INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT; NAIROBI; 16TH APRIL 2019:

Let me begin by extending a very warm welcome to all our guests.
Thank you for finding time for this important meeting.
We gather at a time of a renewed realization by Africa that we have to take charge of our destiny as a Continent. That, after all, is what other continents are doing.
Now, more than ever, there is a strong realisation that the fortunes of this Continent do not lie with sympathy and help from abroad, important as those are.

I want to thank the political leadership that is spearheading this push to have Africa look more into what it can do better for itself before turning abroad for help.
Distinguished guests;
We are here to discuss a solemn subject; infrastructure financing.
In the journey of a country’s or a continent’s progress towards prosperity, infrastructure plays a decisive role.
When the US unveiled the Inter-State Highways at the end of the First World War, navigation of the vast continent became easier.
The once daunting rugged terrain got ironed out, cities emerged, shopping malls spouted, restaurants evolved to serve a continent of drivers. Tourism thrived, with chain hotels popping up along interstates and to serve an influx of travellers. The highways turbo charged the economy.
Before the Interstate Highways, the western world had invested heavily in railways.
The US built the first Trans-continental railway across North America in the 1860s; linking the eastern part of the country to the Pacific Coast.
By 1850, western nations had 40,000 kilometres of railways while Africa, Asia and Latin America combined had only 4000 kilometres. One could say that investment in infrastructure is where regions and continents parted ways with regard to development.
This is where we in Africa began to fall behind while others surged ahead.
Distinguished guests,
It is Africa’s turn to take up infrastructure challenge.
We must address it with the fierce agency of now.
We know the challenge. We know what it will take to address the challenge. The infrastructure programme that will turn around the Continent’s fortunes by addressing road, rail, airways, waterways, high-speed broadband connectivity and energy needs are well mapped out.
In fact some, like the Great North Road, and hydropower potential in the DRC, were marked long before the continent became free from colonialism.
But they are yet to be realised.

I wish to congratulate the African Union Commission and NEPAD for the meticulous work in recent years that has seen the Continent map out the Trans Africa highways, the missing links, the high speed rail and the air transport and energy needs and their implementation status.
From that work, we know what we need.
We need a “new frontier” transcontinental corridor – connecting the eastern and western-central Africa and deep-sea ports of Lamu and Douala in Cameroon.

We need a Continental High Speed Freight Railway. This is another important “change-agent” that will have tremendous impact for the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

We need to complete the Trans-Sahara Highway, the Dakar- Ndjamena-Djibouti road and rail, the Kinshasha-Brazaville Bridge, the North-South corridor involving South Africa, Zimbabwe, DRC, Namibia, Botswana, Angola and Lesotho.
We need to complete the International Logistics Infrastructure Hub involving Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, DRC and Botswana and we need to complete the Lagos-Abidjan-Dakar highway, to mention but a few.
We have to introduce robust maritime services linking eastern Africa to the North via Lake Victoria through River Nile to the Mediterranean Sea.
Distinguished guests,
We need money and political will.
We need to devise effective and efficient plans to mobilize the requisite resources to fund the identified projects; otherwise the projects will remain mere wish lists.
And that is the reason we are here; to think deeply and creatively about fundraising and project implementation.
We want to act, not as individual nations but as Africa.
As we have seen, there is something for everyone in the continental infrastructure agenda. Lack of viable infrastructure has been one of the key barriers to the long-term development of our economies; making it impossible for Africa’s wealth of natural resources to translate into wealth for our citizens. A strong African infrastructure development agenda will boost member states’ productivity and economic competitiveness.

It will create jobs for millions of youths across Africa and it will ensure business thrives. It did for Europe, North America and Asia. It can’t fail Africa.
We simply can’t compete and thrive in the 21st century with 19th century infrastructure.
It is estimated that our annual infrastructure gap – that is the difference between what we have and what we need – stands at around $170 billion.
Very few African governments have sufficient finances to fund infrastructure investment themselves.
Majority of our nations are forced to rely on either loans from wealthy countries or on private companies willing to take the risk.
There are real concerns over whether African countries can repay the loans they are taking.
We are gathered here to figure out not just how to raise money but also how to ensure the monies come on friendly terms and the infrastructure we get are in line with local needs.

We appreciate the efforts by various global players to help address Africa’s infrastructure challenge. We take note that the G-8 Summit established the Infrastructure Consortium for Africa (ICA) to promote public and private investment in infrastructure.
We equally recognise the AfDB’s Africa50 Infrastructure Fund launched in 2013 to mobilize resources and support the development of key projects.

The Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG) was started in 2002 to develop commercially viable projects and provide long-term finance to private sector infrastructure projects is equally a commendable effort as is the Power Africa initiative by the US to mobilize investment and reform and enhance access to electricity.

Equally important is the World Bank’s Global Infrastructure Fund (GIF), which was created as a platform for identifying, preparing, and financing large complex infrastructure projects.
All these programs highlight the shared concern for the infrastructure deficit in Africa and we appreciate them and we will continue working with these programmes.
But we need to do two things.
One, we need to identify more local sources for infrastructure financing.

Two, we need to get together as a Continent and approach all these global financing institutions and lending nations as a Continent and not as individual countries. That, in my view, will give us better bargaining power, better value for money and better ability to repay.
There is growing consensus that by thinking creatively and differently, we can tap into a number of local finances that are currently largely idle; to finance our infrastructure needs on more friendly terms.

Before we look abroad, we need to look at our Central Banks, African Pension Funds, Insurance companies and local Sovereign Funds.

We believe that countries like Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Kenya, Angola, Morocco, Egypt and Nigeria have pension funds that can be tapped into to fund infrastructure.
We need to address the governance and regulatory obstacles that limit the allocation of these funds for infrastructure development. We also need to explore ways to partner with our commercial banks so that we can tap into their reserves to finance infrastructure.
All these could come under an Africa Continental Infrastructure Fund under the auspices of AU to pool financial resources. I believe the creation of such a fund would be strategically and symbolically valuable.
I want to believe that we all agree that there is reason for us to get down to work, that some of the people to do this work are in this room and that we are all willing to apply our minds and resources and roll up our sleeves for Africa.
I wish you fruitful deliberations.

REMARKS OF H.E RAILA ODINGA, EGH, AT THE MULTI-SECTORAL NATIONAL ANTI-CORRUPTION CONFERENCE; BOMAS OF KENYA; JANUARY 25, 2019:
I am honoured to join fellow citizens at this great conference. It is my hope that when the history of our war on corruption is written, this gathering will feature prominently as the point from which we turned tables on the crime.
I am not here to prescribe what should be done. I am here to share my thoughts and experiences.
My thoughts are not in any way superior to the others that have but shared here.
I wasn’t here yesterday, and others may have said some of what I will say here but that should be an indication of the universality of our experiences.
Over the years, one thing that has intrigued me is our attitude as citizens towards this whole issue of corruption.
I am talking about the sympathetic and apologetic attitude we have developed for corruption and its architects and how we go out of our way to give the corrupt and their activities good sounding names by refusing to call them by their real names.
Most African societies have no word for corruption. In our mother tongues, people who take what is not theirs are called thieves. Occasionally we refer to such people as “wakora”, crooks, conmen but they are generally and simply understood to be thieves and called as such.
That is what we call a person who tricks you of your land, who takes your cow, uses flowery language to get money from you, who charges more than the real cost or who hides part of the proceeds for personal gain. No matter which Kenyan society you ask, such a person is called a thief. And people are warned against such characters.
As children, our parents warned us against being seen with so and so, against marrying in such a family because they are thieves. They are bad people. They were rejects in society.
Over time, there has been a systematic laundering of this crime, its perpetrators and its proceeds.
We launder them in church, at social events like weddings, at harambees and during times of tragedies sometimes caused by the crimes of the very same people.
We view those who steal from us as achievers and as real men and women struggling with life.
Those who steal from us and who then give back partly out of guilt and partly to buy our admiration and silence are seen to be generous or development conscious even when we know they are not.
We welcome them to social and religious events with open arms and cheers and roll out the red carpet for them but frown at the chicken thief and look for tyres to lynch them.
Why have we changed and made stealing something whose nature and dimensions are difficult to understand and whose real name we refuse to pronounce? How has this impacted our war on this crime?

Still on the issue of attitude, there is some sympathy and reverence we have developed for corrupt people; the thieves. We kind of feel sorry for the big shot who has been taken to court for stealing billions using the pen or through electronic bank transfers while we feel nothing for the ragged man accused of stealing a cow or a chicken.
The ordinary citizen looks sorry, the police officer looks sorry and even the judges look sorry. We have contributed to this problem as a society. We need to end it as a society before we even before we bring in the government.
And the issue of attitude features strongly on our idea about the government. We seem to believe that the government is some alien being or institution that grows money on trees and that whoever steals government money has not stolen from us because government money is nobody’s money.
In fact, such a person is seen as a hero who has conquered some enemy. Yet the truth is that the government has no money of its own. It only has our taxes.
For every money stolen from the government, the government will most likely raise more taxes or cut down on services it provides to us.
Then there are our institutions, the courts of law, the anti-corruption agencies, the police, etc. There is every indication that the thieves do not sleep as they look for ways to steal.
They use the stolen money to hire the most crooked lawyers or buy judges and other officers in the chain. We are witnessing very clear cases of collusion in our courts, with investigators and prosecutors.
Consequently, we are witnessing a trend where suspects rush to court to stop DCI and DPP from arresting and charging them with corruption. And the courts are granting such suspects their wishes.
This is curious and disturbing. Am not sure whether a chicken thief out there can go to court and get such a favourable ruling.
If suspects feel that they should not be arrested and be taken to court and the judges agree with them, what are we supposed to do with those suspects?
When a man who has stolen money mean for drugs in a local hospital asks judges to stop his arrest and the judges agree with him, what are the mothers whose children died for lack of drugs supposed to do?
I am equally not sure we can tame graft when we allow those charged with it to be out on bail and return to their work stations, cleanse or interfere with records then return to court a year later. What kind of thief with his or her senses intact would return to office and safely guard documents and contacts they know will be used against them?
I am not sure that we are keen to get to the bottom of the problem or we are just going through motions.
How about the issue of innocence and guilt? Who is on trial in our courts or rather who should be on trial? Is it the prosecutor or the suspect? The trend here is that it is the DPP and his team that are on trial.

OFFICIAL SPEECH BY THE RT. HON RAILA AMOLO ODINGA, EGH, MP, MSc. Hon LLD ON THE OCCASION OF THE CONFERMENT OF HONORARY DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF SCIENCES (HONORIS CAUSA) BY JARAMOGI OGINGA ODINGA UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY DURING THE 6th GRADUATION CEREMONY HELD ON FRIDAY, 14th DECEMBER 2018 AT THE UNIVERSITY GRADUATION SQUARE.
H.E Hon Uhuru Kenyatta, President of the Republic of Kenya.
The Chancellor, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology, Dr. Vimal Shah
The Cabinet Secretary Ministry of Education, Amb. (Dr.) Amina Mohamed;
The Vice Chancellor Prof. Stephen Agong’
Graduands
Distinguished Guests

Mr. President, let me take this opportunity to most sincerely thank you for honoring the university’s request to be part of this great celebration today.
I want to congratulate the graduands who through dedication and hard work have made this day a great success. I thank and commend the parents and guardians who have come to witness this day for their sacrifices, support and prayers for the graduands. I also commend the University Administration for the hard work and sacrifice to realize today’s achievement. Again, congratulations to all the graduands and may you apply the knowledge that you have acquired for the good of our great country.
I would also like to appreciate all friends and development partners who have come to celebrate with us today. In particular, I recognize the H.E. Behgjet Isa Pacoli, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Kosovo. I would also in a special way appreciate our Chinese friends led by Prof. Wang Rufa who have travelled long distance to be with us in this graduation ceremony.
This University is strategically located at the serene beaches of Lake Victoria. I applaud its focus on the development of Kenya’s cultural heritage.
The location of the University is not only friendly for pursuit of academic excellence and scholarship but also suitable for the high profile research as well as community outreach. It should excel in these.
I want to encourage the University to work closely with the neighboring by counties in establishing an enabling research and outreach agenda that will boost the socio-economic profile of the region. It is my advice that the knowledge being generated in the University should be used to support and train farmers, fishermen and other artisans on the relevant skills that can stimulate growth and development.
This institution was not an isolated initiative throughout the modern history of this country; families and communities have invested heavily in education. They view university education as the means to escape poverty, to obtain gainful employment, to create wealth and to raise the standards of living; and to empower the next generation to lead a better life than themselves. And it is rightly so. The surest way to empower an individual is to give him or her education. Education enables people to take care of themselves and to understand the society in a broader way. Thus, education and by extension knowledge are fundamental and foundational in the realization of sustainable development.
We realize now more than ever that the World is evolving rapidly, technology is changing and human beings are investing in new technological advances as a ways of life. We must therefore not lose focus of innovations and research that is geared towards making education globally competitive.
Ladies and Gentlemen, today marks a special turn of event in the actualization of the “Handshake” that changed the direction and mood of our nation in March this year.
The Handshake and the support for it that followed, was a demonstration of our determination as a nation to learn from past mistakes and missteps and prepare to be great.
It indicated our determination as a country to figure out what has worked and what has not worked in the past and perfect them.
I am glad that our academic institutions recognised it and this university has moved fast to honour it. When we look into our past, we will notice that what have worked for us are unity, focus and determination.
When we wanted independence from colonialists, we united and focused on it. And we won.
When we wanted a new Constitution, we united and focused singularly on it. We applied faith and fortitude towards this goal and, again, we won.
With unity and determination, we can never fail.
Today, we are within reach of a new era of prosperity and greatness as a nation. We only need to rediscover the determination and unity of the past and then seek the support of our friends to realize our goals and get to the Promised Land that we set out for. We are glad that this university recognizes that reality and that is why it has hosted us here today.
As a country we must never again agree to be divided by politics and tribe.
With my brother President Uhuru Kenyatta, we have agreed that we must do whatever it takes to help Kenya move forward by addressing the issues that we believe have been holding us back.
We are agreed that nations are judged by how they navigate turbulent and challenging times like the ones we have gone through in recent years and particularly at election time.
We have agreed to focus on building resilient institutions, resilient democracy and a resilient economy that works for everyone.
Resilient democracy will ensure that we can compete for power openly and even disagree strongly, but we don’t lose sight of our goals as a nation.
We have agreed that politics, party, tribe, race, religion, region, should never prevent us from seeing the common purpose that informed our struggle for independence.
We are agreed that building a nation requires that we mingle our different faiths, tribes, beliefs and desires in a way that promotes the wellbeing and survival of the nation.
We came together because we realized that that this grand social contract on nationhood and statecraft has been fading and must be rediscovered.
We need your support, fellow Kenyans. Let us not oppose each other and turn against neighbours because of party, tribe, religion or mother tongue. Let’s oppose or support depending on what is good for our country.
And we are agreed that fighting corruption, tribalism, impunity, ending divisive elections and ensuring shared prosperity is good for our nation. Let us support these.
Kenya was and continues to be looked upon as a possible source of inspiration for Africa and other Third World countries. Our success or failure is not ours alone. Let us always have this in mind and do all in our power to make this country an inspiration to our people and our continent again.

Thank you and may God bless you!
It is now my pleasure to invite H.E. the president to address the congregation

This afternoon, H.E Raila Odinga had the opportunity to meet with the members of the Kenya Women Parliamentarians Association (KEWOPA) Executive to discuss the Two Thirds Gender Bill.
The delegation was led by Public Service, Youth and Gender Affairs Cabinet Secretary Prof. Margaret Kobia. The Women Leaders sought the support the ministry in preparation for debate on the Two-Thirds Gender Bill. The Bill is set to be tabled for the second time by the National Assembly on Tuesday, 20th November 2018.
The women leaders expressed concern that the Punguza Mizigo campaign being led by a section of politicians targeted women seats.
Hon Odinga pledged unequivocal support for the Bill and appealed to all members of the National Assembly to back their female counterparts.
He congratulated the women leaders for finding a formula to fill the gap and asked them to unite behind the proposals as they lobby their male counterparts.
He further expressed concern that Kenya is falling behind other countries like Rwanda, Ethiopia and Mali on gender equity and the country needs to stand with its women.
“The Gender Rule was a casualty of the tampering with the Bomas Draft that took place first in Kilifi then in Naivasha, but we have another chance to get it right. You can take my support as given,” Mr. Odinga said.

In recent couple of days, the Government of Kenya has mounted a commendable crackdown on corruption and the culture of impunity on which it rides.
This crackdown and the support by the public were unthinkable at the start of this year with Kenya torn down the middle by ethnic politics, elections and impunity until the MoU in the Building Bridges to a New Kenyan Nation happened with a very clear agenda on how to address our ages old problems.
Thanks to the bipartisan support, public lands whose recovery started then stalled under the NARC regime in 2003, has kicked off, with the grabbers denied the ethnic and political party sanctuaries they usually hide in. The political atmosphere has enabled us to look at our problems minus the usual ethnic lenses. Attempts by suspects to appeal to their ethnic bases have therefore generated near zero support.
As the crackdown continues, as it must, we need to see similar energy and speed directed at recovery of assets that were acquired from the proceeds of corruption and impunity.
It is fair to expect that the business premises that were set up on public land generated some private gain for the illegitimate owners in the same way stolen public funds generated income in the form of bank interests and property for the suspects. The Asset Recovery Agency must move with speed and ensure that the suspects, both those out on bail and the ones facing arrest, do not hide their ill-gotten wealth or access and use them to undermine justice and frustrate the war on corruption and impunity.
Kenyans need these monies seized and returned to the public to finance the many gaps being experienced in the development plans, including repayment of the ever-rising foreign debts. Partly because of wanton theft of public funds including those from donors, taxes are going up on virtually everything. Ordinary Kenyans must not continue to bear this burden while the corrupt keep their loot.
Asset recovery must be seen and felt in our anticorruption crusade. Depriving corrupt actors of these ill-gotten wealth and returning them to the public will support development and economic growth. It will restore confidence in the current crackdown. Corruption must be made a painful crime.
The Asset Recovery Agency must move out of boardrooms and be seen to be acting publicly in unison with the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations.
It is equally important in the process of asset recovery to work together with the Kenyan public. Many people in this country want to contribute to this war and are looking for a way in which they can assist the anti-corruption agencies to remove this scourge from our society. It is the people who know better who is living beyond their means. The public is the best source of information. The Asset Recovery Agency needs to urgently set up a platform through which the public can share this information with the government.
All branches of the government; the Legislature, Judiciary and Executive must pull in the same direction if the corruption networks are to be overcome. The public currently feels cheated by Parliament, which has become the weakest link in this war, with reports of money changing hands for adoption or rejection of reports. This is a major shame to the nation and deserves urgent and thorough investigation by multi-agency team from the EACC, DPP and DCI.
In the March 9 MoU, we agreed to fight corruption from a wide and common front by strongly supporting whistleblowing from all Kenyans. The MoU mandates the public to report corruption whenever they witness it. Kenyans must take up this role and also pressure their elected representatives to fight corruption or resign.
This is also the time for our international partners, who have long lamented about the culture of corruption and impunity in Kenya, to play ball, open up their institutions and help trace Kenya’s assets and monies hidden in their countries.
About three months ago, the DPP appealed for the collaboration of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) in the fight against corruption. We are anxiously waiting for that support, preferably in more practical ways than routine capacity building and training. Already, Switzerland has promised to probe their banks and trace Kenya’s assets and fund hidden there. All our other partners should do the same.
END.
AUGUST 12, 2018