Music Copyright Society of Kenya CEO Ezekiel Mutua has poured praises on US Ambassador to Kenya Meg Whitman terming her Kenya’s best brand ambassador abroad.
Meg, real name Margaret Cushing Whitman, has been US Ambassador to Kenya since 2022 and her action-oriented approach to executing her diplomatic roles appears to have fascinated Mutua.
“Since I arrived in Kenya, my team and I have been laser-focused on strengthening the US-Kenya trade and investment relationship in coordination with the Kenyan government,” Meg said on June 28, 2023, in her message to Americans in which she wooed US investors to troop to Kenya.
In Mutua’s opinion, “Meg is the reason Kenya is shining abroad. She is our best brand Ambassador,” he said on X.
“I see her as Kenya's Ambassador to America and the most patriotic envoy we have had, a true friend to Kenya. This one should be given a Kenyan name and permanent residence,” Mutua added.
Before being handed the envoy role by Joe Biden, Meg was plying her trade as a career chief executive officer and was president and CEO of eBay from 1998 to 2008.
In her message to Americans on June 28, 2023, titled ‘Why Africa, Why Kenya?’, Meg said she probably thought of Africa about 1 per cent of the time when working as CEO.
“Many of the businesses I managed were heavily invested elsewhere. But if I were back in the boardroom today, Africa would be on my radar for two simple reasons: supply chain diversification and net-zero emissions,” she said.
Meg said what the war in Ukraine and the COVID-19 pandemic did to spur supply chain diversification is what climate change has done for energy use.
As such, the ambassador said businesses are pushing for net-zero emissions to meet their climate change mitigation goals and Kenya is leading the pack in green energy use making her most suitable destination for investors.
“Kenya currently generates 93 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources and this percentage is only going up with increased investments in solar, geothermal, and wind,” she said.
“If you invest in Kenya, you will have access to ubiquitous green energy and you will be well on your way to meeting your company’s Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions goals,” the Ambassador said.
In her quest to sell Kenya to her countrymen as the best investment destination, Meg said she had had a conversation with a CEO of a major consumer tech company and his words were enough to convince those that were yet to book their trip to Kenya to set up businesses to do exactly that.
“He said, ‘supply chain diversification is now an essential element of our business and so is the need to be totally green. In that sense Kenya seems to offer us a one-two punch to success’”.
Meg went on and outlined nine other reasons why investors should focus on Kenya.
- Kenya is the most stable democracy in East Africa,
- Kenya is the gateway to the East African market of almost 500 million consumers,
- Kenya is the regional logistics hub,
- Kenya is the leading regional financial hub,
- Kenya, with its Silicon Savannah and super smart engineers, is the region’s ICT hub,
- Kenya is a leading destination for foreign direct investment and venture capital,
- Kenya has a young, educated, entrepreneurial, and English-speaking workforce,
- Kenya generates over 90 per cent of its energy from renewable sources, and,
- Kenya’s largest export market is the United States.
“Let me repeat: Kenya’s largest export market is the United States. And we feel Kenya is ready for export lift-off as it diversifies,” Meg added.