00:00Good morning. And I'm really excited to be here today for this. This is our – let me first start by thanking you, Mr. President, for being with us today and for the minister for being here as well.
00:11Kenya is one of our strongest partners in so many different fields, whether it's the fight that we've fought together against terrorism on the continent.
00:20But beyond that, in our own hemisphere, Kenya has played an extraordinary role, really heroic role, in trying to help stabilize Haiti.
00:31It's a very difficult situation. They've carried a huge burden as a country for the better part of two years now.
00:38And had it not been for their engagement – and I just expressed this to President Eruto – that as bad as Haiti is, it would be indescribable what it would look like today
00:48were it not for the efforts they've made. Our gratitude for the role they've played is extraordinary.
00:54Had it not been for the role they've played, what we are hoping to do next in Haiti would have been impossible,
00:58which is to transition to a gang suppression force. And we know there's a transition period, and we're going to be very involved in being helpful in bridging that.
01:06And we want them – and we hope to encourage them to continue to be engaged moving forward as we move into this new phase of trying to bring stability to Haiti.
01:13But we understand and believe they cannot do it by themselves.
01:16So I wanted to use this as an opportunity to continue to encourage countries in the region and around the world to step up and contribute and be a part of this effort.
01:24We need their money, we need their funds, and we need their personnel as well to make this work.
01:29If we had five or ten countries willing to step forward and do just half of what Kenya has done already, it would be an extraordinary achievement.
01:39And we hope that that will happen. It needs to happen. If we're serious about it, it needs to happen.
01:43And everybody likes to have press conferences and put out statements about how terrible the situation is in Haiti.
01:48It's time to do something about it.
01:50And I particularly point to the countries in our hemisphere, in the Western Hemisphere, in the Caribbean Basin and beyond,
01:55that we need to step up in this hemisphere and do more.
01:58The United States will continue to do its part.
02:00But I just wanted to express again our gratitude.
02:03Today we're here to announce the first signing that we're going to have with the first country in the world on our America First Global Health Strategy.
02:09And I want to, for members of the press and the public that will learn about this through you, walk a little bit, very briefly, into exactly what the thinking is.
02:17The United States has spent billions of dollars over the years in helping with health strategies all across the world.
02:22What we learned over time, and especially after coming here, is that oftentimes, and I'm oversimplifying it, but this is an accurate description.
02:29What would happen is we would go to a country and say, we're going to help you with our health care needs.
02:33Then we would drive over to northern Virginia somewhere, find an NGO, one of these organizations, give them all the money, tell them, go to this country and do their health care program for them.
02:44That NGO would then take about some percentage of that money for their overhead and administrative costs.
02:49And by the time it got down to it, the host country had very little influence, it was sort of imposed on them, and only a percentage of the overall money ever actually reached the patients and the people on the ground that we were trying to help because of these costs.
03:04This makes no sense.
03:06So why are we hiring American and international NGOs to go into other countries and run health care systems that are parallel and sometimes in conflict with the health care systems of the host country?
03:18If we're trying to help countries, help the country.
03:21Don't help the NGO to go in and find a new line of business.
03:24And so that's what the model that we're breaking, we're not doing this anymore.
03:27We are not going to spend billions of dollars funding the NGO industrial complex while close and important partners like Kenya either have no role to play or have very little influence over how health care money is being spent.
03:39Bottom line is, if you want to help a country, work with that country, not work with a third party that imposes things on that country.
03:47And so for us, the first, we hope to sign many of these in the days to come.
03:51But the first one we're going to sign is with Kenya.
03:54And the reason why is twofold.
03:55Number one, because of our close partnership.
03:57Number two, because they are highly, they have stable and strong institutions, both in government and in the health care sector.
04:03And over the next few years, we're going to be investing $1.6 billion in health assistance over the next five years.
04:09And you'll see how that program works out.
04:11But the investment is in combination.
04:14It will allow us, first of all, to leverage the private sector to create a sustainable U.S. health assistance model around the world and not just in Kenya.
04:23But this is the perfect place to prove that it's going to work because it is going to work.
04:26And what it means is that money is not just going to be spent to provide medicine and care.
04:30It's going to be spent to improve the domestic infrastructure, health care infrastructure, so that in five or six or seven or eight years, countries will say, we no longer need this much assistance.
04:41If any, because we have our own system.
04:43You've helped us to build it.
04:44It's now delivering results.
04:45And in fact, we now, maybe Kenya, want to go and teach other countries how to do it.
04:52And this is a very real possibility, and it's something we believe in.
04:55By the way, Kenya, our partner, we're not imposing this.
04:58They're our partner.
04:59$850 million is what they're going to give to support these efforts.
05:02So this is truly a partnership.
05:04This is the way we should be doing assistance around the world.
05:07True assistance is self-sustainability, building the ability to sustain yourself in the long term.
05:12So it's an honor to be able to do this with you today.
05:14I'm excited.
05:15This is our first one.
05:16We hope to sign, I don't know, 30, 40?
05:19How many?
05:2150.
05:21Okay.
05:22Well, this is number one.
05:23You will always remember this one.
05:24You always, you know, the first one is the one that, and we think we've picked the perfect partner.
05:29I thank you for being here today.
05:30I know you're also here.
05:31You're going to join us in a few minutes over at the Institute of Peace for another important topic on the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda.
05:40So we're grateful you're here for both of these things, but it lined up perfectly.
05:43We are honored to welcome you to the State Department, Mr. President, and thank you for joining us today.
05:48Thank you, Secretary.
05:49Thank you very much, Secretary Rubio, Secretary of State of the United States, distinguished members of the United States delegation, ladies and gentlemen.
06:05For over a quarter of a century, the United States has worked alongside Kenya, investing over $7 billion in well-being, health, and progress of our citizens.
06:17This partnership has saved millions from malaria, from HIV, AIDS, tuberculosis, and other life-threatening outbreaks.
06:28Together, we have built resilience, restored hope, and supported impactful institutions.
06:37Today, we reaffirm this consequential, transformative, and historic partnership, which stands as a testament that becomes possible when two friendly nations unite around a common vision and a shared resolve to make health care systems not only stronger, but more resilient and truly sustainable.
07:02Thank you, Secretary Rubio.
07:33On behalf of the government and people of Kenya, I express profound gratitude to the United States, to President Donald Trump, and to you, Marco, for the commitment of U.S. dollars, $1.6 billion to Kenya over the next five years.
07:51This gesture of goodwill by President Trump, on behalf of the American taxpayers, reinforce our ongoing mobilization of domestic resources by Kenyans and actors and stakeholders in Kenya to the health sector.
08:11And I assure you that every shilling and every dollar will be spent efficiently, effectively, and accountably.
08:20And let me say this for the record, that already we are mobilizing our own domestic resources to the tune of $3 billion to support the health deployment of health infrastructure in Kenya.
08:35Not just health personnel, we now have 107,000 community health promoters built into the health infrastructure building from the bottom of the pyramid in every village, in every health center, in every dispensary, and making sure that health does not become a privilege for those who can afford, but a right for every citizen.
09:03Thank you very much to President Trump and his foresight and commitment to the relationship that exists between Kenya and the United States, and between the United States and Africa.
09:18And let me say this, that as we sign this agreement, the first one ever, we don't take it for granted that many officials have spent many hours in putting this together.
09:30I want to commend them, both from the United States and from Kenya, so that we can do the easy job, me and Marco here, to do the final seeing of this disagreement.
09:43Let me also commit that Kenya will continue to be available in Haiti, to do what we can, to ensure that the experience we have gathered over the last couple of months, running into two years now, be of benefit to the gang suppression force.
10:03I did promise, I did promise that we are not going to walk away from Haiti, and I want to say that Kenya would not have succeeded in Haiti if it were not for the support, the friendship, and the partnership of the United States.
10:18We look forward, and I join Secretary Marco in encouraging others from across the globe, especially in this region, the Organization of American States, that this is your neighborhood.
10:33If they can step forward, if they can step forward with personnel, with resources, with equipment, with funding, we can all contribute to helping humanity in Haiti.
10:46And Kenya will play our role, and Kenya will make sure that there is a smooth transition, and we will play our roles even after that, to make sure that we do not lose the gains that have been made.
10:59Thank you very much.
11:00Thank you very much.
11:01We will be also participating in one of the most consequential and historic signing-in ceremonies in the next event on Eastern DRC that will see stability, peace, and progress achieved as a result of the bringing together of the various teams and creating an ecosystem
11:29where our region, where our region, the East African region, we can unlock the potential that comes out of the peace and stability that we envisage, and encourage all actors that we work together towards the success of what President Trump has put together.
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