Your Excellency, Hon. (Dr)

A certified version of this Report together with the Rt. Hon. Speaker of the National Assembly, we notified all Members of Parliament and the general public of today’s special sitting vide notices placed in the Daily Nation and The Standard newspapers on Wednesday, 12th November 2025. Accordingly, Hon. Members, this special sitting is properly convened.

I thank you.

Your Excellency, Hon. (Dr) William Samoei Ruto, CGH., President of the Republic of Kenya and Commander- in-Chief of the Defence Forces; the Rt. Hon. Amason King, EGH, MP, Speaker of the Senate; Hon. Members of Parliament; Members of the Diplomatic Corps; Distinguished Guests; Ladies and Gentlemen, Article 132 (1) (b) of the Constitution requires the President to address the nation once every year, and at any other time. Further, Article 132 (1) (c) of the Constitution requires the President to, once every year, report in an address to the nation on measures taken and progress achieved in the realisation of our national values. Additionally, Article 132 (1) (c) (iii) of the Constitution provides that the President shall submit a report for debate to the National Assembly on the progress made in fulfilling the international obligations of the Republic.

In this regard, Hon. Members, by way of a Message to the House, His Excellency the President conveyed his desire to address a special sitting of the Houses of Parliament today, 20th November 2025. Therefore, pursuant to the provisions of Standing Order 22 of the National Assembly Standing Orders, via Gazette Notice No. 16519, which was published in the Kenya Gazette on 12th November 2025 and, indeed, as also notified to all Members and the general public by way of newspaper notifications published on 12th November 2025, I gave a notice of this special sitting of Parliament to Members of the National Assembly. Accordingly, this special sitting is properly convened.

Your Excellency, Hon. Members, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, it is the custom of Parliament to recognise invited guests seated in our galleries. I, therefore, wish to recognise the following guests who are seated in the Speaker's Row:

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We are also honoured to have in our midst the immediate former Speakers of the Houses of Parliament:

A certified version of this Report 2006 in the Serjeant's Office, rising to become the Chief Serjeant-at-Arms. Today is his last day on duty, having diligently served in public service.

Thank you very much, Hon. Speaker, Sir.

The Hon. Speakers of the National Assembly and the Senate, Hon. Members of the National Assembly and the Senate, the Chief Justice and the leadership of the Judiciary, Cabinet Secretaries, Your Excellencies, distinguished guests, fellow citizens, ladies and gentlemen, two years ago, when I delivered my first State of the Nation Address, I had a vision to sell. Today, I have a story to tell – a story written not in the quiet offices or the comfort of boardrooms, but out in the blazing sun of our farms; in the dust of construction sites where our affordable homes now rise; and in the grit of our community health workers, doctors, and medical professionals, who refuse to surrender in the quest for Universal Health Coverage (UHC) .

It is written in the steady hum of our factories; in the determination of millions daring to dream and finance their vision through the Hustler Fund; in the courage of our young people working on housing sites, the Climate Works Programme, in the digital ecosystem; and in the bravery of those who, looking beyond our borders, have sought livelihoods abroad to sustain families back home.

It is a story of sacrifice, sweat, and progress that has not come easy. It is a story you can see in the numbers, feel in the homes, and trace in the lives transformed across our Republic. A story whose facts are available for all to examine, except perhaps for the cynical, who have no facts. Today, the evidence of promises made and promises kept is clear. In just three years, we have built not monuments of words, but foundations of progress. Yet, even with these achievements, I am convinced that this is only the beginning.

Hon. Speaker and Members, as I prepared this Address, I reflected deeply on the long road we have travelled as a nation. It has been 62 years shaped by struggle, sacrifice, hardship, triumph, and milestones that have affirmed our spirit. From that reflection came one undeniable truth: we have made commendable progress, but Kenya still punches way below its true weight. This nation has the talent, the resources, and the spirit not just to improve, but to leap and to make the transition from a developing country to a developed one within our lifetime. That is why I speak today with full conviction that history has summoned this generation, our generation, at such a time as this, to a higher purpose. Some eras are shaped by events. Others are defined by the decisions a nation makes.

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Today, Kenya is called to make such a decision, to finish the journey our forebears began, and finally turn our long-held potential into lived reality. To do this, we must cast off the prevailing mindset of being content with the average. We must step beyond the comfort of the familiar and the ordinary, and reach with courage, clarity, and conviction, for nothing less than excellence and greatness.

Therefore, as we examine the achievements of the past three years, results that have laid a firm foundation for equality of opportunity and a nation where no one is left behind, today I will also place before you not just a vision, but a national project that is realistic, grounded, and entirely within our reach. A vision not just to grow, but to transform. A roadmap not merely to move forward, but to rise from developing to developed, from potential to reality, from promise to prosperity, from the Third World to the First World and finally, to rise into the Kenya we have long imagined – the Kenya we deserve.

For too long, our ambition was held hostage by small thinking and ordinary expectations. But that era must now be consigned to the past. Today, we stand on the threshold of something far greater, a moment in which we can say that our parents dreamt of and what our children yearn for, we will accomplish in our lifetime. As we know, this is achievable because others have done it before.

I have often spoken of the Asian Tigers ― South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and by the way, Hon. Members, the Prime Minister of Malaysia will be here this weekend ― countries that at Independence were our peers in nearly every measurable way. They had no extraordinary resources. They were not superhuman. They simply had the courage to make bold, disciplined, deliberate choices. They invested in their people, demanded excellence, and refused to be trapped in the limitations of their circumstances. They refused to make peace with mediocrity. Today, they stand as first-world economies. If they could rise, so can Kenya. It. Can. Be. Done. Let me repeat: It. Can. Be. Done.

Later in this Address, I will set out the strategic choices, the reforms we will deepen, the sectors we will unlock, and the investments we will prioritise to move Kenya to the next level. I say all this not as a personal badge of honour, but as a recognition of what we have achieved together as the Kenyan people, the leadership in all arms of Government, and across all political formations.

Hon. Members, the last three years have not been easy. We have agreed, sometimes disagreed, and at times those disagreements have carried a great cost. We have compromised, we have confronted hard truths, and we have endured storms none of us invited. But we all take comfort that it has not been for nothing, for this is how far we have come. At a time like this in 2022, Kenya was in distress. Inflation had soared to almost double digits. A fuel shortage threatened to paralyse our economy as oil marketers struggled to access dollars. The shilling was in free fall. Foreign reserves had hit historic lows. Debt service consumed more than half of our revenues. Confidence, both local and foreign, had waned. International analysts warned that it was no longer a question of if, but when Kenya would default. Within that context, we acted. We restored fiscal discipline. We eliminated wasteful subsidies. We rationalised public expenditure. We strengthened revenue collection and placed our economy on a path of recovery and sustainability. Inflation, which stood at 9.6 per cent in 2022, has steadily declined to 4.6 per cent as of last month, bringing much-needed relief to households. The Kenyan shilling, once in a perilous downward spiral, has stabilised at Ksh129 to the dollar for nearly two years, a direct consequence of prudent monetary policy and disciplined fiscal management. Our successful Eurobond redemption signalled to the world that Kenya honours its obligations.

Three years ago, Kenya was ranked the eighth-largest economy in Africa, with a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of US$115 billion. Today, our GDP has increased to US$136 billion, moving us up to become the sixth-largest economy on the continent, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). This steep rise, ladies and gentlemen, is not accidental. It

A certified version of this Report is the product of deliberate choices, disciplined execution, and strategic reforms that have strengthened our economy and unlocked its potential. Our foreign reserves have surpassed US$12 billion, the highest in independent Kenya. This has restored certainty, cushioned our economy from external shocks, and restored investor confidence. International markets have taken note. Just this week, 14 of the world's leading financial institutions, including Citigroup, JPMorgan, Standard Chartered, and Goldman Sachs, projected that Kenya's economy will expand by between 5 and 5.8 per cent in 2026. This confidence is anchored in solid fundamentals: lower credit costs, rising exports, improved household spending driven by low inflation, and a broadly stable macroeconomic environment. Standard & Poor's has upgraded Kenya's sovereign credit rating from B- to a firm B, our first upward revision in many years, signalling renewed international confidence. This upgrade lowers our risk profile, attracts more investment, and reduces borrowing costs for both the Government and the private sector.

Fellow citizens, our foreign direct investment has more than tripled from US$463 or about Ksh60 billion in 2021. to US$1.5 billion, almost Ksh195 billion in 2024. In the last 36 months, over 300 new businesses, including 500 foreign companies, have registered and set up shop in Kenya, reflecting renewed confidence and improved ease of doing business. The Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) has recorded a powerful resurgence, now recognised as one of the best-performing emerging markets globally. Since January 2025, investor wealth has grown by over Ksh1 trillion, driven by a broad share price rally that has re-established NSE as a premier asset class. The NSE is on track for its strongest performance in over a decade, building on last year's remarkable gains. This renewed vibrancy is a clear vote of confidence in Kenya's direction and in the reforms we have undertaken.

In short, Hon. Speaker, Hon. Members, the world's most respected economic assessors and market sentiment are affirming what we already know, that our economy is strengthening, our prospects are brightening, and confidence in Kenya is rising. Our critics, the high priests of eternal pessimism who criticise without responsibility and tear down without offering alternatives, will want you to believe that our economy is going in the wrong direction. But while everyone may speak their mind, and that is the beauty of our democracy, no one is entitled to manufacture self-serving falsehoods and traffic them as facts. And facts are exactly what I present here today: clear, verifiable, and indisputable.

One of the greatest contributors to the high cost of living is the cost of food. In 2022, Kenyans marched with empty sufurias, a stark symbol of frustration and the unbearable cost of basic commodities. From the outset, we made an intentional and strategic decision to subsidise production, and not consumption. We understood that lasting relief would not come from temporary subsidies and price controls, but from strengthening the foundations of agricultural production. We also recognised that agriculture is not merely another sector of our economy; it is the lifeline of our nation. If we were to secure households, stabilise prices, create jobs, expand industry and spur exports, then agriculture had to be the fulcrum of our transformational agenda.

To organise the sector and improve service delivery, we launched an integrated digital platform to register farmers. In 2022, fewer than 300,000 farmers were on record. Today, over

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Hon. Members, real healthcare begins long before a patient reaches a hospital. And that is why in September 2023, we deployed 107,000 community health promoters, the largest primary health workforce in our history; trained, equipped and present in every ward in all our 47 counties. Their impact has been extraordinary. Consider three statistics: 8.9 million households have so far been visited; 9.9 million diabetes screenings have been done with 134,000 cases diagnosed; 6.5 million hypertension screenings have been conducted, with 305,000 cases confirmed. Millions of lives have been touched, and thousands saved. This is what equity looks like. This is the meaning of universal healthcare. This is indeed leaving no Kenyan behind.

Behind these numbers stand the community health promoters; quiet, devoted and tireless heroes of this new era. Today, we honour and thank them. To them, we say that Kenya is healthier because of you.

A certified version of this Report 1,600 laboratories are under construction, easing congestion and providing CBC with the dignified facilities it requires.

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Today, through the Hustler Fund bridge facility, 800,000 entrepreneurs are accessing up to Ksh150,000 each without collateral to expand and grow their businesses.

A certified version of this Report their ascent. They generated electricity to power their enterprise from all sources available. The innovation led to manufacturing, industrialisation and progress.

They simplified investment through institutional reforms that allowed capital, technology and talent to progress without friction. They prioritised production by planning their industries long before the industries emerged. Critically, they nurtured ecosystems of relentless innovation. That gave rise to global giants such as Samsung, Hyundai, Toyota, and Sony. These companies began modestly and grew to define modern industry.

The task before us, therefore, is unmistakably clear. If Kenya is to grow at scale, we must raise our ambition. It is for this reason, Hon. Speaker and Hon. Members, that we are raising the bar of national ambition under my leadership. That is why I am today submitting a roadmap to take Kenya to the next level. We are committing to undertake a minimum of four major national priorities, whose rationale I shall now explain.

First, we must invest relentlessly in our people—their education, skills development, scientific training, and innovation capacity. We have already laid the foundation through major reforms in the education sector. We have increased the education budget from Ksh490 billion in 2021 to over Ksh700 billion this year. It has facilitated better infrastructure in our education system, more teachers and trainers, and enhanced funding for our colleges and universities.

I have reorganised government departments to establish a dedicated State Department for Science, Research, and Innovation. It is to support the urgent need to scale up Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) courses in our education system. It is to strengthen innovation, promote research, and create a pool of high-level professionals in engineering and science. The structure will also help actualise the 2 per cent National Research Fund needed to make this ambition a reality. We must fund start-ups and deliberately scale up and commercialise innovation to create new companies.

We must actualise the National Research Fund to move from the current 0.8 per cent to 2 per cent of GDP. This leaves us with a shortfall of about Ksh180 billion. Progressively, we should grow the Fund to Ksh1 trillion over the next 10 years. We will mobilise domestic public resources, private investment, venture capital, and other private sector financing to drive this effort. Because no nation rises above the abilities of its citizens, let me repeat that. Gentlemen and ladies, no nation rises above the abilities of its citizens.

A certified version of this Report vast arable lands in the arid and semi-arid regions into productive use if we harvest and store rainwater.

With dams, we can transform our arid and semi-arid areas into hubs of agricultural production, even in the absence of rainfall. We must never give up on the potential of these regions simply because they receive little rain. We must never confuse the lack of rain with the lack of water. This is why we must build at least 50 mega dams nationwide, alongside 200 additional medium and small dams, and thousands of micro-dams to collect and store water. Not only to secure our supply but also to bring at least 2.5 million acres under irrigation within the next five to seven years.

Therefore, the commitment to harvest and store water is not simply about food and water security. It is a strategic nation-shaping investment. It underpins our aspiration to be a net exporter of agricultural products. It underpins economic Independence, rural prosperity, and sustainable development.

The Ministry of Water, Sanitation and Irrigation, alongside all relevant agencies, has already mapped the precise locations of these dams. These projects span the breadth of our Republic—from the mega High Grand Falls dam on river Daua in Mandera to Isiolo’s Barsalinga dam and Yatta in Machakos, Sigly Canal in Garissa, Soin-Koru in Kisumu, Rumuruti in Laikipia, Thuci in Embu and Tharaka-Nithi, Lowaat in Turkana; Muhoya dam straddling Nyeri and Kirinyaga, Narosura in Narok and Arror in Elgeyo/Marakwet. Others include Ndarugu in Kiambu, Kokwanyo in Homa Bay, Rare in Kilifi, Tongaren in Bungoma, and many more strategic sites nationwide.

A certified version of this Report goods and services, lower the cost of doing business and reinforce Kenya as the aviation and commercial capital of East and Central Africa. History teaches us that nations rise on the strength of transport and logistics.

Japan’s post-war revival, enabled by strategic road expansion, is a clear example. From only 2,000 kilometres of road, they constructed over one million kilometres of paved road in seven decades. Kenya has only constructed 22,000 kilometres over a relatively similar period. To scale up our transport and logistics programme, the Ministry of Roads, Transport and Public Works has already mapped out a comprehensive network of 2,500 kilometres of highway for dualling, and 28,000 kilometres of roads to be tarmacked over the next 10 years.

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These four projects are our national imperatives. They are commitments we must embrace without hesitation, not because they are easy or cheap, but because they are absolutely necessary and worthy of our time. This is the assignment of our generation. This is the purpose of this administration and the 13th Parliament; this is the moment we must rise up to.

This brings us to the next question. Given our fiscal constraints, how shall we finance these transformative projects sustainably? The answer lies in two key financing vehicles: the National Infrastructure Fund and the Sovereign Wealth Fund. As noted earlier, our development ambitions require sustained, large-scale investment in education, roads, energy and water systems, yet our fiscal space is narrow.

As noted earlier, our development ambitions require sustained, large-scale investment in education, roads, energy, water systems, logistics, transport and digital networks, yet our fiscal space is narrow.

We cannot continue funding essential infrastructure through unsustainable borrowing and burdening taxpayers with additional taxes, nor can we afford to postpone these imperatives without risking our future. There is a need to be innovative in the use of the national revenue at our disposal. There is a need to deploy the national assets available to us to create public- private partnerships (PPPs) that will crowd in the enormous pool of private-sector resources available regionally and globally. That is why we will establish the National Infrastructure Fund, whose architecture will be underpinned by the reforms in the Government-Owned Enterprises Bill, passed by this August House and which I will sign into law tomorrow.

A certified version of this Report present and future generations." In essence, when we use natural resources or borrow, we must ensure future generations are not left poorer. That is why, alongside the national infrastructure funds, we will be establishing the Sovereign Wealth Fund to give full effect to the constitutional principle of intergenerational equity. A portion of all royalties from natural resources and of the proceeds from the privatisation of national assets will be invested in the Fund. This Fund will rest on three pillars:

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Let history record that this generation refused to be timid, that we chose ambition over fear, action over excuses, and progress over the false comfort of low expectations. Let it be said that when Kenya stood at a crossroads, we reached for the higher path.

The work ahead is formidable, but so is the Kenyan spirit. This is our moment to lift Kenya to the next frontier. This is our moment to shape a nation worthy of its promise. This is our moment to rise.

Hon. Members, it is now my pleasure to submit to Parliament the following three reports, as required by the Constitution-

Hon. Members, let us be upstanding. Your Excellency, the President, the Right Hon. Speaker of the National Assembly, Hon. Members and distinguished guests, we have now come to the conclusion of the business of the day, and it is now time to adjourn.

The Senate stands adjourned until Tuesday, 25th November 2025, at 2.30 p.m. in the Senate chamber.

Your Excellency, the President, Right Hon. Speaker of the Senate, Hon. Members of the National Assembly, the National Assembly now stands adjourned until Tuesday, 25th November 2025 at 2.30 p.m.

May I take this opportunity to invite all Hon. Members and our guests to our reception at the Parliament courtyard.

May I also request all Hon. Members and our guests to remain standing in your places until the procession of His Excellency the President and the Speakers leave the Chamber.

Thank you.

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