Thursday, 20th November 2025

Your Excellency, Hon. (Dr.)

In this regard, the Chief of Staff and Head of Public Service, vide a letter reference No.EOP/1CAB.26/4A Vol.7(1), dated 3rd September 2025, informed the Speakers of the Houses of Parliament of the intention of His Excellency the President to address Parliament.

Consequently, and upon consultation, the address to Parliament by His Excellency the President was scheduled for today, Thursday, 20th November 2025.

Pursuant to Standing Order No.25(2) of the Senate Standing Orders, I notified Hon. Senators of the place, date and time of today’s special sitting vide Gazette Notice No.16518, which was published in a special issue of the Kenya Gazette on Wednesday, 12th November

Your Excellency, Hon. (Dr.) William Samoei Ruto, CGH., President of the Republic of Kenya and Commander-in-Chief of the Kenya 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 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 No.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-

Row. Parliament deeply appreciates your outstanding contribution to the national defence, security and distinguished service to our nation.

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, in 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 is clear, evidence of promises made and promises kept. 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, resources and the spirit not just to improve, but to leap and 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.

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 confined 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 and 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 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.

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. 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. Kenyans in 2022 marched with empty sufurias, a stark symbol of frustration and 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

seedlings. The sugar sector, long troubled, is now stabilising. The area under cane is up by 200,000 acres, production has surged 76 per cent to over 815,000 metric tonnes and imports are down 70 per cent. To secure this progress, we have leased Nzoia, Muhoroni, Sony and Chemelil factories to competent private sector operators.

Our livestock value chain is rising. Leather exports are up 56 per cent to Kshs2.5 billion; local shoe production now exceeds 11 million pairs. Meat exports have grown 45 per cent to Kshs12.5 billion.

In dairy, milk production has surged to 5.3 billion litres while exports have nearly doubled to Kshs9.4 billion. Dairy farmer support has been enhanced with the installation of 230 new coolers. Nearly eight million animals have been vaccinated and the Kenya Veterinary Vaccines Production Institute (KEVEVAPI) has produced a record 94 million vaccine doses, which are used locally and also exported to our neighbours in the region. We have reduced the cost of sexed semen from Kshs8,000 per dose to Kshs1,000 for our dairy farmers.

The outcome of these reforms is unmistakable. We have enhanced food security, raised farmer incomes, driven agro-industrialisation and expanded Kenya's export footprint. This is the transformation we promised, now unfolding across our nation, fulfilling the national values and principles of governance, particularly sustainable development, as required under Article 10 of our Constitution. It is in accordance with this constitutional duty that I report to this House today.

Hon. Speaker and Hon. Members, let me now turn to healthcare, the foundation of human dignity and the heartbeat of every nation that chooses compassion over neglect. Over the last three years, we have undertaken the most ambitious transformation of our health systems since Independence; reforms rooted in equity, powered by innovation and guided by a simple conviction that every Kenyan, wherever they live and whatever their means, deserves equal care. Twenty seven million Kenyans are now registered under the Social Health Authority (SHA), more than triple the number ever reached by the former National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF). This is a demonstration that leaving no one behind was and is not a slogan; it is a promise on course to fulfilment. Additionally, more than 10,000 health facilities across the country have signed into serve under this new system.

Hon. Members, real healthcare begins long before a patient reaches a hospital. That is why in September, 2023, we deployed 107,000 Community Health Promoters (CHPs), 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 leaving no Kenyan behind indeed.

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.

for them, healthcare is not a privilege. I must commend Members of this august House who have stepped in to support vulnerable families in this gesture.

Across the country, we are delivering the most extensive housing rollout in Kenya's history, 230,000 affordable homes. We meet students’ needs. One hundred and seventy-eight thousand beds have been packaged for universities, Technical and Vocational Education and Training institutions (TVETs), Kenya Medical Training College (KMTC), with 74,000 already under construction, transforming a sector where fewer than 10 per cent once had decent accommodation. Additionally, 270 modern markets are taking shape nationwide, providing vital spaces for women and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), with another 175 underway, expanding the backbone of local commerce.

Through the Nairobi River Regeneration Programme, 44,000 young people are restoring the river corridor and preparing sites for 10,000 social homes along the renewed riverfront. The Housing Programme, including markets and hostels, has created over 428,000 jobs that include architects, engineers, plumbers, electricians, carpenters, masons, steel workers, transporters and thousands of MSMEs in fittings, fabrication and interior design work. At peak next year, it will employ, at least, a million Kenyans.

Ladies and gentlemen, over the past three years, our digital transformation agenda has become one of the most powerful engines of renewal, acquired revolution changing how Kenyans live, work, learn or do business. We have expanded the fibre optic by 24,000 kilometres and moved from zero public Wi-Fi hotspots in 2022 to nearly 1,500 today, connecting communities once left behind.

We have set up 300 digital innovation hubs with 400 in the pipeline, gateways where ideas grow and enterprises begin. At the heart of this shift is digital government. From less than 400 services on e-Citizen to 22,500, we have delivered one of the fastest digital migration in the world. Access is easier, efficiency higher, leakages sealed and corruption pushed out. As our young people are driving it, nearly two million have been trained in digital skills and 300,000 now earn a living online through Ajira and Jitume and our expanding business process outsourcing sector.

Hon. Speaker, having set out the work of the last three years, it would be easy, almost comfortable to pause, congratulate ourselves and settle into the warmth of modest progress, but comfort is how nations stall. It is how Kenya once slowed while the Asian Tigers raced ahead. We cannot allow that; we will not allow that and we must not allow it because this moment demands more of us, more courage, more ambition and a refusal to settle for the ordinary.

As I said earlier, we often speak of the Asian Tigers with a reverence that makes their rise seem like a miracle from a distant world. We marvel at how they journeyed from poverty to industrial powerhouses; from aid recipients to exporters of world-class goods and we ask, what secret advantage did they have? History answers us plainly. They had none. Their rise was not magic; it was intentional and crafted through leadership, discipline, strategic investment and uncompromising rejection of mediocrity. Their stories begin in ruins. The example of post-war Japan, with barely 2,000 kilometres of paved road and South Korea whose GDP to per capita was nearly identical to Kenya's at Independence. Today, Japan commands over 1.1 million kilometres of paved roads, while Kenya has 22,000, 62 years after Independence. South Korea's per capita now exceeds US$36,000 compared to our own of US$2,200. These comparisons are not meant to indict us, but to demonstrate what becomes possible when a nation chooses ambition over resignation.

From their journeys, clear lessons emerge. These nations set aside small dreams and integrated with global markets boldly. They built first-world infrastructure in what were third- world environments. They invested in their people obsessively; engineers, scientists, innovators and technicians who powered 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 like 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, 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 set foundation through the major reforms in the education sector. We have increased the education budget from Kshs490 billion

in 2021 to over Kshs700 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 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. This structure will also help actualise the two 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 two per cent of GDP. This leaves us with a shortfall of about Kshs180 billion. Progressively, we should grow the Fund to Kshs1 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.

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.

investment in education, roads, energy, water systems, logistics, transport and digital network yet, our fiscal space is narrow.

We cannot continue funding essential infrastructure through unsustainable borrowing and burdening of taxpayers with additional taxes and neither can we afford to postpone these imperatives without risking our future. There is a need to be innovative in the use of national revenue at our disposal. There is need to deploy national assets available to us in creating 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 that I will sign into law tomorrow.

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, Rt. 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 a 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.