Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on Tuesday expressed his admiration for President Uhuru Kenyatta's Mentorship programme.
The President and the PM had finished a bilateral meeting and were expected to attend a luncheon hosted in honour of the Ethiopian leader and his delegation but instead, they headed to the building hosting the students undergoing the Pupils Reward Scheme (PURES) programme.
PM Abiy stated that he was impressed by President Kenyatta’s mentorship programme, saying it was a noble idea that deserved to be emulated by other African leaders.
[caption caption="President Uhuru Kenyatta and Ethiopian PM Abiy Ahmed"]
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“What my brother is doing here is amazing, by the way. I like this initiative. Nobody is doing it in Africa, you guys are lucky.
"He is investing in you. I hope we will have many leaders out of this group and through practising, learning about tomorrow and visioning about tomorrow’s generation.
"Also thinking about yesterday and what our fathers did through this process, Africa will realize the great vision through integration and grow like other continents,” the PM stated.
[caption caption="President Uhuru Kenyatta and Ethiopian PM Abiy Ahmed with students under the PURES programme"]
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The Ethiopian leader fielded questions to some of the students under the project and gave his views on being one of Africa’s youngest leaders.
The Executive duo called on the youth to be patriotic and work hard to rise to leadership positions in future.
Asked about challenges he was facing as one of the youngest leaders in Africa, the Ethiopian Prime Minister conveyed both the current and past leaders have to work together to achieve the desired development for their respective nations.
“To build a house, if someone builds a foundation, the next person must add another block so as to see the house finished. So in Africa, we have to connect both yesterday, today and tomorrow so as to realize this vision,” the Ethiopian PM told the youngsters.
The PM observed that Africa has faced a myriad of challenges due to lack of mentoring leaders who would continue with the vision the founding fathers had.
“If existing leaders are giving help to the next generation, an emerging Africa will continue. The problem we have in Africa is all existing leaders do not appreciate those who are exiting, that means history, and they also don’t want to invest on emerging generation like you,” he stated.
[caption caption="President Uhuru Kenyatta and Ethiopian PM Abiy Ahmed"]
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He added current leaders needed to invest in mentorship programmes which would be used to raise competent leaders to carry on with the vision of integrating Africa.
Asked what else he would do apart from being the Prime Minister, Dr. Abiy said he would be a university lecturer where he would impart knowledge to the youth.
President Kenyatta challenged the student to work hard and achieve the best in whatever field they might be involved in affirming that is part of nation building.
“Whatever you do, do your best. Whatever you become, make the best out of it. Be it you want to become President, Prime Minister, engineer or teacher, just be the best,” Uhuru advised.
[caption caption="President Uhuru Kenyatta with students under the PURES programme"]
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The Pupils Reward Scheme (PURES), is a mentorship programme under the Presidency.
President Kenyatta and First Lady Margaret Kenyatta launched it in early 2015. Besides mentoring the students on the need for hard work and choosing their careers wisely, the programme cultivates leadership skills and gives them an opportunity to share experiences on national values such as integration and ethnic harmony in diversity.
