President William Ruto attended Uganda's 60th Independence Day, during which he addressed Ugandans and dignitaries present, after being invited to the podium by his host Yoweri Museveni.
Here is his full speech:
Your Excellency President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, President of the great Country of Uganda, Your Excellencies Heads of States and Governments, First lady Mama Janet Museveni, Leaders present, distinguished Ugandans and the great people of East Africa good afternoon.
First I bring you greetings from your brothers and sisters in Kenya, both Kenyans, Ugandans and East Africans they have sent me greetings on this very important day while you celebrate 60 years of your independence. Congratulations your Excellency, Congratulations to the great people of Uganda, and accompanying those greetings is our commitment to our region Mzee Museveni as I said is our elder, we have tremendous respect for him and we look up to him to now work so that we can eliminate the borders that separate our people in East Africa and in Africa.
It is very clear to us that we cannot share poverty and hunger but we can share opportunity and prosperity. It is our place as leaders and citizens of the East Africa region for us to work together so that we can transform our borders which today stand out as barriers and convert them to bridges so that goods, services and people can move across this East Africa without any impediments.
Your excellency as our elder, President Museveni you have the challenge to lead the charge in ensuring that we bring down the barriers and the borders so that we can have a borderless East Africa Community.
We are looking in our lifetime in the next few years that people, goods and services can move across East Africa as we lead the way in enduring the African continental free trade area becomes a reality.
Your Excellency, I did instruct the Minister for Trade in Kenya to work with the Minister of Trade in Uganda so that together we can formulate and sign a guided trade agreement that will facilitate the African continental trade area to become a reality so that we can harness the opportunities for investment, trade and for people to work together in our region.
Finally, I have a word for our business people, the business people in our region are lagging behind the policymakers, I want to ask our entrepreneurs, our business people, and the investor community in our region to take advantage of the infrastructure provided by the EAC and the ACFTA to transform our region. There is absolutely no reason why food cannot be available in our region, if there is food in Uganda it should be able to find its way to Kenya. If there is an opportunity in Kenya, Ugandans should be able to access that opportunity.
I am looking forward Your Excellency, Mr President to you leading us in this region so that we can truly build prosperity and harness opportunity in our region for the mutual benefit of 300 million people in EAC and the 1.2 billion people in the African continent.
Your Excellency, to our business community today we import 1.2 million tonnes of fertiliser into the East African Community, while we have the raw material for us to manufacture that fertiliser and save ourselves foreign exchange and create opportunities for jobs while we manufacture fertiliser for our own use in this region.
We spend 500 Million dollars every year to import clinker for our cement manufacture for our construction, that too we have the raw materials in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda to produce Clinker and we can save 500 Million dollars from wealth being exported from our region. Let me also say that we spend 500 Million dollars every year to import steel for construction in our region.
We have the raw materials in Uganda, we have gas in Uganda, we have the opportunity in Kenya, and we have the raw materials in our region, our business people should harness those opportunities, leverage the friendship that we have as East Africans and save us the foreign exchange and create jobs for the millions of young people in our region so that we can create wealth, we can share opportunities and we can share prosperity.
Your Excellency, with age and with experience comes responsibility, you have the age you have the experience, take the responsibility and lead the charge.
Asante Sana. Thank You very Much. May the Good Lord Bless You
