Wednesday, May 17, 2023 –President William Ruto was treated to a 2-minute standing ovation while he was delivering his speech to about 50 heads of State in the ongoing conference in South Africa.
Ruto, on Wednesday, May 17, received a rare standing ovation in his highly-charged up address at the Pan-African Parliament Summit on Climate Policy and Equity.
The Kenyan head of State, in his capacity as the Chair of the Committee of African Heads of State and Government on Climate Change CAHOSCC, who had one-hour speech time asked why developed nations have been inviting African leaders abroad to address local challenges.
According to Ruto’s speech that is doing rounds on social media, developed nations were only interested in demeaning Africa despite the fact that Africa is also rich in resources that contributes much to global market.
“Why would you call 50 African heads only to give them one minute as part of the engagement?” Ruto posed as delegates went on their feet when he mentioned that the only achievement African leaders get from oversea meetings is photoshoot.
“If you cannot respect our leaders then that is a sign of lack of goodwill. If we have a smaller group of ten or five people then we can have a meaningful conversation, and we can have a meeting of equals”.
President Ruto reasoned that this mistreatment had led to delayed implementation of urgent policies and development projects.
Dr. Ruto wondered why Western powers were not keen to fostering mature relationship even after having colonised and wasted African nations for years.
“The most unfortunate thing is that some of the people who normally invite us for these meetings do tell us that there will be consequences should we fail to turn up.
“They have been inviting us to meetings that have no meaningful outcomes because of blackmail. It is not right,” Ruto went on.
The first time Ruto complained about mistreatment abroad was on Saturday, April 29, 2023, when he said, sometimes, they are lumped up together in a bus when they arrive for foreign meetings.
In the Mo Ibrahim Governance weekend held at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre, Ruto lamented that they were bused like school children at a past event abroad.
