Excellences, Guest of Honor, his excellency ambassador George Orina, Director-General for bilateral and political affairs at MFA, PS Gender Ms. Victoria Nduva, ambassador Lucy Kiruthu, director Europe at MFA, colleagues, welcome to the National day of the Netherlands 2023, Orange Day, when we celebrate the birthday of our King Willem Alexander.

Amid challenging political times, both in the Netherlands and in Kenya, I would like to share some observations about the importance on preventing high trust societies to slide back into low trust.

This speech comes in a period of turbulence, at global, regional, and national levels. A war is ravaging Sudan, a country that went through a promising transition from authoritarian and military rule to civilian rule. That vulnerable process has been aborted by a military confrontation at the expense of millions of Sudanese. The conflict is also threatening international friends working in Sudan to collaborate with the country to achieve peace and prosperity. Now, they are leaving the country because of fear. That is what power struggles cause: devastation, fear, loss of life and loss of livelihood. I applaud Kenya to stand up and try to mediate on behalf of the IGAD members, together with South Sudan and Djibouti.

In Europe, a deplorable ‘one year anniversary’ of the Russian invasion in Ukraine just passed. Again, loss of life, devastation, and fear because power is used to attain goals that in a civilized world should be solved by words, by reaching out, by building friendships. Mediation is still far away but must be the only way to withdrawal and peace.

Both conflicts have grave repercussions whether at the world stage or regionally: through price hikes, lack of food, flows of refugees and energy shortages. These all come amidst periods of climate change that already reduce the resilience of populations, whether in Africa, Europe or elsewhere. Although this rainy season performs much better, the impact of the drought continues to heavily impact Kenya and Somalia. It will take vulnerable communities years to recover. Humanitarian assistance and investment in resilience will be needed for the years to come.

Excellences and friends, these are sobering reflections. As I referred to above: it is not only military confrontation and drought or floods that rock our world. Other controversies exist as well. Back home in the Netherlands we are facing a number of crises at the same time: climate mitigation in agriculture necessitating a new production mode that is better able to respect climate resilience; a refugee crisis as the flow of refugees is ever increasing and the struggle to provide them with a real safe haven is under pressure; an energy crisis due to rapidly shifting energy supplies in the world; a budgetary crises as the covid pandemic has already depleted reserves. This all has resulted in a dramatic fall of confidence in government, in politics more generally.

In Kenya, a similar crisis of confidence has led political confrontations to go beyond hot parliamentary debates and have entered the streets, with violence and disruption as its features. And let us not forget: in low trust societies crime is often on the increase. The fight against human trafficking, in which we -Netherlands and Kenya together with other countries- were recently able to make advances, can only be solved if less people seek refuge in other countries. Capturing the leaders of the trafficking is not enough. Problems go deeper than that and require integrated approaches. Safe spaces are needed for those on the run. Eventually safe spaces can only be guaranteed by integrated solutions with host communities. This is only one element of the deeper crisis of climate change affecting Kenya, which is proudly hosting UNEP and UN Habitat. The knowledge is there, practical solutions are still to be brought home. The Climate Summit that Kenya will host in September is an excellent moment to hear African solutions so Africa can speak out at COP 28 as equal partner in the debate. Kenya’s leadership and that of president Ruto deserves our full cooperation.

As ambassador who is also accredited to Somalia, I would like to acknowledge the presence of our network working on Somalia from here, as well as the Somalia embassy who are here to celebrate the National Day with us. We are working hard together with the Somalia government to overcome the mutual challenges we are facing. This is not just bilaterally important: also, the region would benefit from stability and progress in Somalia. Recently, Somalia’s neighbors decided to help in the fight against Al Shabab, even more than already done through ATMIS. Within the framework of the EU as well as bilaterally we reach out to the population to enable them to build a more prosperous future.

Let me speak on the relevance of the multilateral engagement which is very much part of our strategies. As the very first Secretary-General of the UN, Trygve Lie, put it in his farewell speech in 1953:

‘Our organization (UN) reflects the imperfections of our time, but it is also an expression of the most constructive forces of our world and a symbol of hope for the future.’

The world is increasingly becoming multipolar, and the relations between the poles are currently not easy. So indeed, the system has its challenges to deliver on constructive engagement, which we would wish to be resolved as soon as possible. The challenges we face in Nairobi relate to the triple planetary crises, to poverty, and to conflicts. These can only be successfully resolved if we use our most effective tool at hand: multilateral cooperation. That is the lesson from the pandemic. Even if the United Nations is not able to end violence, injustice, and poverty, it is still worthwhile to contain and reduce them. Therefore, we support strengthening UNEP and its headquarters in Nairobi. This why we believe the world will benefit from a UNHQ in the Global South.

Excellences and friends, the essence of the turbulence in the world, in Europe, in the Netherlands, in Africa, in Sudan and in Kenya is a loss of trust. High trust societies give way to societies on lower trust levels. High trust societies are based on rules, respected by all parties, and allowing for a peaceful search for solutions. Low trust societies often have strong features of a power-based governance structure in which confrontation is the way to find solutions.

We, the Netherlands, and Kenya have strong ties, extraordinarily strong ties. This is true bilaterally and as part of the EU-Kenya partnership. Both our countries value rule-based governance, both our countries share worries about exclusion, and try to fight this. I hope that this will also apply to those of different gender. In the Netherlands we see increased violence against the LGBTQI+ community, as we see in Kenya attempts to codify exclusion of that community by law. That is not the spirit of article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. I plead to all: let us not walk the path of legally based exclusion, let us remain inclusive as exclusion leads to low trust and low trust leads to confrontation.

The rule basis of Kenya with its excellent constitution is a solid basis to add another 60 years of strong relations. We will celebrate those 60 years early 2024 and we have a lot to show for: whereas my diplomatic number plate shows we were number 27 to engage with formal diplomatic ties, if Kenya would now issue new number plates based on economic ties, the number would be three, or even two. For the years to come, our motto is partnering for sustainable solutions. That is not limited to government. It includes the commercial sector of which you see a representation here today in our business market. It also includes non-profit private sector and NGO’s, with whom we engaged yesterday. We anticipate further growth in our cooperation as Kenya provides many opportunities. The essence of connecting the gateways into EAC and Europe goes beyond economy and touches also on stability and leaving no one behind. The three pillars of the strategy for cooperation in the coming four years.

Very shortly from now, president Ruto will visit the Netherlands to strengthen those ties, my minister of Foreign Affairs will visit Kenya, and more engagements are to come.

In conclusion, today we celebrate excellent relations. With all difficulties and sobering developments in our countries and around us, Kenya and the Netherlands can rely on each other and will engage even more to find common solutions for the developmental, economic and stability challenges we both face. Three pillars are central to our strategy for Kenya. Promotion of Trade & Investment, Leaving No One Behind and Strengthening Stability. For this addressing climate change, inequality, youth, women, refugees and ASAL counties, as well as building on devolution are the guiding principles. We will do so in partnership with counties and national government. That is our commitment to Kenya.

Asante sana.