president obama: well hello everybody! jambo! well, thisis a very good-looking group. (laughter) so it's wonderful tobe with all of you. my name is barack obama. in case you didn't know. i want to, first of all,begin by thanking kenyatta university forhosting us here today.
we are very grateful. and the vice chancelloris here -- madam vice chancellor, thank you. (applause) and before we get started, iwant to point out that this is one of our first regionalcenters for the young african leaders program --the young african leaders initiative -- or yali-- that we're doing. as many of you know, thisis one of my labors of love
here in africa, an outgrowthof some of the work that we had been doing. seeing the incrediblecontributions that young leaders were making in somany countries, we thought let's bring them togetherand give them opportunities to learn from each other,and network and access resources, so that theycan, then, in their home countries, be able toaccomplish remarkable things. and so we're reallyexcited about that.
so we thank the universityfor allowing us to use these facilities for theseoutstanding people. i just gave avery long speech. audience member: we saw it. president obama: you'resaying it was also too long? is that what you're saying? she nodded. she was all like,yes, it was very long. so because you just saw myspeech, it doesn't make
sense for me to give awhole 'nother speech. i'm really here more tolisten and to learn. but i do want to just make acouple of brief remarks at the top. and then what i'm going todo is i'm going to call on a number of you. i've got a few names alreadyto get us started, and then depending on how much timewe have, then i'll try to see if i can call onsome additional persons.
america has historicallybeen a country of people who participate in the lives oftheir communities and their societies. and it's one of the thingsthat make us, i believe, a great nation. there's a famous frenchwriter named alec de tocqueville, who traveled tothe united states, and wrote a very famous book called"democracy in america." and the point that he madein this book during the
course of his travels wasthat what made america a democracy was not just thatit had elections, but that it was a society of joinersand volunteers, and people who wanted constantly to beinvolved in making their communities better. and if there was aninjustice, they wanted to do something about it. and they would formorganizations and they would form town halls, anddisseminate information --
so that what the governmentdid was obviously important, but what was just asimportant was what individual citizens wereable to do to create a fabric of mutual concern andregard and advocacy that would shape governmentpolicy and would shape how societies were organized. and almost all the progressthat america has made in expanding freedom andopportunity has grown as a result of that bottom-upcivic participation.
the civil rights movement,the women's rights movement, the movement most recentlyto make sure that our gay and lesbian brothers andsisters have equal rights, the movement to end wars, insome cases, the movement to provide better resourcesfor poor children. and there's the halfwayhouse movement, and the movement to -- thesettlement house movement, rather, and to make surethat children and orphans were properly cared for.
the movement to publiceducation and public universities. the environmental movement. so many of these thingsarose because ordinary citizens started to gettogether and speak out and press their demandson their government. and eventually,politicians responded. and i got my start in publiclife not as an elected official but as a communityorganizer in a poor
neighborhood in chicago. and i would work withchurches and community groups to try to improvethe school system, or bring affordable housing. and we weren't alwayscompletely successful, but it taught me the importanceof the voices of ordinary people when they cometogether to create a better vision for the future. and that's why i think civilsociety is so important.
and that's why i emphasizedit in the speech that i made today. and this is something that iemphasize wherever i go -- democracy does notstop on election day. for a real democracy towork, and for a society to thrive and continuallyimprove, it requires that people continueto participate. and there have to be laws inplace to protect that space and facilitate people'sability to participate.
now, the good news is, herein kenya, you now have a constitution that creates the space for such participation. alongside freedom of thepress, and freedom of assembly, and the ability toorganize politically, these are precious freedoms thathave to be protected. because kenya is a youngdemocracy there's always a concern that it might slipback and that space might narrow, despite whatthe constitution says. and i just want to say partof the reason why it's
important for me to be heretoday is to send a message that we in the united statesat least believe that civil society is important and wewant to continue to affirm it, and we want to listenand hear what it is that ordinary citizens, workingtogether, have to say about their communities andabout their lives. and if kenya can continue tocultivate those habits of participation andcitizenship and freedom, then the country is goingto be better off, and it's
going to continue to makeprogress for all people and not just some. so with those openingremarks, what i want to do now is just open itup for conversation. and i have in my handsome names to call on. i may not getthrough all of them. i think you've beeninstructed to try to be relatively brief. in some cases, what i'll dois i'll respond right away
to the comments. in some cases, i may waitand respond at the end. but this is designed not somuch as a town hall, to ask me questions, it's moredesigned for you to give me a sense of the things thatare important to you, so that i can learn -- andbecause i think this is going to be televised -- sothat the kenya people as a whole can hear as well. and the only thing i wouldask is that everybody
be respectful. and one of the rules of goodcivil society i believe is that you're respectful ofthe people who disagree with you. and that's part of whatmakes civil society work. if you can have civildisagreements, and you can listen to each other andnot just shout, that's what creates an environment thatleads to progress over the long term.
and the only other thing i'mgoing to do is, because it's warm, i'm going totake off my jacket. you're free todo so as well. this is pretty relaxed. okay, so -- and we've got afew topics where we've got some civil societyorganizations that are already working onsome of these issues. and one of the topics thathasn't gotten a lot of attention during my trip buti consider very important
because it's part of kenya'sheritage, but it's also part of global heritage --and that is the issue of wildlife trafficking, whereactive citizens are really making a difference. and i'm going to call on tomlalampaa of the northern rangelands trust, to tellus about what he's doing. mr. lalampaa: thank youvery much, mr. president. i work for northernrangelands trust entity, an umbrella communityorganization currently
supporting over 30community-based conservancies. we've had a lot of successeson the trafficking as well. but i just want to mentiontwo high-level impacts. one is that we've been ableto develop a model of a community conservancy thatis unique, that has proven very successful, now widelyaccepted by the national government and thecounty governments. and all the model has isthat, first and foremost, is
that it isgrassroots-rooted. it's formed by the localcommunities -- by the elders, the women and theyouth in the villages. and so these institutionshelp to anchor good governance, gender matters,awareness, micro-finance for our youth and our women, swell, and many, many more programs, includingthe -- getting water. it's become an entry pointfor the national government and the county governmentsto deliver services to the
local communities. it's also structured in sucha way that the political leaders take part inthose institutions. so they are local communityinstitutions that are registered withthe government. and it's just amazing,because they are creating a platform for dialogue -- aplatform for communities to decide where they wantwater, where they want help, where they want -- whatthey want to do in matters.
the second high-levelimpact, mr. president, is getting conservation todrive peace and conflict resolution innorthern kenya. in northern kenya, peace andsecurity is quite elusive for many reasons. one is because ofillegal firearms. secondly, it's just becauseof the nature of the mistrust among ourethic communities. and thirdly, also becauseof the natural resources --
pasture, waterfor our cattle. and so we've managed to getthe conservation to drive peace and conflictresolution in northern kenya. i was telling my friend,paula, here that when communities, localcommunities -- they want peace. there's no way theelephants live in peace. so that's what i'm saying,mr. president, that all that has been made possiblethrough the support of the u.s. government, and inparticular, through the
usaid kenya. mr. president, we have anumber of challenges, but i'll put them in termsof a kind request to you. one, we'dappreciate the u.s. government support toprotect and conserve the remaining african elephants. i'm saying the remainingbecause we have lost many. you can help usin three ways. first and foremost is tocrush demand and market,
mr. president. not even reducing it. if we can, let's crushit once and for all. the kenya government -- thecivil society, ourselves, and the local communitiescan only prevent poaching from the source,from being poached. but the markets and thedemand, mr. president, are far outside our borders. we are helpless.
please help us. the other way you can helpus protect and conserve the remaining african elephants,mr. president, is to get the u.s. government be a member ofthe african-led elephants protection initiative. currently, nine africanstates have signed to it. so it would just bringenormous support and recognition if yourgovernment can join it and also be a part of it.
thirdly, in terms of helpingus conserve and protect our elephants, the remaining,is to help us deal with the ivory. the second request that ithink would benefit all of us here, mr. president, myrequest also is that if possible -- we notice thisis discussed all the time, but our humblerequest of the u.s. government is to increasethe international support for the internationalprograms.
and i have in mind,i talk about the u.s. aid that's involved,and any other u.s. government-relateddevelopment agencies -- because it's from that potthat we are going to support conservation, that we canimprove livelihoods, that we can support governance. i always have a feeling thatthe usaid office, wherever they are in africa, and inthe world, they get massive applications, and they canonly deal with so much.
lastly, mr. president, imust admit the fact that the embassy's office -- theusaid offices have been very good with us andextremely supportive. thank you so much,mr. president. president obama: let me justsay, first of all, tom, you're an eloquent spokesmanfor your cause and that was an excellent presentation. the second thing i have tosay is that everybody is going to have to bebriefer than tom.
just because i want to makesure that i get as many comments as possible. the third point is, withrespect to conservation, you said the elephants thathave been lost -- 20,000 elephants have beenlost in recent years. and part of the reason whycivil society has to be mobilized aroundconservation is that if people have a choice -- ifthey see a false choice between their ownlivelihoods and conserving
animals then theanimals will lose. if they're organized so thatthey see that preservation and conservation enhancestheir lives, then we win, because they feel ownershipand they will participate. and that's why theorganizations that you're putting togetherare so important. now, we've got anotherperson just on this issue before we move to anotherissue -- paula kahumbu, right here.
i could tell because she'sgot an arm band that says, "hands off our elephants." with the wildlife trust. ms. kahumbu:: thankyou, mr. president. first, on behalf of all theconservation community -- and there are several peoplein the room -- thank you so much for your initiativeson the african elephant in particular. more than 30,000 elephants --
are beingkilled every year in africa. that's one every 15 minutes. your grandchildrenelephants. i love elephants. i want the whole world tofall in love with elephants. and i started this campaign,"hands off our elephants," under the organization,wildlife direct, with the first lady margaretkenyatta, to empower and mobilize kenyans, africansacross the entire continent
to save elephants. they are our heritage. they are our identity. and it's our duty. and it's not just africanswho benefit from this. the whole world benefits. it's not been easy, but ourwork has really led to a change in the hearts andminds of kenyans, and also the laws.
we've been at the center ofjudicial reforms in this country. our work has led to thearrest of one of the most -- what do i say --notorioussuspected ivory kingpins, feisal mohamed ali. for the first time in kenya,an ivory trafficker is behind bars. and that's thanks to supportfrom your embassy, through ambassador godec, andmany other organizations.
and while we're succeedinglocally in kenya, poaching is down, the problem acrossafrica is escalating, and the demand for ivoryis actually exploding. we're dealing with awildlife crisis alone. we're dealing withinternational wildlife crime. and that's why myorganization goes after traffickers. we're dealing with peoplewho are funding terrorism, and we're dealing with acrime that is fueled
by corruption. so we have two requests. the first is that you takethis message back to the american people. we're often asked,how can we help. it's very simple: tell theamerican people, don't buy ivory. it's the simplestway to help. secondly, we request thatthe usa takes a lead in
pursuing internationalwildlife traffickers with the same vigor and rigorthat you apply to money laundering and drug crimes. and we believe thatthis can be done through strengthening your legalassistance role not just in the demand countries, butsource countries and transit countries. because we know that thenumber of people involved in this crime is actuallyrelatively small compared to
those other crimes. and so we can crush thisvery quickly and end the war and save elephantsfor all of humanity. thank you. president obama: thank you. well, as you may havenoted, yesterday one of our announcements was to be evenstricter with respect to any ivory sales insidethe united states. i mean, we really arecracking down on that.
and with respect to theinternational networks, you're absolutely right thatthere's a connection between corrupt officials gettingpaid, criminals being armed, and the ivory trade. you have this linkage thatshould be of concern to all of us. and it's internationalin scope. most recently, the unitedstates is involved in negotiations with the asiancountries, the asia pacific
region -- somethingcalled the trans-pacific partnership. one of the things we'retrying to accomplish in the trade agreement is for manyof these countries with still strong demand forivory to start getting much more serious about theenforcement of their laws, and have it embedded in thetrade agreements that we initiate. so, hopefully, we'll be ableto influence not just what
happens in the unitedstates, but also in some of the areas where thedemand is heaviest. another topic where we'veseen some progress, and this is something that's close tomy heart because i've got two daughters, and close tomichelle's heart -- she's been involvedinternationally, trying to highlight the issue ofgirls' education with what we're calling the let girlslearn initiative that involves many of ourinternational agencies -- is
the issue ofgirls' education. obviously i've made it a bigemphasis in my speech here today. so we've got a couple ofpeople to talk about some of the work that's being donethrough civil society on this issue. and i'm going to start withkennedy odede of shining hope for communities. mr. odede: mr. president,it's my pleasure and
privilege to meet someonelike you who believes in grassroots change. you and i, we share onebackground that you did social work in chicago andi'm doing it in kibera where i grew up. i grew us whereby it'sreally hard to make it. there's no hope, no dream. many young men end upbeing -- go to crime. it's easy for them -- ifthey're not able to enjoy
even tourism becausethey don't have a dream. there's no hope in them. mr. president, i was reallyhaving a hard time in my community, but we said,enough is enough -- and, yes, we can! we came together with asoccer ball and that became a movement that reallycircled around girls' education. we built the first school inkibera called kibera school for girls and then startedproviding social services to
men, too. and that becameworld-changing. but my challenge is that howdo you take a grassroots thing like this acrossafrica, and by having more partners joining that? thank you so much. president obama: you know,organizations like yours, if you show that it works andyou're creating a model of success, then it's morelikely that it gets adopted
in other places. people learn from seeingsomething succeed that people might not havebelieved before could happen. and if they see that aschool for girls in kibera, with all the poverty there,is successful, that means it can succeed anywhere. so we're very encouraged bythe good work that you're doing. now, we also have withus linet momposhi. linet is right there.
now, linet is a student andshe's here from pangani girls form two. linet. ms. momposhi: thank you,mr. president, for giving me this chance. let me speak with youactually of a friend of mine. at the age of 12, thisfriend -- she dropped out of school and underwentgenital mutilation. in my community, afterundergoing such this, the
(inaudible) said, sheis ready for marriage. she was married to a manolder than her, twice her age. and now at the age of 15,she has three children. she's not able to care forthem, for their education. she milks the cows in themorning and sells the milk so that she can havesomething to give to her children. for me, i got an opportunityto be at a boarding school in kakenya center.
i had all the chance tostudy and i had all the time. i learned to milk the cowsfor my mom and prepare my siblings to goback to school. but now i'm studying inpangani girls, and become the first girlin the center. and now i would like to bea cardiologist and study at harvard university. president obama:that sounds good. ms. momposhi: and also iwould like to set an example
to the girls in my communitythat a girl can really become a cardiologist. president obama:that's wonderful. linet, hold on. you were so inspiring. give linet the mic back. linet, how oldare you right now? ms. momposhi:i'm 16 years old. president obama:you're 16 years old.
and how did you come to beable to go to the boarding school? ms. momposhi: i was helpedby kakenya, the kakenya center. and that's how i go tostudy in kakenya center. and my dreams startedworking in that center where i had a chance to go tomaryhill but i went to pangani girls. president obama: so therewas a center there, and by you coming into the center,then you started having
bigger dreams about whatyou might be able to do? ms. momposhi: okay, i neverused to have big dreams like now. before joining the center, inever knew what i was going to do because i neverhad any hope in life. president obama: yes. so, linet, i'm sure you'regoing to be an excellent cardiologist. so we're very proud of you.
but it just sends a messagein terms of why civil society is so important. so many of our young peoplewho have a lot of talent, but they just don'tknow what's possible. and sometimes the mostimportant thing is just to show them that this is whatcould happen in your life if you work hard. and when they have a visionabout what could happen, then suddenly they'remotivated, the same way that
linet is motivated. and she stars having biggerambitions about what's possible. that's part of thereason why civil society organizations that creatementorship programs and programs for young peopleto interact in different professions and talk topeople who have succeeded is so important. and in fact, in the unitedstates i've set up something called my brother'skeeper, designed to target
disadvantaged youth sothat they are connected to mentorship programs verysimilar to some of the work that resulted inlinet being inspired. in fact, we have youngpeople who are mentors at the white house and weconnect them with all of our senior staff. and i have dinner withthem and give them advice. i don't know if they listento the advice, but i think they do.
linet, you're a veryfind young woman. congratulations. we're very proud of you. so one of the issues,obviously, that's been of concern lately inkenya is terrorism. this is an area where i'mworking extensively with the government. this is something that we're concerned about internationally. and obviously given whathappened in places like
westgate and garissa, kenyais a source of concern as well. but as i said in the pressconference yesterday, one of the important lessons thatwe've learned is that you can't just fight terrorismthrough military and the police. you also have to changepeople's hearts and minds, and give them a sense thatthey're included in the society and enlist themin assisting in fighting against terrorism. and so i actually think thatit's important to include
civil society in thefight against terrorism. that's what we're doingin the united states. that's what we need to dohere in kenya as well. and so we've got a couple oforganizations that are here that i want to call on justto talk about the kind of work they're doing and whatthey're finding on the ground in dealing withthis very important issue. and i'm going to start withhassan ole nado, who is with supkem.
he's the deputy secretarygeneral -- which is a very important title. but, please, go ahead. and describe for uswhat supkem does. is it regionally located? is it national? or is it morealong the coast? tell me aboutwhat it's doing. mr. ole nado: thank you,mr. president, for this
opportunity and also forhaving time with civil society in kenya. the supreme council of kenyamuslims is an umbrella organization of muslimorganizations in the country, particularly mosqueand muslim committees all over the country. and also, we nowhave community-based organizations that areworking at the community level, but they found timeto advocate and to be part
of the supreme councilof kenya muslims. we are here, and we havebeen doing this work for the last two years because weare a little bit late in the journey, but we realize thatit's very important for the community to be engaged. we have worked before bydeveloping a countering violent extremismadvocacy chapter. that calls for communityleaderships, calls for government engagement, andalso brings other civil
society organizationsonboard so that we can be able to dealwith this issue. as you have already said,terrorism is not about military or the policeor other things. it's more ofcommunity issues. so it has both securityand social aspect of it. and i really thank youbecause of the white house summit, which i wasprivileged to attend with hussein khalidof haki africa.
and after that particularmeeting, when we came back to kenya we found anopportunity to engage with government. because before that whitehouse summit, the engagement or relationship betweencivil society was a little bit lower. but thanks to thatconference, that really opened up the government toengage with civil society. through that meeting,actually, we have been able,
as civil society, toengage government in the development of a nationalcounter-violent extremism strategy. and i hope the governmentwill (inaudible) the strategy very soon. we know a number oforganizations who have been involved in this part ofcommunity projects, like haki africa and muhuriare currently facing some problems.
and i hope through yourengagement with the government, you'd be ableto raise concerns of these institutions. i know that the americangovernment cannot engage organizations that haverelationships with terrorist organizations. and i that is one of thethings that really think it is important to protectinstitutions or individuals who engaged in thisparticular work.
at the moment, we are alsoworking with the returnees in this country -- we haveyoung men and women who are somehow misadvised and foundthemselves in they found a way of gettingback to their country, and there are not clearways of engagement. i work with the governmentof kenya because they gave amnesty to those who arewilling to be given the amnesty. at the moment, we are reallyengaging them, and the government is also openingup -- because at the moment
now, they are also creatingwhat they call interagency coordination centers at thecounty level where all arms of government are talkingtogether before they take actions againstsuspected terrorists. the muslim community, theleadership are also now onboard and they are reallyworking on the areas of counter-narrative, becausethere are two narratives here. there is the ideologicalnarrative and there is the old narrative ofmarginalization and
other aspects. we talk about perceptionsin the narrative of marginalization -- they arereal issues that we are calling the governmentto address those issues. one of the issues is thelack of identification documents for young people. i think it is very importantthat that should too should be addressed. we have a collapse of theeducation system in the
northeast because ofterror organizations. and i hope, as struggle tofind ways and answers of how to deal with this problem,it is important for usaid, which i know they've donequite a lot of work in this country, to consider gettinginto education much more by engaging communities sothat communities can run community-based organizationeducation systems in the northeast so that we areavoid getting terrorists of tomorrow.
because we have over 400,000young children who are not going to school becauseeverybody else is pulled from there, from the region. maybe if i could speak formany days, but i really thank you for thisopportunity and also for having time with the civilsociety organizations. before you give up themic, let me just ask you a question. i'm glad that because of thewhite house summit that we
had on countering violentextremism, that there was a more constructiveconversation that was taking place. i think that point that youmake is so important, which is reaching youngpeople early. what i hear you saying is,is that one of the problems that exists in certainparts of the country now is because of fear, in somecases, and some of the existing structures notoperating as well as they
should, that you just havechildren who don't have access to educationalresources and a structure, and then that makesthem more vulnerable to recruitment into anorganization that can give them some sense of purposeor meaning, even if it ends up being a verynegative one. is that what's i'munderstanding? mr. ole nado: yes, it'sactually -- that is what it is. because after theunfortunate terror attacks
of mandera, and later on theuniversity in garissa, those who were targeted -- becausethose are targeting were doing it deliberately tocreate interreligious tension in the country. so we have those people, whoare non-muslims from the region, pulling out of theregion because they feel it's no longer safe for themto remain in that region. but by pulling out, theregion has been exposed because it doesn't haven'tadequate resources to
address this gapthat has emanated. so to me, i think one of thethings that need to consider is we need to build localorganizations that can really break that gap at thecommunity level, it's more sustainable because they'recommunities at a lower level. that's very useful. somebody else i want to hearfrom is fauzia abdi ali, who's with womeninternational society. ms. abdi ali: thank you.
i must start bycongratulating you. the speech was really,really good because it really advocated for issuesof women, which is an area of passion. i'm not speaking as wistoday, i'm actually speaking as sisters without borders,because i chair a platform of very inspirational womenwho work every single day in the field of peace andsecurity, in particular countering violentextremism.
so the women come fromdifferent parts of the country -- from northernkenya, from the coastal region, and evenhere in nairobi. and now i engage mentees alltowards ensuring we have a peaceful society. we empower women fromthe household level to understand prevention, tounderstand early warning signs of radicalizationof their kids, to look at prevention towards stigmathat is associated with
those mothers whose kidshave actually joined violent extremism, or eventheir spouses. we also look at empoweringthem through support groups where they can have aspace to engage with other like-minded people and evenlearn from each other. and we also ensure that thiscross-border engagement between those withinnorthern kenya and those within the coastal region sothat they don't feel alone in this whole conceptof violent extremism.
what is normally importantfor me is, when it comes to issues of peace andsecurity, engagement with women is still minimal, andwe're still playing catchup. when we are pushing fortwo-thirds, even within our own parliamentary systems,we are not looking at what these two-thirdswill be doing. and for us, we are pushingtowards them having some concrete things that theywill talk about within parliament.
and in particular isthe issue of education. because for the women innorthern kenya, their children are actually notgoing to school; they're not getting quality education. and as hassan has said, thisends up becoming a society that has young people whoare not well educated and are more susceptibleto violent extremism. secondly, it's theissue of the economy. in places such as the coastregion, this has affected
the economy. and this trickles down tothe household level, and it affects the woman's oldeconomy within that structure. so how can we have eventhis conversation going on? and we try and link thisto the national level. we also ensure that thesediscussions around policy on prevention hasa gender lens. because the reasons why boysjoin and the reason why girls join isvery different.
but when we are searchingfor solutions in policy, we try and group them together. so sometimes, even when weare looking at issues of amnesty, we are not reallyopening up that space to understand if we are goingto put a rehabilitation center, how do we make itdifferent from when engaging with a boy and whenengaging with a girl. so that is verycritical for us. one key thing i would loveto put across is you started
the first -- theconversation -- the white house conference infebruary, and it brought a lot more conversationhere through the regional conference we had. and i wanted toelevate that. in terms of ensuring it'smore sustainable so that it pushes away from justdiscussion is to push for a hub that can beplaced in africa. the hub we have is actuallyin the uae, the united arab
emirates -- which is usefulfor research and ensuring there's more conversationaround how private sector gets involved, how civilsociety and governments can come together. but we don't havesuch hubs in africa. so in most cases, when youhear about capacity-building of cve, we have to gooutside africa to get this capacity-building. so why not actually startthinking about either
expanding the global centerto have a hub in kenya, or somewhere in africa foreasy access for even the grassroots initiatives andcivil society to also be engaged. that was an excellentpresentation. and i will very muchtake your remarks under advisement in terms of thepossibilities of setting up a hub. the idea of women beingactively engaged in
countering violent extremismis absolutely critical. mothers tend tobe more sensible. i'm just telling the truth. (laughter and applause) and obviously the youngerwe're reaching children and giving them the sense thatviolence is not the right path, and that's beingreinforced by their primary caregiver, which typicallyis the mother, and the idea of peer-to-peer support butalso some peer pressure in
terms of making sure thatmothers are involved in steering their children inthe right way -- i think that's a wonderful model. very exciting. i just learnedsomething there. so i've got a littlebit more time. what i'd like to do now isi'm just going to call on some people. but i'm not going to be ableto call on everybody, so i
just want to say in advance. but i'm going to start withthis young lady right there, in the sweater. and pleaseintroduce yourself. audience member: thankyou, mr. president. i am the ceo for kamakgirls initiative. kamak girls came aboutbecause of a problem -- i came from a family that had45 children; out of it, 35 who are living.
out of the 35, 20 weregirls, 15 were boys. and out of the 20 girls,only 11 went to school, four of them up to secondary, andone now up to the phd level. so my father wasreally for education. he really tried his best. but when he passed away in2004, i realized as a bigger girl, number three, that ihad work to do -- follow these girls who dropped outof school and see that they can live a more meaningfullife towards education,
health and economicdevelopment. so i gathered the four girlswho are with me, and we started visiting them andfind out how they are living. right now, i managed with mythree sisters to take two to the university. one has completedand has gotten a job. one is in third form. two to diploma level; one ofthem we pushed and we opened at a city schoolwhere she was married.
and the other onewent to forest school. and to point, one of themwhere she was staying, she reached a class 8 and shehas opened an inner-city school. president obama: excellent. audience member: our nextstep is to evaluate -- when we evaluate, we get girls oftheir range so that they can see what these girls havedone, and also help the girls in theparticular area. president obama: okay.
audience member: yes. and apart from that, i'veworked for 34 years, but i've not gone very farbecause i started building our children from the(inaudible) and i started working and continue to. i have three children. they have not gone very farbecause i'm taking care of these people. so my request is that thisgroup can move further so
that whenever these girlsare married, i can -- not only those girls of ours,but also the girls in that area can also seethat they can do it. well, thank you foryour good efforts. this young lady right there. i ask everybody to try to beas brief as possible so i can get as many additionalquestion as possible. audience member: thank youvery much, mr. president. i am here on behalf ofthe devolution forum.
that's a civil societycoalition that was set up early last year because wewere very concerned about challenges to theimplementation of devolution in kenya. and so i'll speak to just,very briefly, four points. i have a morecomprehensive memorandum. but one is, we're veryconcerned about the structure developmentassistance on devolution. a lot of it is beingchanneled through the
national government to go tothe county governments, and this is contrary tothe constitution which recognizes the two levels ofgovernment as having shared serenity. now, this is a ploy by thegovernment to keep power centralized. it's really a method ofcontrolling the governance structure. so we find that even withthe u.s., some of your
programs are being channeledin this way, through the national government, forthe county government. and we find that thisis bad for devolution. we find also the world bankvery much is channeling -- they are fundingin this direction. the other thing that i'dlike to address is -- to do with the war on terror. we've noted that this anintergovernmental aspect to the war on terror.
and because the securityreforms have not been implemented to the pace thatwas supposed to be, we find that these intergovernmentalinstitutions, such as the county policing authorities,the community policing, ideologically and evenstructurally have not been set up. ideologically, we find thatthey are being taken as more information-gathering ratherthan community policing where communities getactively involved in their
community policing. so we are very concernedthat as the u.s. assists the u.s. government, are you goingto look at the ideological foundations of thestructures that will engage citizens and the countrygovernments in the security process? because if we don't do that,then it will undermine the war on terror and security.
i'll pick one more because i-- president obama: because you're running out of time. audience member:i'm out of time. there's a trend in africawhere the civic space is being closed. and we're looking atcountries like rwanda, ethiopia. we're lookingat our country. and we're wondering, what'sthe response of the u.s. government?
we heard your excellentremarks and sentiments, but of course you are workingwith a government that has demonstrated an intent toclose the civic space. so what's your approachgoing to be as you consolidate your work withthe kenyan government in terms of supportingcivil society? we're finding even supportfor civil society is not as rigorous as itshould have been. president obama: well, thoseare all excellent remarks.
let me just broadly talkabout devolution and then we'll talk about how weare interacting with the national government oncivil society issues. with respect to devolution,kenya now has a constitution and it has laid out howdevolution is supposed to proceed. that will be subject tointerpretation and legal challenges andpolitical arguments. that's probably not an issuethat the united states will
be weighing in on deeply. and the reason i say that isbecause we have a system of government with a national-- or federal government, and then state governmentsand then local governments. and the relationship betweenthe federal government and the states, the relationshipbetween federal law and local laws is extremelycomplicated and has been the source of constantdemocratic debate, argument, challenges, court cases.
and that's been goingon for 250 years now. i mean, that was part ofthe original issue in the formation of the unitedstates of america -- how much power remained with thestates and how much power went to the federalgovernment. so the challenge thatwe would have as an international -- or as anoutside party as the united states of america is thathow that plays itself out within kenya is ultimatelyup to the kenyan people.
because there are argumentsactually on both sides when it comes to nationalversus state power. in the united states, forexample, those who wanted to maintain racial segregationconsistently used the argument that states havethe right to do what they want, and the federalgovernment doesn't have the authority to enforce civilrights laws that are discriminating againstminorities at the state level. and i actually think, inthat situation, the national
government needed to say tostates that had segregation laws -- you have to stop. and national law and therights of individuals that are in the bill of rightsare superior to whatever challenges -- or whateverclaims are being made for states' rights. now, on the other hand,there are times where the national government isinvolving itself in states unnecessarily, and imposingviews that may not be
properly adapted tothe local region. so i guess what i'm sayingis, is that that's an issue that's -- it would bevery difficult for us as outsiders to tryto figure out. what we can do is to say,consistent with democracy, you have a constitution; youshould abide by what's in your constitution. and you can make your owndecisions about the systems that you want to arrange andthe balance between federal
and state power, orlocal power or counties. and as long as it'sproceeding in a legal process consistent with theconstitution, we're okay with that. so i just wanted to behonest, that's not probably an issue where i'm going tobe asking the ambassador of the united states to getdeeply involved in because it's just too complicated. every country is going tobe different in terms of
finding that balance. now, the issue of civilsociety is different, because we do believe thatif you have laws that restrict people's abilityto organize and speak out peacefully, and participatein their government and petition their government-- if those become too restrictive, then that, inany society, contradicts the basic premise of democracy. and i recognize that therehave been some concerns
about some of the laws thathave either been proposed or are being interpreted inways that appear to restrict the legality of certainactivities by certain groups. rather than to sayspecifically what we're for and against -- becausefrankly, i don't know all the details -- what i willsay is this: we will look suspiciously on laws thatsay certain peaceful groups can't operate just becausethey might be critical of the government, for example.
i mean, our bias as acountry and in our foreign policy is to say thatif a group is peacefully organizing and advocatingfor issues, that they should be able to do so without excessive government interference. now, if the groups areviolent, then that's a different issue. but you heard me in my pressconference yesterday -- i don't counterterrorism to beused as an excuse then to
crush legitimate dissent. and we will guardagainst that as well. so we have every intentionto work on a whole range of common interests withthe kenyan government. there are areas where wehave a complete agreement, and we will work through thekenyan government in order to accomplishthose common goals. we want to be helpful andsupportive of the national agenda, but we'll also beworking with ngos and local
organizations atthe local level. many of the organizations that area we have been supporting. and what we'll do is we'llmake sure that in all of our interactions and engagementswith the government, when we see an organization, forexample, that we have determined is, in fact,legitimate and is peaceful, that it is in some waysbeing suppressed, we will speak up and we'll bevery clear about it. so we're going to beengaged, we're going
to be involved. but as i was telling --i met with some of the opposition leaders verybriefly -- those who are not in government --after the speech. and i told them, you have alegally elected government and we're going to work withthat government, but we're also always going to belistening to all elements of kenyan society. it was funny, though -- oneof the opposition leaders --
i won't mention who -- wassaying, you know, we really need you to press the kenyangovernment on some issues. and i had to say to him, isaid, i remember when you were in government - -- you kept on saying, whyare you trying to interfere with kenya's business;you should mind your own business. so everybody wants theunited states to be very involved whenthey're not in power.
and when they're in power,they want the united states to mind their own business. i think the way that we aregoing to operate is just to continue to be honest andto promote the kinds of policies and intereststhat we believe in. but ultimately -- and thisis probably a good way to close -- ultimately i justwant to remind everybody that kenya's prosperity, itsfreedom, its opportunity, the strength of itsdemocracy is going to depend
on kenyans. it's not going todepend on somebody else. there was a time,post-colonial, cold war, when the big major powerswere constantly interfering and determining whatwas happening in other countries. and frankly, the unitedstates sometimes was involved in trying to decidewho should be in charge of countries.
but that honestlyhas changed. our policy is to respect thesovereignty of nations and to recognize that it'sultimately up to the people of those countries todetermine who leads them and their form of government. but we are not going toapologize for believing in certain values and ideals. and i may interact witha government, out of necessity, where wehave common interests.
but if there are areas wherei disagree, i will also be very blunt in mydisagreement. and that's true whether it'srussia or china, or some of our european friends, or agreat friend like kenya. the good news is that, overall, the united states and kenya have so much incommon, so much shared history, such strongpeople-to-people ties, that the disagreements we have,regardless of who's in power, tend to be far fewerthan all the areas where we
have work to do together. but i'm very encouraged tosee that we've got such a strong civil society that'sgoing to help move kenya forward, and also helpcreate a stronger relationship between theunited states and kenya for years to come. so thank you for being here. this was a greatconversation.
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