Hillary Clinton With Staff and Families of Embassy Nairobi

No photos are available from this meet-and-greet at the moment.  If any arrive, I will add them.  A few came in this morning  from the Embassy Kampala meet-and-greet. I added them to that post.

Remarks at a Meeting With Staff and Families of Embassy Nairobi

Remarks

Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State

Nairobi, Kenya

August 4, 2012

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AMBASSADOR NOLAN: Good afternoon everyone. For those of you whom I haven’t met in my five days now – (laughter) – here in Kenya, my name is Steve Nolan. I’m the charge d’affaires, thanks to the Secretary.
We are absolutely delighted today to have so many representatives of our mission finally welcoming Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, welcome her back to Kenya. I think everybody returns to Kenya. I have returned a few times. So I would like to say, Madam Secretary, Karibu Kenya. Welcome to Kenya.
SECRETARY CLINTON: Thank you.
AMBASSADOR NOLAN: Madam Secretary, we are delighted that you’ve chosen to come to Kenya at such an important time in this nation’s history, with national elections coming next March and as Kenya continues to implement its new constitution. This mission is critical and involved in that transformation, and the hard work that they have done is helping this country to progress.
We all take great pride in the partnership – the strong partnership – that has gone on for nearly five decades between the United States and Kenya. And these are the people who are responsible for making it stronger. This is one of the best missions in Africa. It is also one of the largest missions in Africa, over 20 agencies, doubled in size since I was last here.
Your personal interest in Kenya and in our efforts, as a close friend and ally of this country, means a great deal to all of us. We look forward to hearing your message to us today. And to paraphrase the words of Isak Dinesen, I’d like to say that here you are, where you want to be. (Laughter.)
And without any further delay, I now present to you our honored guest, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. (Applause.)
SECRETARY CLINTON: Thank you. Well, Ambassador Nolan, thank you very, very much. We’re delighted that you have taken on this responsibility to be the charge. And you bring so much experience as well as a great appreciation for this magnificent country and this incredibly important mission.
I’m also pleased that Assistant Secretary Johnnie Carson is here with us, a former ambassador to Kenya. (Applause.) I was kidding him today, he is so popular in Kenya he could run for office – (laughter) – which may turn out to be a good thing. (Laughter.)
Well, I personally am delighted to be back here in Nairobi. As Ambassador Nolan said, for 50 years, we have had a strong partnership between not only our governments but our people. And this large, significant mission is at the center of that partnership and friendship. It’s really the hub of our work in this region. From our efforts to stabilize Somalia to our engagement in the Indian Ocean, it’s a big set of responsibilities, and I am so proud of the way that this mission, with 20 different agencies as part of the United States Government presence here, really steps up time after time.
I can’t come to Nairobi and speak before an Embassy audience without remembering that next week will mark the date that our Embassy here, along with the Embassy in Dar es Salaam were bombed 14 years ago. We have not and will not forget those who were lost and injured that terrible day, and we have not and will not back down from our efforts to combat and defeat violent terrorism and extremism. The response of the Embassy community to that terrible day was extraordinary. We have recovered, rebuilt, and rededicated ourselves and gone on to even more important and lasting work.
I know that for many of you this last year has been a difficult year of transition, but despite the challenges you have continued to work with our partners here to promote democracy and economic growth. We have spent a lot of time today talking about the upcoming elections, the hard work being done to implement the constitution, to reform the courts, reform the police, to really make sure that the promise of the constitution is delivered to the people who overwhelmingly voted for it.
You have supported efforts to fight corruption, preserve the environment, promote trade and tourism. You’re stalwartly in favor of and producing results in the areas of health and education. You’ve helped administer over $350 million in humanitarian assistance, largely food aid, which is part of the nearly $12 billion in humanitarian assistance that the United States has provided the Horn of Africa over the past two years.
Now, to build on that good work and in recognition of the challenges, today I’m announcing an additional $54 million in humanitarian assistance for the Horn. (Applause.) So that will be on top of the 1.2 billion, and that will include 15 million specifically for Kenya. This funding will assist vulnerable populations living in conflict zones or hit by natural disasters, such as flooding or droughts. We’re particularly focused on Kenya, Somalia, and Ethiopia.
Now, when an Embassy works as well as this one, it’s because you have a such a strong community. And I especially want to thank the family members of all the U.S. Government employees, Foreign Service, and Civil Service. Your work is so important because your support is so critical. And we acknowledge it and thank you for it.
And I also want to say a special word of thanks to our local staff. Will all the Kenyans here raise your hands, all of you who have been here, the backbone? (Applause.) I frequently say that ambassadors and secretaries come and go, but the local staff – you’re here. You’re the memory bank and the nerve center, and every year you help to train up a new set of Americans. But you keep this enduring relationship going and growing, and we could not do our work without you.
So on behalf of President Obama, who has a very special place in his heart for this country, and myself and the entire team in Washington, thank you. And I especially thank you for the work that went into this visit. It was a packed day of many meetings, many consultations, all of which gave Ambassador Nolan and Ambassador Carson and myself greater insight into how the United States can support the upcoming elections.
These will be critical elections. Because of the violence in 2007, Kenya lost more than a billion dollars in investment. The GDP dropped significantly. And when government leaders ask me to help them do more to bring business and investment to this country, my quick response is then you do your part to make sure this election is free, fair, and transparent and that all Kenyans accept the results, and do your part to speak out against divisiveness, against anything that would undermine the unity of this country. Because ultimately these elections are totally within the control of the Kenyans themselves, but the United States, as your friend and your partner, want to do all we can to make sure that they are successful.
So thank you for your service and for representing the United States so well. And now let me come by and meet you and thank you in person. Thank you all. (Applause.)

Hillary Clinton at Embassy Nairobi

Embassy Meet and Greet

Remarks

Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State

Nairobi, Kenya

August 6, 2009

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AMBASSADOR RANNEBERGER: Well, please everyone, please. Thank you. Well, thank you. Thank you very much, everyone, for coming. I am extremely honored today to have with us the Secretary of State. It’s really a great pleasure and a privilege to welcome you, Madame Secretary, to the U.S. mission, and really to our mission community. That you’ve come to Africa and to Kenya first so early in your tenure is most encouraging to us all, and it does send, I think, a really impressive message of the Administration’s determination to engage with the African continent in a major way.
In your recent address to the Council on Foreign Relations, you emphasized, quote, “a new era of American engagement,” in part through the exercise of, quote “smart power,” unquote. Clearly, Madame Secretary, we have that opportunity and challenge in Kenya to support full implementation of the reform agenda. And your visit has been instrumental, I think, in advancing that substantially.
Madame Secretary, while engaging across the foreign policy spectrum you have also found the time to encourage greater openness and dialogue within the State Department, thus fostering a true team spirit. In that spirit, I am honored to invite you to address our superb team.
SECRETARY CLINTON: Thank you so much.
AMBASSADOR RANNEBERGER: And let me just note that we also have two congresspeople with us, Congressman Payne, Congressman Lowey. We’re delighted to have you with us. And of course, the famous – infamous – whatever – Johnnie Carson, who – I don’t know where he is -- former ambassador here who’s well-loved. (Applause.)
SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, I will certainly tell Johnnie that he was applauded in absentia. (Laughter.) But part of the reason he’s not here is that the trip that this team put together was absolutely first-rate, and it was not only well thought through and well executed, but it was demanding and very much on point in terms of the issues that you’re addressing every day here at this mission.
I want to begin by thanking the ambassador. I appreciate the terrific job he’s doing here in Kenya, and he’s made a point of telling me what a pleasure it is to have a first-rate team like all of you. We know that there is an incredible amount of pride that the ambassador feels in the work you do. Well, I do as well, and so does your country. And I thank you for working here to further and deepen our relationship with an important friend and partner.
I am constantly reminded as I travel around the world and get a chance to work with our great teams of the professionalism and the dedication that you evidence. And of course, this team is one of the biggest we have. It’s the biggest in Sub-Saharan Africa, and it competes with Cairo for being the biggest on the entire continent. And I know that it is a team filled with not only dedicated Foreign Service officers and civil servants from the State Department and USAID, but from many agencies across our government as well as our locally engaged staff who are keys to our success here, as they are to our success and our efforts around the world. (Applause.)
Oh, here comes the famous Johnnie Carson, so you can applaud him in person. (Applause.)
Those of you who’ve had the pleasure of working with Johnnie – and I first met him when he was ambassador to Zimbabwe, when Zimbabwe was Zimbabwe all of those years ago -- (laughter) – you know that he is tireless and extremely dedicated. I did tell him just a few hours ago that I honestly thought he was trying to kill me. This is our first stop and we’ve already jammed so many important events and meetings into it that it’s hard to even think that we’ve got six more countries to go. But I’m thrilled to have persuaded Ambassador Carson to become Assistant Secretary Carson, and I think that when I say and when President Obama said in his important speech in Ghana that we intend to make Africa a priority, you can count on Johnnie Carson to make sure that happens. (Applause.)
I’m also delighted to have with us two members of Congress. Congressman Donald Payne is well known to many of you who have served in Africa. He is probably the most dedicated member of Congress to our relationship with the continent. He knows many of the leaders and has traveled extensively, so I’m so pleased he could be here. I told President Sheikh Sharif when I had a very long and productive meeting with him just a little while ago that I appreciated the fact that when Donald was in Somalia, he actually got out safely. This mission doesn’t deserve any more crises than* you’ll have to deal with.
And of course, that brings to mind, tragically, my visit to the memorial this morning honoring the victims of the attack 11 years ago. I met a number of the embassy personnel who were in that attack who suffered injuries who have bravely carried on, but the courage of our embassy personnel and the continued commitment of those who both lost loved ones, who were injured as well, is an incredible inspiration. And the resilience of Mission Kenya is a testament to the deep values that the United States and Kenya share. And I really was touched by the memorial and what it stands for and its efforts to try to renew a spirit of peace and commitment to a better future.
I know how instrumental you all were as well in the aftermath of the last election, the violence that resulted from it. You played a key role in helping to bring the Kenyan Government and the country back from the brink of disaster to forge a coalition agreement, and now we’ve got to realize the reforms that were supposed to be part of the agreement: a new constitution, reforming the electoral system, reforming the judiciary, reforming the police, and bringing to justice those who committed crimes and violence in the aftermath of the election. And to end the impunity for corruption is critical to the future of Kenya. And I’m proud that our embassy team has stood for those fundamental values, certainly before, but especially in the aftermath of the election. Yesterday, at the AGOA forum, I brought a message from President Obama.
I have relayed messages in every meeting and interview that I have done since I’ve been here, and I can’t imagine any embassy that the President would be prouder of than this embassy here in Kenya. He cares deeply about this country and its future. He asked me to deliver a very tough message, which I did word-for-word to the leaders that I met with yesterday. But it is a message that is accompanied by the love he feels and the connection he feels to this country. And I can only hope that his dreams for Kenya and Kenyans’ dreams for themselves will be realized with our help, with our support, with our encouragement, and with exercising, perhaps, some tough-minded efforts and actions that can send the right message to those who are working so hard to realize the reforms that are needed.
I am grateful to each and every one of you for your sacrifice, and I know the sacrifice of your families. It is not easy, serving abroad in today’s climate. It is not easy, sometimes, being a locally engaged staff member for our mission. But what you’re doing is very important, and especially now with our new President’s commitment to making Africa a centerpiece – not an afterthought, but a centerpiece – of American foreign policy, your role and responsibility becomes even more important.
This has been a very important trip. It’s been an extremely demanding one, and I am grateful for the contributions that each and every one of you has made. But I have been to many embassies over the course now of about 16 years serving in the White House and the Senate and now in my new position, and I know that there is a custom that is looked forward to, to be followed called a wheels-up party. (Laughter.) And I can’t think of a group that has earned a wheels-up party more than this one, Ambassador. So I can only hope that when you finally see the tail of my plane get up and off the tarmac, you can breathe a deep sigh of relief at a job well done, take a few minutes to celebrate this wonderful evidence of the close relationship that we have and the work ahead of us, and then, as you always do, get back to work to make the dreams that we hold for a better world see reality right here in Kenya.
Thank you all and God bless you.

Ceremony Commemorating Victims of Embassy Bombing

Remarks

Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State

Memorial Park, Nairobi, Kenya

August 6, 2009

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I appreciate greatly the commitment of the Kenyan government to partner with us and other nations and people around the world against the continuing threat of terrorism which respects no boundaries, no race, ethnicity, religion, but is aimed at disrupting and denying the opportunity for people to make their own decisions and live their own lives

Hillary Clinton at Wreath Laying at Memorial Park Commemorating Victims of August 7, 1998 Embassy Nairobi Bombings

Remarks at Wreath Laying at Memorial Park Commemorating Victims of August 7, 1998 Embassy Bombings

Remarks

Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State

Nairobi, Kenya

August 6, 2009

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(In progress) not only commit oneself to work in peace among peoples, but to stand as a living symbol against those who favor death over life. The people also with me are the trustees of this memorial. I want to thank all of you. I know that this was a labor of love and commitment, and it was a private sector/civil society mission that has manifest itself in this visible reminder of all that was lost on August 7th, 1998.
I remember with my husband meeting a lot of the American survivors and their families and those who had not survived, and we spent time with each of them. It was so heart-wrenching to hear the stories of loss and pain. And it is heartening to me now to be standing here to see what that loss and pain has been (inaudible).
I appreciate greatly the commitment of the Kenyan Government to partner with us and other nations and peoples around the world against the continuing threat of terrorism, which respects no boundaries, no race, ethnicity, religion, but is aimed at disrupting and denying the opportunity of people to make their own decisions and live their own lives.
So this is for us and my delegation, particularly the three members of Congress who are with me today, an opportunity to renew our resolve, our resolve to do all that we can to ensure that these attacks don’t take more innocent lives in the future, and to renew our commitment to search for peace and reconciliation with all who are willing to turn from the path of violence. And I am particularly pleased that the survivors are here, and I want to thank them personally for the example that they have set.
And I’ve told this young man, who lost both of his parents, but has just done very well in school and is being raised by his grandparents, that I am going to tell President Obama about him, because I want President Obama to know about the incredible courage that you have shown in the years since you’ve lost so much.
So to all of you, thank you. Thank you and God bless you and God bless Kenya.