Says Africans must begin to believe in themselves and the continent.

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President William Ruto has said the African Union requires radical reforms in order to lead Africa into a prosperous continent commensurate with the resources it has.

He said his colleague heads of states gave him an assignment to work on the reforms of the AU institutions and organs to make them fit for purpose as Africa looks into the future.

“I can tell you without an iota of doubt that the African Union, as is today, is not fit for purpose. It is not fit to provide the leadership that this continent needs going into the future,” Ruto said.

He spoke during the closing ceremony of the third Mashariki Cooperation Conference in Diani, Kwale county, on Friday evening.

The conference brought together policymakers, intelligence leaders, security experts and though leaders from over 76 countries across the world.

Ruto called on the intelligence chiefs to assist in figuring out the kind of AU that is needed to be able to unlock the potential of the continent.

He noted that Africa is endowed with many natural resources, including a youthful population, almost two thirds of the world’s remaining arable land, and huge deposits of minerals and gases.

He termed this as both an opportunity and a risk for the continent.

He said Africa needs to take advantage of the position that it is in because otherwise it can cause a major risk.

“There is a lot of resistance to the reform of the African Union. We must work together for us to have an organization that is fit for purpose, that can represent our continent appropriately and that can steer this continent into the future.

“My assignment to you is to assist us as leaders in this continent. I know that many of you speak to leaders, presidents in our continent, in some very personal way.

“For us to unlock the future of our continent we need a fit for purpose African Union,” Ruto said.

He said he will be making proposals on how the reforms and restructuring is going to happen so as to make the AU an organisation of the 21^st century.

President Ruto said Africa as a continent, and Africans as a people, must begin to believe in themselves and the continent.

“In this continent, there is enough for us to prosper. There is enough for us to grow wealth, create jobs, create opportunities, and develop our continent,” Kenya’s Head of State said.

He said too many times, African countries look for solutions outside Africa when they have the answers right in the continent.

“Whether we are talking about markets, jobs, resources, they are right here,” he said.

In Kenya, for example, there have been challenges of informal settlement, with about seven million Kenyans living in slums and other informal settlements.

This is a priority for the government, because every Kenyan deserves to live with dignity.

He said Kenya has been subdividing her agricultural land for settlement.

“We want to change that. We want to do land consolidation instead of land fragmentation. And we didn’t look for a solution outside Kenya. We found the solution right here,” the President said.

He noted the government has signed contracts worth about Sh516.8 billion to develop housing, markets and hostels for university and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) students using domestic resources.

Ruto said he has discussed this with his colleagues across the continent.

“As Africans, we need to take charge of our destiny. We need to mobilise domestic resources. There is no free lunch,” Ruto said.

He said resources sought from elsewhere usually come with strings attached and hidden agendas, and which resources must be paid for dearly.

Ruto said it is discouraging that although Africa has resources and assets, it still exports them raw because it does not have the financial muscle and the support from financial institutions to support processing of the raw resources.

“I want to implore on you as intelligence officers that as African governments it is important for us to develop and invest in African financial institutions.

“It is good to have the World Bank and the IMF but we need more capacity. We need to put more money in AfriExim Bank, Africa Finance Corporation, Africa Development Bank, Trade Development Bank, multinational African institution,” Ruto said.

He gave the example of Aliko Dangote, the Nigerian business mogul, who has built among the largest refineries in the world in Nigeria but could not find any financial institution to support him.

It is the AfriExim Bank, an African financial institution that gave him the money to develop that refinery, Ruto noted.