The President of Finland Alexander Stubb has opened up on
the reason he decided to visit Kenya, from a three-day state visit.
According to Stubb, he was surprised that despite Kenya and
Finland having good relations for over six decades, no President had made a
point of visiting.
“First, there has never been a state visit by a Finnish
President, which I was quite baffled about because we do have good relations for over 60 years and we’ve been quite close countries.
“Secondly, I met your President at a peace conference in
Switzerland last summer and I said can I come and knock on your and he invited
me,” he said.
The Finnish President noted that another reason he made the
visit is to pick lessons on the direction the world could be taking with the new
world order.
In this, he said, Kenya is one of the swing nations that
will decide which direction the world will move towards.
“I think we are witnessing a change of the world order, a
similar moment that leaders of 1918, 1945, 1960s, 1989 and so I do think that
Kenya is going to be one of the swing states deciding which direction the world
is going to tilt and I wanted to come here and learn,” Stabb said.
He added that the relations between Kenya and Finland have
been strong with the countries sharing various similarities, especially in their
journeys to where they are today.
Stabb further said that these similarities extend to the
values the two countries share.
“It is very solid. There are certain strange similarities.
Finland began as a poor country and one thing led to another and we have become
a fairly successful country. Kenya as well, since independence in 1960s has
emerged and developed. Demographically, we are different; we are 5.6 million
people and you are 56 million. We have done a lot of cooperation before, usually
on development, but now it is much more business, the values base is very
similar.”
Stabb and his spouse Suzanne Innes-Stub arrived in Kenya on
Monday morning and were received by Deputy President Kithure Kindiki.