【Part 3】

Putting in place a new constitution and strengthening your institutions and the rule of law will not only unleash the energy of the youth, deepen the roots of your democracy, and ultimately guarantee your security -- it will also further open the door to major American development programs like the Millennium Challenge. There’s so much more we could do, and want to do, in partnership with you. It could provide millions of dollars in grant assistance to Kenya that you would know how to use well to build this great nation.

Reform will also encourage -- and I have -- I have been all over the world in my career. I promise you, foreign investment depends upon stability, transparency, the rule of law, and the crackdown on corruption. So if you make these changes, I promise you, new foreign private investment will come in like you’ve never seen and you will have a reinvigorated tourism industry that will exceed the billion dollars it was before the economic crisis. As I told your President and Prime Minister, who I met with jointly yesterday, Americans -- I can only speak for America, Americans want to do business here. You have everything that they would want to cooperate and participate here. They want to travel here. And if you provide the right climate, they will come -- and not only they, but the rest of the world will come. You are the keystone to East Africa -- literally, not figuratively -- you are the keystone.

Fostering the kind of change that is at hand is not up to the political elites, it’s up to you. It’s up to the Kenyan people. It’s up to each one of you. As President Obama said, “Africa’s future is up to Africans.” We can’t dictate it -- nor should we -- but you can, you can. And it’s virtually unlimited. Don’t let others determine for you. Don’t let others determine for Kenya what Kenyans think. Determine for yourselves the Kenya you actually need.

Democracies are most effective when people not only vote for them, but embrace their responsibilities under a democratic system -- when they commit to be active citizens, aware citizens, when they participate, when they vote.

Today, Kenya is having a great national debate about a new constitution. That debate will culminate in a referendum this August. The cooperation of [the] President and Prime Minister in support of the constitutional review process is extremely encouraging. But the ultimate responsibility, the real power, does not rest with them -- it rests with you. It rests with the people of Kenya. By your participation, by your vote -- as cynical as you may have become about the process -- by your participation, by your vote, you have before you a singular opportunity to strengthen Kenya’s democratic institutions, none like since the evening at midnight that that flag was unfurled, an opportunity to open up to opportunity to give a new generation new power to help Kenya realize its immense potential.

The United States strongly supports the process of constitutional reform, including providing assistance for voter registration and civic education, so that Kenyans are able to familiarize themselves with the draft constitution your parliament passed and allow you to make informed decisions. But, let me repeat, this is your decision, your decision alone. And the people of Kenya must make this choice -- a choice for Kenya by Kenyans.

And as you prepare to write a new history for your nation, resist those who try to divide you based on ethnicity or religion or region -- and above all, fear is a tool as old as mankind, and it’s been used with great effect in this country in the past. For too long -- for too long, opportunistic politicians have created an all-or-nothing system -- your group is either in or you’re out, and the resources of the state were treated as spoils for the winner, rather than the rightful birthright of the people of Kenya.

When this toxic brand of politics is taken to its logical extreme in Kenya’s post-election violence, the results, I think, shocked even all of you -- but it clearly shocked the world. Now, Kenyans must make a deliberate and difficult choice -- to reject the divisive politics, to reconcile their communities, to acknowledge the injustice of the past so you do not harbor deep-seated resentment in the future. This resolve requires a deep inner strength --strength you can, and should, derive from your diversity.

Turn Kenya’s youth into a source of innovation and vision. Dare to reach for transformational change -- the kind of change that might come around only once in your lifetime. I especially call on the young people -- the backbone of this country -- the next generation of Kenyan leaders. Your energy is contagious, and your enthusiasm is boundless. Your ideas and your voice can help create a peaceful, stable, democratic, and economically prosperous Kenya everyone here wants to see -- and, quite frankly, we want to see.

And you have a steadfast supporter in the United States. The United States of America’s relationship with Kenya is among the most important on the continent for us, one that has been strong and uninterrupted since your independence. Thousands of American Peace Corps volunteers have taught in your schools and villages. Hundreds of American businessmen have worked in American companies that have built their regional headquarters in Nairobi or Mombasa. And the U.S. government has established its largest embassy in sub-Saharan Africa in your capital.

In crisis and in celebration, we have forged a strong and enduring political and economic relationship. We have worked together as partners and friends to tackle some of the most difficult problems in the region. But true friendship -- and I hope you will forgive me, but true friendship demands honesty. So if our words are sometimes blunt, it’s because our faith in the possibilities of Kenya are unlimited.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I know from my personal experience, change is never easy. And change in circumstances like yours is extremely difficult. Fundamental change is never easy. But I also know from personal experience that it’s possible. I’ve seen it happen around the world. As a young senator, I’ve stood in the capitals of Sarajevo and Pristina -- in the Balkans. From the Balkans to the Middle East to Eastern Europe, I have seen dark paths transform, through the will of the people, to bring about brighter futures.

In the 1990s, I stood in Sarajevo, Bosnia, and in Pristina, Kosovo, and witnessed the god-awful carnage and the blood running in the rivers, the ethnic cleansing that we thought we’d never see again in Europe. I saw the carnage and the hate. I sat in refugee centers. I sat in homes and heard about how neighbors who had been friends for years literally hacked one another to death in their backyards once Slobodan Milosevic’s ugly, ugly violence took hold. The hate, it seemed to know no bounds. And it seemed like it would never end.

But, the people of those countries, they made a choice. They ultimately rejected violence. They drew a line on the past and today they are looking toward a future. And they’ve given up their own vile criminals to the international courts, which is part of the reconciliation that was needed, acknowledging their individual responsibilities.

It was a choice that not only is changing their future, but is changing the future of that entire portion of Europe. And just one year ago, I was in Romania celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the fall of communism and the wall. And I said then, “Now, we think of central Europe” -- “when we think of Central Europe, we don’t think of what we can do for you, but what we can do with you.”

My prayer is that very soon after you make these momentous changes that are needed, we’ll be talking about not what we can do for you, but what we can do with you, because you have begun to realize the great potential you possess. The change is within your reach. The same change that occurred in other parts of the world, including Iraq, can change here.

Ladies and gentlemen, nowhere is it written that the winds of change cannot blow through Africa -- nowhere is that written. On December 12, 1963, a new day dawned on Kenya, one filled with promise for even better days ahead. In the coming days and months, you have to -- the chance to build on that promise in a way you haven’t had for over three decades, to fulfill the dreams of everyone who watched that flag unfurl in that stadium 47 years ago.

And I want to close with some words that President Johnson used to end his letter to Prime Minister Kenyatta in 1963. Here’s what he said -- he said, “May the responsibilities of freedom wake the best that is in you, and may its benefits be known by generations yet unborn.” Well, I would say the same thing to you today.

Asante sana. May God bless you. (Applause.) May God bless the Kenyan people. (Applause.) And may God bless America. Thank you very much. Don’t let your country down. Thank you. (Applause.)

END
11:23 A.M. (local)