Thank you, Ambassador Siv Cathrine Moe, for hosting us. Hearing creative women describe the misogyny they face in business was sobering. How many more generations must fight these same battles? With my sisters Njoki Ndung’u, Betty Murungi, Pat Gathuri and HC Salome Zulu Mmola. @NorwayAmbKenya @kaari_murungi @NjokiNdungu_LJ

Clean cooking is energy infrastructure, vital to public health, economic opportunity and Africa’s green transition. Achieving universal access requires investment. We must mobilise capital through local-currency financing, guarantees and other instruments that turn demand into viable projects. Kenya is leading with a $600 million investment opportunity across schools, healthcare facilities and correctional institutions. Co-hosted with Norway the first high-level event on clean cooking in Africa held during UNGA in New York, ahead of the Second Africa Clean Cooking Summit in Nairobi in January.

I attended a high-level panel on the Sustainable Ocean Economy, co-chaired by H.E. Jonas Gahr Støre, Prime Minister of Norway, and H.E. Surangel S. Whipps Jr, the President of Palau. The meeting was also attended by the H.E. John Dramani Mahama, President of Ghana and President of Namibia, H.E. Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, alongside other leaders and representatives of member States. As a member of the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy, Kenya joined other countries in delivering political statements and issuing a rallying call for ocean action to be firmly integrated into climate action at the upcoming COP31. The meeting presented the opportunity to emphasize Kenya's position that ocean action is climate action. We called for integrated ocean-based solutions that strengthen food security, create decent jobs and build climate resilience for coastal communities. Kenya further underscored the importance of sustainable fisheries, healthy marine ecosystems and clean and sustainable ocean industries as central pillars of inclusive blue-economy development.