BY GEORGE ONYANGO
American Ambassador to Kenya Megg Whitman has encouraged young Kenyans to invest in Start-Ups as they are the direction of the future.
She said given the choice of investing in an old establishment and a Start-Up, she would automatically go for the latter.
“Start-Ups have inbuild new and future trends and you are safe with your money in Start Ups,” she said during a one on one with youth during the launch pf American Spaces AT THE Kenya National Library headquarters in Nairobi, KENYA.
Mrs. Whitman who started work at Proctor & Gamble, a family care products company, and later joined E-Bay as a director, encouraged the young audience, some with start-ups to always respect the places they are employed at and live with lessons learnt.
I started off a Proctor & Gamble but the lessons and skills Iearnt, I still use to date even as an ambassador,” said Whitman who isn’t a career diplomat but a political appointee of President Joe Biden.
She lauded the young exhibitors who displayed high level technological advances including equipment using AI to detect levels of smoke and dust in the air used to detect logging and charcoal burning activities in forests.
She wondered though how a 3D printing machine was taking three hours to print a model of a human palm saying many years ago when at Hewlett Packard it used to take six hours to do so and was hoping it would take much less time to do the job.
During the interview Mrs. Whitman lauded Kenya’s green energy regime saying if the World would follow into the country’s footsteps of 95 % green energy sources, then World would be a better place to live in.
Being a career woman, she shared it was always an uphill task bringing up their two children with his Neurologist husband.
“We tried our best to always have us at dinner with our children, and it happened that only one of us would make it at any one given moment given our busy working schedules,” she said adding that she is a proud granny of three having been in her marriage for 44 years.
For a country and a society with very high rates of divorce, this is no mean fete for the Whitman’s in a country where 50 per cent of all marriages end in divorce.
American Spaces are modern physical settings tailored for fostering relationships with foreign audiences.
As a global network, they build bridges between people of other countries and the United States, increasing understanding, collaboration and partnership.
They are places where visitors, especially young people, can learn about the United States, access the open internet, build job skills, and participate in dialogue with each other and Americans in a safe environment.
U.S. Department of State’s American Spaces program supports places where people can exchange ideas and experience and learn about American culture, history and values.
