Kenyan President William Ruto concluded his visit to Italy, where in addition to the Italy-Africa summit he attended with 24 other heads of state and senior leaders from 47 countries on the African continent, he also met Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella.
It was precisely with Mattarella that a circle was closed that had been opened almost a year ago, last March, during our head of state's visit to Nairobi and Malindi.

There are many open issues that have already been announced with some draft agreements, starting with those that concern Italy's celebrated 'Mattei Plan', of which Kenya will be one of the pivotal countries, both in terms of investments and bilateral agreements and 'pilot projects', as well as trade and tourism issues.
What many residents and entrepreneurs are hoping for is an opening or easing of import-export taxes. In this regard, the signs given by our activities in recent months are important, both for the increase in entries by Italians, which according to unofficial data would be 40% over the previous year, as reiterated by the head of communications of the Kenya Tourist Board at the recent event promoting Italian wine of excellence in Nairobi (and Italian wine, as an example of the commercial growth of our country in Kenya) had an increase in imports of 17%, according to Ambassador Roberto Natali.

All this despite the not easy period for inflation and the devaluation of the Kenyan shilling against the dollar and the euro, and the tax burden.
With the agreements in place, which the European Union is also keen to ratify, after the visit to Nairobi of the President of the European Commission Ursula Von Der Leyen, many things could improve.
For example, the free market and the tax cut in import-export, which would also favour many Kenyan companies exporting to Europe and therefore also to our country, and which must clearly be reciprocal.
More laborious and still on stand-by instead is the issue of double taxation, which for example could entice pensioners or Italian citizens with income to move and invest, even if only in real estate, in Kenya.
Now we await statements, from both sides, and above all facts.