After only three years, one year ahead of the end of his four-year institutional mission, yesterday the Italian ambassador to Kenya, Roberto Natali, left Nairobi to return to Rome, where he will spend a few months as a senior executive at the Foreign Ministry before his well-deserved retirement. As he has repeatedly told me in person, Natali would have gladly stayed in Kenya, a country that impressed him not only for its beauty but also for its incredible growth potential and the vitality of its young people.

The first to bid farewell to Natali and wish him well for the short continuation of his career was Kenyan President William Ruto, who wanted to meet him personally at the State House in Nairobi to bid him farewell on behalf of himself and the institutions of the country he governs.
‘I wanted to say goodbye to Italian Ambassador Roberto Natali, whose term in our country has come to an end, at the State House in Nairobi. I congratulated him on strengthening the ties between our two nations and wished him every success in his future endeavours,’ Ruto wrote on his X profile. Ruto's thanks, who returned overnight from New York where he gave an important and by no means predictable speech before the United Nations on behalf of Kenya and the entire African continent, comes at a historic moment that has coincided with the strengthening of diplomatic, commercial and cooperation relations between the two countries, including within the Mattei Plan for Africa, of which Kenya is one of the main partners.
“Kenya and Italy have enjoyed excellent diplomatic relations for 60 years, based on trade and investment, education, health, agriculture, culture and interpersonal relations. Kenya is ready to work with Italy to implement the Mattei Plan for Africa, which promotes partnerships in the energy, infrastructure and health sectors”.

Natali's three-year mission coincided with the Italian government's new vision for the African continent, with the historic visit of the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella to Kenya undoubtedly giving a boost to relations between the two countries. It was an intense period, between the relaunch of the “Luigi Broglio” space centre in Malindi, after a difficult period due to political issues that Natali helped to resolve, and that of Made in Italy, with the two editions of Gambero Rosso and other initiatives to highlight Italian excellence. Events such as the classical music concert at Gede National Historical Site, the first initiative of its kind ever, will also be remembered under his name, as well as under that of Rome. 

Personally, as a journalist who has interacted with the ambassador on several occasions, I can only thank him for the professionalism and sensitivity he has shown in dealing with various situations involving information and dissemination of “Italian matters”. As a man of culture, as I feel myself to be in a very small way, I owe him a great deal. First and foremost for the events we conceived, built and finalised together, for those he allowed me to lead in complete freedom and, above all, for those in which I was not involved but which we discussed as if it were natural that I should also “have my say”. just like the Gede concert, which he strongly wanted, I will carry with me our private conversations about philosophy, music, history, the environment and much more. I will miss a man of such stature and at the same time so cultured, open and passionate. Goodbye and thank you, Ambassador.
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(photo William Ruto official X page)