It was an interesting meeting, with a mutual exchange of views and with a minister of the Italian Republic, which is not very common in Kenya (the last had been Luigi Di Maio in 2023), who illustrated the projects and philosophy of the Mattei Plan for Africa, reaffirming Kenya's centrality in the interest of growing the African continent in various sectors.
In the mission of Adolfo Urso, Minister of Enterprise and Made in Italy, in the foreground are space and development of connectivity, with interest also in artificial intelligence, but the meeting with Trade Minister Salim Mvuryia allowed Urso to illustrate the many opportunities that Kenya can have, forging collaborations with Italian companies, both those present on site and those that may arrive in the future.
The meeting with entrepreneurs on Monday evening at the Capital Club in Nairobi, allowed many Italians who operate mainly in the sectors of technology, infrastructure, tourism and importation, to exchange views and also bring their impressions and questions to a senior representative of our government on the trip.

It was the Italian Ambassador to Kenya, Roberto Natali, who opened the meeting, recalling how much Italians have done and are doing in this country and how Italian institutions not only take this into account but also follow them in their vicissitudes, also trying to give them information and tools to operate in the best possible way in the country. Also for this reason, on Natali's initiative, the ‘Business Café’ was created, a quarterly appointment that allows Italian entrepreneurs residing in Kenya not only to meet with each other and ‘make community’, but also to learn about new regulations and common paths of the two countries, and to pose questions to be then addressed in the appropriate fora.
Urso, taking the floor, explained the reason for his visit, in light of new European laws on Space, which complement the idea of relaunching the ‘Luigi Broglio’ space centre in Malindi in collaboration with the Kenyan government.
‘Italy has a more than 60-year history of cooperation with Kenya in the field of Earth observation,’ recalled Urso, ’which began with the glorious base and the first ever launches from Africa. Partly on the strength of this presence in Kenya, Italy has earned a reputation as a leader in Earth observation from space, and our intention is to resume launches of small satellites from Malindi to continue this tradition in the name of developing space expertise and connectivity on the African continent,' he said.

Urso recalled how in the Meloni government's idea, the Broglio space centre should be a training centre for Kenyan and African technicians, scientists and astronauts, and that thanks to the new law on Space, which also includes the private sector in research and observations, small and medium-sized enterprises in our country will also be able to benefit in terms of collaborations with Kenya and investments.
The minister went on to address Kenya's leading role in the development of artificial intelligence.
‘We will open a centre for African AI in Italy, out of 300 start-ups that have proposed, as many as 117 are Kenyan, a sign that this very young country has a great vocation for connectivity and designing the future of digital’.
Finally, Urso responded to the many questions from our compatriots, who asked the minister, as a representative of the government even if not always for things that directly concern his ‘docket’, to intervene on a real partnership of opportunities between the two countries, starting with speeding up bureaucracy and ending with the well-known and age-old issue of double taxation.