President William Ruto on Wednesday lauded the role played by Kenyans in the diaspora in national development.
Addressing Kenyans living in Kigali, Rwanda, Ruto urged them to be good ambassadors of Kenya.
He said the government attaches great importance to its citizens living abroad and appreciates the close bonds they maintain with their motherland.
Ruto said Rwanda and Kenya enjoy warm and cordial relations, especially in education, ICT and agriculture among others.
"I had conversations with President Paul Kagame and he really heaped a lot of praise on Kenyans living here. This is really being good ambassadors of your country," Ruto said.
"As you do whatever you do here, you're not doing for your family alone but for Kenya. We have a great country and I am confident we are going to go far."
Ruto said his visit to Rwanda is part of making Africa work together because it is a big market.
"We've come here as part of efforts to eliminate barriers to the movement of people, goods and services," the President said.
He thanked Kenyans in the diaspora for their remittances amounting to four billion annually.
The President said the government is working to ensure all its services are digitalised by the end of the year to ensure efficient delivery of services.
He said that when his administration took over, there were only 370 digitalised services, saying more than 3709 were now digitalised.
"We've resolved to digitalise government services and leverage on technology to ensure accountability and efficient delivery of services, " he said.
The Head of State said his administration will in the next two weeks launch the Boma Yangu initiative to benefit Kenyans living abroad.
He said the programme, which is part of the low-cost houses will benefit Kenyans living abroad just like their colleagues at home.
The President said all embassies abroad have been gazetted as legal offices of marriage.
This is after Kenyans in the diaspora raised concerns that it was hard to attain marriage certificates outside Kenya.
"The Attorney-General will gazette embassies as legal offices for marriage. Mobile consular services are beginning to be offered in Kenyan embassies," he said.
He said his administration was positioning Kenya not only as a technological hub but also as a destination of foreign direct investment.
"We will build Kenya using our taxes and cheaper funds from multilateral institutions. But there is also huge private capital out there that we want to tap," he added.
Leaders present included Foreign Affairs CS Alfred Mutua, Mithika Linturi (Agriculture), Ezekiel Machogu (Education) Rebecca Miano (EAC and Asals), Attorney-General Justin Muturi and several Principal Secretaries.
