KCCWG at the African Pavilion, Durban

On the 29^th Nov 2011, the Kenya Climate change Working Group (KCCWG) hosted a side event at the African Pavilion, Rain forest side event room in Durban UNFCCC COP17/CMP7 convention at 3:00 pm -5:pm. The main agenda of the side event was to showcase the efforts that Kenya Civil society is putting in partnership with the Government and other key stakeholders to deliver proper climate change policy and legal framework for the country.

The chairman of KCCWG delivered welcome remarks and a brief introduction of KCCWG and what we do. We also had a representative from the office of the prime Minister of Kenya Mr. Patrick Chabeda who illustrated the close working relationship that exists between the Climate change coordination unit in the Office of the prime Minister and the Kenya Climate Change Working group especially on matters of awareness creation and sensitization of communities on the content of the Draft Climate Change Bill. The Office of the prime Minister of Kenya which is mandated with coordination responsibility of all government ministries will play a critical role in mainstreaming climate change issues across all ministries. In the event Mr Chabeda specifically elaborated on the partnership the OPM and KCCWG have had in organising stakeholder workshops and community climate change public hearings, which were a great success in ensuring an all inclusive contribution process towards the development of the Kenya Climate Change Draft Bill.

The Permanent secretary for the Ministry of Environment and Mineral resources in Kenya was the Chief Guest in the side event, in his remarks he expressed the great commitment that the Kenya government through relevant ministries is committed to the policy development agenda. The PS highlighted that Kenya was among the first countries in the world to come up with a national climate change response strategy (NCCRS). He gave a highlight of what is contained in the NCCRS and the current processes towards development of action plans for the strategy. The PS also commended the great efforts and contribution that KCCWG has put towards the Climate Change Draft Bill development process. In his remarks he said that, the climate change issue will not only require the government’s efforts, but greatly the contribution of all stakeholders especially the civil society who work closely with communities.

I gave an elaborate presentation of the road map towards the climate change Bill. The climate change Bill to date has undergone many steps for the last two and a half years since 2009; the process was handed over KCCWG upon a request from a member of parliament, it is a private member Bill. KCCWG took up the challenge and embarked on thematic fact finding researches on impacts of climate change to communities in Kenya along the established themes. The themes included; Agriculture, livestock and fisheries; Health; Education; Energy; Tourism, Trade and Industry; Housing, Infrastructure and urbanisation; Conflict over natural resources; and Water . These thematic research findings gave background information for the drafter who developed the preliminary draft zero of the Bill. A series of five reviews of the document was undertaken as different stakeholders criticised and contributed to it, these stakeholders included; the Ministry of Environment and Mineral Resources, the Private Sector, Community Based Organisations, Non Governmental Organisations and Civil Society Organisations, Faith Based Organisations and the general communities through public hearings.

In summery the process that was steered by a climate change task force established within KCCWG which i co-chair with Dr. Mutunga, involved nine (9) thematic researches on climate change impacts and effects on communities in Kenya, six (6) review meetings and workshop, twelve (12) community climate change hearings across the country, three (3) technical drafting experts, a national stakeholder workshop on the draft Climate Change Bill and a taskforce to facilitate the final draft delivery process in liaison with the technical assistance of the drafters. The remaining stages for this process are; parliamentarian’s workshops for sensitization and awareness creation of the proposed final draft, this is important because the members of parliament need to understand the Bill in order for them to support it when it is tabled in parliament. In this process we are working together with the Parliamentarians Network on renewable Energy and Climate Change (PANERECC). The other step is to carry out regional climate change hearings for general community awareness of the product of their contributions and final the formal law making process by the legislative council of Kenya.

I would register much appreciation to CAFOD for facilitating my travel arrangement to COP17 and also for their invaluable support towards the Climate change Bill development process. It was a great experience to share this process for other countries to draw lessons from and inform their similar processes. In attendance we had over 100 participants at the side event from different countries. We celebrate a great success in this.

Kevin Kinusu Kinyangi

Programme Officer- Climate Change, KENFAP

Programme Officer, National Potato Council of Kenya (NPCK)

National Steering Committee (NSC), KCCWG