23rd October 2016- Kenya’s 2nd Country Review Mission has been launched in a press conference held on 23rd October 2016 at Serena Hotel, Nairobi Kenya. Launch aimed at updating the media as well as creating public awareness on the country review exercise, that it is indeed a people centred exercise.
The press conference was addressed by the Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Devolution and Planning, Mr. Mwangi Kiunjuri, and APR Lead Panellist for Kenya Prof. Al- Amin Abu Manga and The Country Review team which consisted of the APRM four thematic pillars experts.
In his address, the Cabinet Secretary Mwangi Kiunguri highlighted steps that Kenya has taken to get to this stage, starting with the County Self -Assessment to the signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) relating to technical assessment mission and the country review visit by President Uhuru Kenyatta.
The Cabinet Secretary emphasised and urged the Stakeholders including the media fraternity to actively participate in this very important process saying that media remained a key partner in informing and sensitizing the public on such a pivotal process. He added that the APRM Secretariat would keep the media updated on the scheduled activities and counties to be visited to enable sufficient coverage.
Professor Abu Manga on his part emphasised that it was a great pleasure for him and his team to be in Kenya for the Second Review and thanked the Kenyan government for its generous hospitality and being a good example to the other African Member States to undertake the review for the Second time. Professor Abu Manga also took the opportunity to highlight the issues that had been addressed in the first review of Kenya, further touching on the issues that will be looked at as progress since the first Kenya Peer Review. He added that APRM team was pleased that recommendations made had guided the review agenda that Kenya has embarked on the since the promulgation of the new constitution in 2010.
The Press conference was attended by about thirty journalists from major media houses who were encouraged to give their full support to this review.