Kenya: Stakeholders Rally Support for Climate Change Working Group

By Herman Opondo 

NAIROBI--In a bid to heighten its advocacy against climate change, 170 people from various key organizations in Kenya on Friday in Nairobi elected a new interim technical and regional representatives to spearhead the activities of the Kenya Climate Change Working Group (KCCWG), a forum that brings together civil society groups and agencies working in climate change in the country.

The move by the group was geared to stem a fall out among members some of who felt the organization, credited with driving the agenda of having favourable national policies and law in the promotion of climate justice in the country, was falling into redundancy.

To coordinate the teams will be Mr Joseph Ngondi who has coordinated the secretariat of the KCCWG since its foundation in 2009. Samson Malesi, Coordinator, Kenya Water and Sanitation Network which also is a founding member of KCCWG said key issues that the new team will address in the interim period include providing oversight to the activities of Working Group.

“The elected officials will find a way of coming together to define their mandate and their terms of reference guided by the discussions held during the Annual General Meeting. The last time an AGM was held was 14 months ago.

Paul Okongo, a member from Kisumu in Western Kenya said science has shown that Africa in which Kenya falls stands to suffer the most from climate change impact and the response against these threats need effective, focused and coordinated advocacy. “The Board that has been steering KCCWG since its foundation has however proved to lack that drive,” he said.

Robert Gichunge, of CARITAS Kenya that was also a key founding member of KCCWG said although initially viewed by donors as a potential platform to channel funding into the country to mitigate and adapt to climate change, KCCWG has operated with no framework structures despite having existed since 2009 and having been aligned to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the African processes. “It has lacked visionary leadership and it is no surprise that it has ended up in personalized leadership,” he said.

He said the Friday meeting came about after the realization that there was need to revitalize the organization and escape lengthy legal process through splits. But there was failure by the then Board headed by John Kioli to understand the role of members and the role of thematic groups of the organisation.

Last year, a Mr Martine Mutei of Ecosystem Conservation had raised questions concerning the operations of KCCWG.

In his letter to the Interim National Steering Committee, Mutei the NSC’s operations were not at par with members or thematic groups aspirations and had led to loss of members. He noted that NSC had usurped the role of the secretariat contrary to rules of engagement among partners.

Sydney Quantai, national chair of Kecosa—in 22 wildlife conservancy areas and founding  member of KCCWG said the organization has been on the wrong path leading the members to seek a strategic way forward.

Mithika Mwenda, the Coordinator of the Pan-African Climate Justice Alliance and who was a founding vice chairperson of KCCWG but resigned from the post said members came together on Friday to interrogate themselves and seek the way forward.  He said the meeting came about as a result of members realizing that KCCWG had diverted from its mission and vision. He noted that the previous Board had failed to realize that running a network is one the most challenging things as it brings people with various backgrounds who only need to be facilitated and coordinated.

Joanne Kariuiki from the African Centre for Technology Studies whose organization founded KCCWG said research organizations had supported the KCCWG which they had seen as an important instrument to help them advocate research findings on climate change.

But when KCCWG departed from its original focus—mainly to coordinate, advocacy, and awareness creation----the research insttitues like her own got frustrated. According to Ngondi, in 2011, some partners threatened to stop relating with the KCWG unless it reverts back to its movement and advocacy roles it was founded upon.

“Now with this election, members have now taken the right step in that they have elected chosen to steer the orgnisation towards a rediscovery path upon which it was founded. They have also decided to decentralize its Board by electing members from all the regions of Kenya to avoid the risk of having a Nairobi based steering committee as it was previously,” he said.

According to Mithika, the differences that the previous Board created among members led to a situation where the CSOs have lost their advocacy voice. “Many had retreated into various corners and were at the point of losing credibility,” he said.

“Now that the leaders have failed, the people have invoked their mandate and convened this meeting to have the organization take a different route,” he said.

PACJA, he said, has supported KCCWG as it wants the issues of climate change to trickle down to the grassroots and make groups like farmers, pastoralists, business community, fishers folk, etc understand the issues of climate change.

He said with a disorganized national body, the advocacy will fiddle out but added that Kenya has shown the way ahead as exemplified by the action taken by partners to come together to harmonise their activities and refocus their mandate.