Veteran Kenyan diplomat Amb. Ochieng Adala (centre) walks to the conference hall with Hon. Richard Onyonka and Amb. Mwanzia

Participants analyzed various issues influencing foreign policy and its impact on the environment, including environmental policy implementation by the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP).

The seminar was opened by Foreign Affairs Assistant Minister, Hon. Richard Onyonka who appreciated the joint effort by FSI and ISS for organizing a forum on the relationship between foreign policy and the environment. He said that the two institutions are vital in Kenya’s timely response to the effects of climate change. The Assistant Minister recognized the role of FSI in training and sourcing qualified staff in critical fields like environmental diplomacy. He added that ISS plays an important role in peace building and research on African human security.

“During President Kibaki’s national address on 1^st January this year, he declared 2010 the Green Year, and urged Kenyans to be conscious of environmental conservation,” Onyonka said.

The seminar was also addressed by FSI Director, Ambassador Philip Mwanzia, who announced the plan by the two institutions to organize another seminar on the January 2011 South Sudan referendum. Ambassador Mwanzia was one of the leading technocrats who crafted the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) which came into force in 2005. The upcoming Sudan session will appraise the impact of the referendum whichever the outcome.

The closing session was presided over by the Head of Asia and Australasia Directorate in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador John Lanyasunya. Ambassador Lanyasunya is a former High Commissioner to Australia and Ambassador to Germany. He noted that issues of climate change are increasingly having local implications in Kenya, following prolonged adverse climatic conditions like severe droughts and flooding. 

Some of the notable facilitators of the seminar were the pioneers of Kenya’s early diplomacy Ambassador Ochieng Adala and Donald Kaniaru. The two were at the United Nations General Assembly in 1972, where they spearheaded a campaign for the establishment of UNEP in Nairobi. The UN office has been in Kenya ever since.

Others who addressed the session were the ISS Director Dr. Wilson Kipkore, Prof. Macharia Munene (USIU), Mr. Ibrahim Thiaw (UNEP), Dr. Richard Mwendandu (Ministry of Environment &Natural resources), Mr. Wario Guyo (Kenya Mission to UNON) and Mr. Patrick Simiyu from the Office of the Great Lakes Region  in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.