KENYA NGO COUNCIL AND KPCG LEADER URGES EAST AND HORN OF AFRICA COUNTRY REPRESENTATIVES DURING CLIMATE CHANGE CONFERENCE IN BRINGING TOGETHER REGIONAL CSOs REPRESENTATIVES
The NGO Council of Kenya has challenged East and Horn of African countries to speak in one voice during next months Cop 27 conference in Cairo Egypt Climate Change, or continue to suffer adverse climatic changes that have put the lives of millions at stake as prolonged drought ravages the region. Speaking during the conference held at a Nairobi hotel Wednesday October 12 2022 and via Zoom bringing together 9 countries, council chairman Stephen Kipchumba Cheboi challenged participants to appreciate the enormity of the famine that has rocked the region putting the lives of at least 2 million people including women and children at grave risk.
The meeting organised jointly by the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA), the Kenya Platform for Climate Change (KPCC), and stakeholders from Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan, Rwanda, and Burundi, held a 2 day conference in which a climate torch was delivered from Gabon, and would be handed over to other countries en-route to Egypt.
Cheboi called on the participants to put aside any differences and prepare to engage the G20 countries in serious but well informed negotiations over limiting green house emissions. Cheboi lamented that the G 20 countries enjoyed support from North African countries that always went against interests of sub-saharan Africa.
Cheboi agreed with Uganda delegate M/S Florence Kasure that climate change had even impacted negatively on towns like Mbale in the east that recently saw floods sweep away people alive into sudden death. She said the drought in Karamoja had compounded the norther Kenya situation killing people and livestock.
He said the issue of floods around East Africa was compounding the famine situation making it a situation of "damned when it rains and damned it shines"!
Delegates will conclude the two day conference by marching in the streets of Nairobi on Thursday October 13 with the symbolic East and Horn of Africa Climate Torch that formed the basis of the meeting in which various experts and stakeholders expressed the need for a united front at Cop 27. They further called for capacity building and empowerment of people at the grassroots on the need to preserve the climate and protect the environment.
