Amina Mohammed: Stop useless trips or face ‘blacklist’

The national and county governments have been told to cut off sending huge delegations overseas because they were giving the country a bad name internationally.

This was said by the National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi and Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohammed when they spoke to governors during a two-day workshop on foreign nations and fiscal responsibility at Leisure Lodge in Kwale County.

The two warned that Kenya risked being ‘blacklisted’ due to the never-ending and unplanned foreign trips that were rubbing visiting countries the wrong way.

“The trend is receiving too much criticism due to lack of proper framework and policies,” they said.

PROTESTING HOSTS

According to the Speaker, County Assemblies send huge delegations to foreign nations which has resulted in host countries protesting.

“If this continues we risk being blacklisted by the concerned nations because the delegation are overburdening,” he added.

The Speaker noted that matters of foreign travel usually attract so much attention from the society and the media because this involves spending of public funds.

But he was quick to point out that benchmarking was still important for the country affiliated to foreign bodies such as Commonwealth Parliament Association and the East Africa Legislative Association.

“The benefit of these trips is not only for Parliament but the entire country. As a country we cannot work in isolation because this will enforce ties and make Kenya even play host,” he said.

Ms Mohammed expressed concern that several countries have written to Kenya complaining of such visits saying they were interfering with the host countries’ operations.

Citing Malaysia, Rwanda, Singapore and China, the CS said they have written to her ministry registering their displeasure over large and ill-timed delegations visiting them without proper organisation.

“Some of the countries are now reluctant to take us in. These countries have complained of receiving 10 representatives from counties and 12 from the National Assembly who both need similar attention,” she said.

She added that the increase of uncoordinated travels has also raised issues of conduct on some of the delegations.

GAIN KNOWLEDGE

But County Assembly Forum chairperson Dr Nur Nassir defended the trips claiming that devolution happened all at once therefore counties cannot learn from each other.

He said it is important for them to travel to gain knowledge on how they can increase revenue allocation.

“There is need for us to have equal standards when it comes to the issue of foreign trips to enable us all be at par,” he said.

The Council of Governors vice chairperson Salim Mvurya expressed optimism that the workshop will guide on the future engagements with foreign missions.

The delegation at the workshop included governors, a section of the Senate, National Assembly, county assembly forum and county executive members with an objective of formulating coherence policy and guidelines on foreign relations.

However, few representatives especially from both national assemblies attended the workshop.