Kenya

Participated in Addis workshop but would not provide speaker.

January – March 2017: Member of Core Group in Geneva. Attended consistently and supportive. Ambassador raised the issue with Ambassador of Tunisia, who chairs the African Group.

March 2017: Attended Buenos Aires Conference on Safe Schools, represented by Geneva rep.

September 2017: GCPEA sent a letter to the ambassador in New York asking to raise the issue on attacks and military use, draw attention to the Declaration and the Guidelines and alos to mention the AU call to endorse during the Open Debate on children and armed conflict.

July 2018: Joined Argentina’s joint statement to the UN SC during the open debate on children and armed conflict.

October 2019: GCPEA issued letters to their Foreign Minister, encouraging them to highlight in their statements to the Council the Safe Schools Declaration as a tool to ensure implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325.

October 2019: During the WPS open debate, Kenya mentioned the following reference: “For example, Kenya has endorsed the Safe Schools Declaration to ensure safe education for our women and girls.”

January 2020: Military Cited Among School Land Grabbers: https://www.nation.co.ke/news/education/Churches-and-military-cited-among-school-land-grabbers/2643604-5423316-xs3cvqz/index.html Land belonging to Mweza Primary and Secondary schools in Mombasa has been taken by Kenya Navy. Shule Yangu attempted to intervene by consulting State officials. It says in its report that the navy appeared to be backing down but later began fencing off part of the land. “This is a violation of the right to education for the children of Mweza Primary and Secondary schools. It is a violation of the trust the school community has entrusted the navy,” the report continues.

March 2020: Human Rights Watch made a submission to the Committee on the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child on Kenya. It encourages the Committee to recommend to the government to implement the Safe Schools Declaration, to take concrete measures to deter the military use of schools, and to share any good practices with fellow African Union members.

June 2021: Apolline met with Mr. Kariuki, Counsellor, at the Kenyan mission. The representative was interested in the Nigeria conference and the state-led network. I shared the save the date for the conference as well as the concept note for the implementation network afterwards. He said the network was timely to encourage greater and better implementation. I encouraged him to share good practices with us in advance of the conference and explained the value of sharing good practices. I also presented GCPEA’s research on gender and shared key documents with him as a follow up. He said that he would share GCPEA’s recommendations for the CAAC debate with his capital but did not foresee any issues as they are supportive of all of them.

October 2021: cosponsored UNSRC2601.

November 2022: Endorsed the Political Declaration on Strengthening the Protection of Civilians from the Humanitarian Consequences Arising from the Use of Explosive Weapons in Populated Areas (EWIPA) on 18 November during an International Conference hosted by Ireland, the leader and penholder behind the Declaration.