BUILDING TOWARDS A BETTER FUTURE

BUILDING TOWARDS A BETTER FUTURE

Ancient wisdom came to a conclusion that people should not go to situations knowing what solution to apply but instead you choose the solution from what you find. This has been what has been applied by humanity everything they get into. The understanding of this basic concept is what made napoleon Bonaparte the greatest conqueror to this day and this is what is likely to help in shaping a better future our great country.

Do you have the patience to wait?
Til’ the mud settles and the water is clear?
Can you remain unmoving?
Til’ the right action arises by itself?
The master doesn’t see fulfillment,
Not seeking, not expecting
She is present, and welcomes all things.
Written by Lao Tzu

A good scientist has freed himself from all concepts
And keeps his mind open to what is.
Lao Tzu


Holistic view

Mahatma Gandhi: I object to violence because the good it appears to bring is temporary; the evil it leaves lasts forever.
Kenya a few weeks ago was growing at a reported growth rate of 7.5%,attracting many investments from across the world. It was the beacon of peace,ecominic muscle for Africa. Its shilling was doing quite well against the dollar and pound.

In just a while ,the same Kenya had over 800 people reported killed, over thousands of others injured and over 250,000 people displaced from their homes. Over Ksh 15 billion of property destroyed. The Kenyan Shilling is in its 10 month low ever.Kids today cry, our people go hungry and quite a number are on humanitarian aid, schools and businesses are suspended. The air full of gunshots and the news in our media quite tragic. The socio-economic gains have been destroyed. The freedom of association, movement and expression have been curtailed. The sheer sum of these facts is alarming to a level that ought to push us as the, corporations and organizations, citizens and leaders of this country to find a lasting solution to the conflict that sparked the violence and lawlessness across the country. It also begs an answer to the question what kind of Kenya are we building for the future? Who is a Kenyan? Do we still believe in the Kenya that our forefathers dreamt of? Do we still treasure the Kenya whose core values, aspirations and heritage is in our National Anthem?

Addressing the current crisis is therefore eminent. All Kenyans, all leaders, all good friends of Kenya are called upon to be the people to inquire into the very root causes and address them with objectivity. The effects are likely to affect us into the future if not well handled this time round.

Efforts from all leaders business and community to reconcile the opposing factions, and do an objective inquiry into where the rain begun to beat us should be encouraged. The leadership should help its members understand the different opinions and response to ideologies are what makes us unique people have always made us unique and will continue to make us unique the faster we accept that the easier the healing process.

A Chinese philosopher Confucius said ‘Before you embark on a journey of revenge dig two graves’ this has been proved in the past, present and will likely prevail in the future by the events that surround us in our case the post election violence is testimony to this. [Should serve as a lesson] A vicious circle is created with revenge as the motive and eventually this leads to the creation for an uncertain future thus the eventual destruction of all development created so far. Instead of the creation of a model African state we instead destroy the great legacy created during the past five years and becoming a historic example of how modern democracies collapse.





Background.
Over the past couple of weeks various institutions and the international community have come out to push the political leaders to come up with an agreement to the political stalemate so that they in turn would be able to come up with a quick solution the various economic, humanitarian and political challenges that we are currently experiencing. Will the negotiations/dialogue go beyond shot-term solution to a deeper, more sober ,broader examination to render a lasting solution for our nation?

An invitation to face our issues, issues that face us, sometimes requiring the hardest choices are inevitable. This is what this conference is about. We are calling on partners of peace, friends of Kenya, on ambassadors of hope and goodwill, on scholars, on partners in service and knowledge to help be part of the team inquiring what ails our beautiful nation!

Sir Peter Medawar the winner of the first Nobel prize said ‘Everything a scientist does is a function of what others have done before him, the past is embodied in every new concept and even in the possibility of future’ This is to imply that we should look far back to go ahead. We believe its about time Kenya can come to terms with its past, its successes and lessons as it finds a way out of its current crisis.

Each of us tends to think we see things as they are and we are objective, but this is not the case; we see the world not as it is, but as we are or as we are conditioned to see it. When we open our mouths to describe what we see: we in effect describe ourselves, our perceptions and paradigms and when people disagree with us we immediately think there is something wrong with them. This is what organizations are encouraging ‘unknowingly’ in that we see thing not as they are but as we are conditioned to see whether by the government or business environment. We are the people that are able to initiate change throughout the country; from our initiatives we are able to integrate into our organizations and the employees’ the importance of the different opinions and perspectives in order to shape a clear future for the society and our businesses. The economy grew by 7% last year {which the poor claim they did not feel the ripple effect and we all thought they were exaggerating} and is expected to grow by the same proportion this year but what the government should understand that the businesses create economic growth not the other way around .we are therefore in charge of our future without our input we are doomed.

When two people are presented with facts and they acknowledge that they are the facts. Their interpretation of the facts will be different based on their prior experience. This is what happens in organizations business deals, financial markets , law and the day to day life yet when a group number of people are involve we cannot seem to synergize the opinions instead retreat to the tribal a cocoons. Each one us was presented with the facts o the economies growth but due to the different experiences the businesses government and various classes in the society interpreted this message different but they all agreed that there was growth but the poor? Once our employees are able to recognize that each individual has a right to their opinion and this is what makes us different and unique then we are in the right path towards reconciliation.

The society has not enabled us to see reality when we surpass our limited perceptions. Reality should enable us to clearly understand each others different opinions and enable us to progress.

We should show that we can no longer condone violence and anarchy, the economy cannot afford nor our businesses the world, society and children can no longer be exposed to the inhumanity of the situation or the inequalities in the country. with our combined efforts as organizations we should be in a better position to address these issues on our own sensitize the masses starting with our employees putting us in better positions to push the political class to reducing the self interest and taking control of their responsibilities toward Kenyans.



Leonardo Da Vinci
‘First you see what you want to do, and then you know what goals you want to set. You don’t know what problem you can solve until you see how to do it. You do what you can do, not what you want’

CONFERENCE THEME: BUILDING TOWARDS A BRIGHTER FUTURE.

The conference intends to bring an objective contribution to resolving the current crisis that has struck our country brought about by the uneventful turn of events that has given rise to challenges in the conducting of business as well in our nation. This is done by bring together organizations and their various societal representatives to come together to find the root causes of the events and map out a solution. It is done with the deep insight that a clear understanding of the root causes helps Kenyan citizens and its leaders map out solution(s) that for our short-term and long-term in Kenya. The looking at ‘What decisions needs to be made and must be made that have not been made?’ is going to be done. The conference will be about where a have we come from, where are we and why are we here and what can we do to build a stable Kenya in a just, peaceful way not only for us but for Africa and humanity at large.

The conference is a call to corporate leaders, to leaders in the humanitarian and developmental organizations, to leaders across the board, to beloved citizens of this country to be part of the team willing to dare to attempt to find answers and even more importantly to ask questions about our Nation.

We believe that our institutions should be strengthened and rule of law upheld. We believe in Kenya that empowers its citizens, a Kenya that espouses and captures the aspirations, the hopes of its people, a Kenya that is first at peace with itself and therefore at peace with its neighbours and the world at large.



Objectives of the initiative

The main objective of the initiative is to critically look at the root causes and issues from the historical eye, examination of today and suggest solutions to the political and socio-economic situation of our country. What actually are the causes? The Akiumi Report of 1998 suggested issues of land, police violence,clannism,political affliation?Are they the same issues re-currying or could they be the more acclaimed reasons of weak institutions,corruption,tribalism,lack of prosecution, inequality?

Objectives
Help in the critical inquiry of where we have come from as a nation
Do a critical examination of where we are and why we are here.
Suggest How to build Kenya from where we are

List of guest speakers and topics of the forum.
Proposed Political guest speakers.

Proposed Speaker-PLO Lumumba/Haron Ndubi
Topic: Kenyan legal framework, institutions and democracy
The speaker will examine the interrelation of rule of law, weak institution in our democracy and current crisis in the country. The speaker will critically examine where we are politically and why and more importantly make recommendation as to what should be done.

Proposed Speaker-Mutahi Ngunyi
Topic: Kenyan politics, leaders and Resource allocation and management
The speaker will examine the role of politics and resource interrelation as weaved by Kenyan politicians in the past and now . Politics and change have been the great hidden cards for the politicians and each election year they have an ace up in their sleeve which is their main campaign gimmicks: From freedom of expression, new constitution, excessive presidential powers, poverty, ethnicity to inequalities between the rich a poor. But once the elections are gone so are the issues and are recycled in the next election as the ace cards. What went wrong in our leadership, in our politics and how has it impacted our resource allocation and management and the injustices and inequalities thereof? The speaker will then suggest objective solutions to better build Kenya.

Kenyan political class has always based their arguments of lack of development in certain regions on the unfair distribution of resources by the present government and thus implying a state of helplessness as to any improvements in the living standards of the people.

Proposed Speaker. James Shikwati/Emma Oketch
Topic: Economic policy and Inequalities
Economic policies, historically and even now plays a role in our society’s inequalities. Many authors, scholars and activists have attributed the current crisis in part to inequalities, making it an issue worth examining. This after break session will be a time to unravel what was done wrong, where are we now and what could be done to better bridge the inequality gap.

Proposed speaker:Prof Terry Ryan/Robert Mudida
Topic: politics and economy
Politics as a tool to mobilize and allocate resources inevitably links with economy. An historical examination of the role of this relationship over time will be done. It is said business cannot be separated from politics true as this may be we still need to reduce their interrelationship. The near collapse of the tourism,petrochemical,agricultural sectors clearly show how politics could affect badly the economy? The last 5years show a testimony of how better politics can help flourish the economy. Is insulation of the economy necessary from politics and could it be done in future?



Proposed Speaker: Maina Kiai /Gladwell Otieno
Topic: Social justice, human rights and duties and national healing
Years back Human rights activism was unheard of in Kenyan politics: then having the infamous Nyayo house, Unlawful detentions, and restricted expression and so on. But we grew past that and are in an era where Human rights were adhered to and were part and parcel of the daily life. but a few years down the line we are back to violating the Human Rights and have deaths committed by the authorities and reduced freedom of expression creating one of the worst public atrocities committed in Kenya placing it on the map as one of the greatest human right violations

An examination of the progression of social justice in the country will be done. The concept of human rights and duties will be done and linked to bring insight as to how real or perceived injustice might contribute to such a crisis. What happened Kenyan children,women,workers?A framework of national healing and reconciliation will be suggested..

Proposed Speaker: Catherine W
Topic: One Kenya, One People, One Nation
This will be an engagement, a challenge to all conference attendants as to why Kenya, who is a Kenyan? What Kenya means to us by the Author of Kenya Arise, A letter to my People. How can we invoke the values that make us Kenyan build a nation that is cohesive and diverse yet united. How can we harness cultural diversity and the beauty that comes with it to build a Kenya of Heritage and splendour?