KAS Kenya office held a two days training on 4th and 5th of February,2020 in Naivasha town with KAS mentors on Political action planning. The two days training focused on two key areas: first was to enhance the participants’ knowledge and skill on county legislative, policy and budget making cycles so as to have in-depth awareness of the processes and where to intervene. Secondly, the participants were taken through different forms of political actions and how they could be effectively used to push for actions in their constituencies. The aim for this was to strengthen their skill on how best to go about pushing for action in a political way and capture the attention of the relevant duty bearers. The training also aimed at motivating the young upcoming politicians to be actively engaged in political processes and be the force of change that is desired. The long term goal is to increase the number and quality of their participation in politics at the local level and even nationally. The parting shot with regards to the topic on political action planning was that moving forward, actions like petitioning, drafting of memorandums, peaceful demonstrations, media engagement, participation in public debates and roundtables, writing letters among many other forms of political actions are feasible and doable.
The training was graced by two members of parliament from Germany Mr. Roland Theis – Secretary General, vice minister for justice and Mr. Gordon Hoffman – secretary general, CDU party Brandenburg. Their participation was insightful from sharing their successful political journeys’ to interacting with the young politicians and KAS mentors on the topic ‘Youth and politics in Germany and Kenya’. The discussions ranged from how young politicians can formulate suitable topics and formulate political goals to challenges they have to face and how to overcome them. The exchange was important to inspire and motivate KAS mentors on their political ambitions and careers and together they collectively came up with possible solutions that could be borrowed from Germany.
Finally, the event concluded with the participants appreciating KAS efforts in convening such a training and inviting the two members of parliament from Germany to grace the occasion. They were grateful for the honour and privilege to get to interact with the two German politicians and thanked KAS Kenia for the efforts. Moving forward, the participants promised to be more active within their localities and if need be use different formats in form of political actions to push for local needs to be addressed.
