June 15th-17th 2021, The Government of Kajiado County, Kenya and The City of Umeå invited stakeholders to special dissemination forum on sustainable waste and water management.

The aim of the Kajiado Stakeholders Dissemination Forum was to share the successes, achievements and lessons learnt from the partnership between The Government of Kajiado County and The City of Umeå, to officially launch the Solid Waste Strategic Plan Documents and to present the ICT materials on waste and water management to the Sub-county officers for disseminating information. The forum also presented opportunities for dialogue for support from the development partners and for continued future collaboration with the City of Umeå as well as served as a platform to create strategies and an environment that support synergies for all involved parties and community in general.

The Kajiado stakeholder’s dissemination forum was officially launched by The Deputy Governor Martin Martine Moshisho. Other development partners who participated was Johan Lilja, General Secretary of Swedish International Centre for Local Democracy (ICLD), Michael Hjelmåker, Deputy Head of Mission, Swedish Embassy in Nairobi, as well as representatives from UNDP and UN-habitat.

The team from Umeå was represented by Mattias Larsson, Member of the Executive Committe, The City of Umeå, Cathrin Alenskär, Manager of International Affairs, The City of Umeå, Elisabeth Johansson, Senior Advisor, Vakin, Matthias Grimm, Environmental Engineer, Vakin, Johanna Cory, Communicator Officer, Vakin, Elin Bäckman, Communication Officer, Vakin, Per Granlöf, Operations Manager, Dåva Deponi and me as the advisor and swedish coordinator of the forum.

A special thanks to James Sankale, Chief Officer at The Department of Water and Irrigation, Environment and Natural Resources, Kajiado County and Yvonne Anyango, Coordinator of the partnership and the forum as well as Director of CASDA – Cooperation Arena for Sustainable Development in Africa. The work done by James Sankale and Yvonne Anyango has been of critical importance for this partnership since the start. A special thanks also to Tomas Blomqvist, CEO of Vakin, who has supported this partnership from the beginning.

I have been there as an initiator and advisor since I first met the former governor of The Kajiado County Government, David Nkedianye 2013 together with Yvonne Anyango and Nicholas Nzioka from Machakos County, Kenya.

The partnership has been funded by ICLD since the beginning.

To be continued.

Photo on Mount Kilimanjaro from Amboseli National Park in Kajiado County.