PreCop28 Roundtable Drafts a Green Roadmap for Nairobi County Ahead of Cop28.

PreCop28 Roundtable Reveals Kenyans Need Understandable, Clear and Direct Involvement in Climate Affairs for Sustainability.

By Richard Kitheka

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You have all heard of Kenya's Tree Planting Day. It should have been Tree Growing Exercise. Oh! and you have also heard of the word "Hustler?" "Hustler Government" and other such? That term should be immediately replaced.

Hustler at its most modest means "an athlete who plays with alert energy and aggressiveness" otherwise it means bad things including prostitution, obtaining money by fraud or deceit, luring the less skillful players into competing at a gambling game and many other bad vibes.

So let us be careful with the words we brand ourselves and our activities with for they do come to life! As for climate change agenda, let us start with simple, accessible words that all understand and make enlightened decisions.

As a climate enthusiast you may encountered the initials "ESG". They stand for Environment, Society and Governance. In other circles that say "People, Planet and Profit" for simplicity. At the just ended PreCop28 Nairobi roundtable event, the gathering was told to build emphasis on People or the "S" in ESG. Ok I may have lost you there. Let's take two.

Sustainability, ESG, Mitigation and other jargonized words out there often churned for optics, spaces in media outlets and are often delivered by wo(men) in plaid suits speaking in an array of breathless words that help one easily zone off any of those conversations. Often the media coverage that follows is equally dazzling with flashes protocol words straight from the Webster Climate Dictionary, mentioning acronyms and towns that most people read of or see on TV- like say, Kyoto and Paris.

This leaves a whole population of Kenyans faintly in the know about something they should be very actively part of. Because this knowledge gap exists, Kenyans can easily decide this is a game for the rich, the West and develop many true or false narratives around ESG. Whose fault is all this?

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Communicators for one. Then maybe the advisors top presidents, or kingpins. Then the originators of the terms themselves.

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It is the fault of those who rush to cash-in rather than build-up interest in ESG as they proceed to eat up the financial value and to soak in posh trips to locations like Sharm El Sheikh, Dubai, Paris and other capitals where ESG Conference of Parties (COPs)- what a snazzy word that is -wow! COPs (read prefects) of the environment, COPs of the world- happen.

This indigenous creation #Precop28 was in Nairobi. A small affair.

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Speaker after speaker singled the absence of S in ESG. The Social component and how valuable it is as a standalone beacon in supporting the entire climate agenda. If society is not empowered to support the projects then all that is somehow shooting the carbon project in the foot. There is need for more transparency.

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And they are right.

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A recent report by the #WorldBank dubbed the #CountryClimateDevelopmentReport2023 gave a country focused report focused on Kenya alone.

The report shows among many things that lack of community empowerment is creating a lot of problems for Kenya. The detailed and very rich report notes that around 28% of Kenyans live in urban areas, and this is expected to increase to 46% by 2050. (pp13).

Compared to other Low Middle Income Countries, a relatively larger percentage of Kenya’s population lives in urban slums (Feng and Russ 2023). Kenya’s affordable housing deficit is now more than 2 million units and is expected to grow to 3 million by 2025 according to a previous 2017 World Bank prediction.

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Such reports are truly revealing and it’s a sad wonder that they are not often reviewed and analyzed in the press to reveal their grit and essence.

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What the report tells me is that unless we generate and create jobs, successful land, forests, energy, housing and water management multiple projects after multiple successful project we will shortly fall into a rut. Like mice in a treadmill.

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There is also a missing link between projects long term view of all the elements that would make sustainability work. Land ownership takes the cake. Without community lands for example reverting to these marginalized communities then there is not much result in any sustainability efforts.

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You see giving land ownership to the locals is a mark of approval that bequeaths the new owners the mandate to fully cooperate in protecting that land because it is theirs to protect! The report also takes aim at alternative likelihoods for the masses advocating that employment offers stronger possibilities for ESG success as it creates work and delimits environmental waste if well managed.

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These findings presented yesterday morning at #RadissonBlu in a #KenyaGreenBuildingSociety organized event. #GoldfishPR incubated and covered the #PRECOP28 roundtable. The aim was to bring forgotten voices together and chart a clear message for action in Cop28- but more so, to bring in local action on the ground targeted at improving and highlighting the role of local leadership, governors and the President of Kenya.

?ESG is and will be the vibe from this week as #Cop28 Dubai enters the home stretch.

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But even as the concept of ESG becomes more recognizable and more handy for hardcore sustainability experts, it is jargon to over 60% of Nairobi's urbanites, says @FrankMwiti of @EY Parthenon where he is in charge of Strategy and Transactions.

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Nairobi River's cleaning can be more wholesome if the communities that directly benefit from it on the lower stream were to take immediate ownership and demand it be cleaned. They would be its cleanup, diehard, champions notes, @JuliusOpio, Board Director and chair at International Chamber of Commerce and Kenya Environment and Energy Commission.

The gathering was told that there are loads of funds available for green focused institutions and countries but there are few takers because of lack of awareness and lack of access to these green funds- says #MaryNjuguna of FSD Africa and also poor cataloguing mechanisms of the green programs they are undertaking.

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Speaking on behalf of Safaricom, the Digital Transformation lead said it has accelerated the transition to smart phones through the creation of a local assembly.

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Speaking from an authoritative voice as president of Architectural Association of Kenya (AAK), #FlorenceNyole noted that Kenya needs a strong building code that also certifies such action citing their Grow the Classroom movement where the AAK has planted trees with select schools and they will build extra or expand classrooms using the wood from those very trees. 60% of the Nairobians, she added, feel left out of the #Carbontrading ventures. AAK has recently developed Healthy Homes Index whose endgame agenda is to assist people live in dignity.

@Pumi Lukhele, Head of Development and Construction at #GatewayRealEstate, a South African firm involved in #TatuCity mentioned that there is need to hasten the assimilation of green structures in the country and to work with women in construction as they have done with #BuildHer to award winning developments that touch lives and improve the world one step at a time proof that a positive mindset will make everything possible.

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Richard Kitheka Mbindyo, a communications consultant #GoldfishPR (oh! that's me by the way) speaking at the event noted that unless we see tree growing as a long term game, we are delusional about carbon trading. The ownership, quality and maintenance of trees could very well be the Achilles heel of the tree planting Kenya is currently engaged in. There is a need for policy and institutional structures, ownership and engagement with individuals and institutions to individually adopt and carry such projects more adeptly. ?

Speaking as a Honorable member of Nairobi County, Nasra Nanda who also doubles as CEO of KGBS noted that there is need to empower the office of the Nairobi Governor by creating activities and enshrined policies that would make it green and certified as such. Such accreditation would have the advantage of unlocking investments and also being a role model to all builders in the country, seeing as Nairobi is the nation's capital city.

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She added that such efforts can be replicated and up scaled nationwide.

Speaking on behalf of #AcornHoldings @SheilaMoraa reiterated that market awareness to help businesses align with funds is key. The firm is the owners of Qwetu and Qejani student residences across Nairobi county There is a lot of finance available for green funds. But many firms are not aligned mainly because of poor reporting structures. That can change.

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Speaking at the event, Adopt a River, Mathare 4B CBO representative @MargaretOuko spoke on community mapping and community adoption strategies saying that the best approaches include using the people on the ground and allowing them to directly own the said projects.

?Deliberations from the event were drafted and endorsed for submission to the governor of Nairobi #Sakaja and to the house on the Hill. #Statehouse. #PresidentRuto. We believe the path to a truly green future starts here.

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