31 August 2010

Nairobi — At least 1,000 delegates are expected to descend on Nairobi to attend a meeting of Members of Parliament from the Commonwealth countries.

By Monday evening, 800 delegates from some 54 countries had confirmed attendance to the nine day Commonwealth Parliamentary Association meeting National Assembly Clerk Patrick Gichohi said on Tuesday.

The meeting, to be held at the Kenyatta International Conference, runs from September 10-19 and will be opened by President Kibaki on September 14.

Mwingi South MP David Musila, who heads the organising committee, said Parliament has teamed up with Brand Kenya and the Kenya Tourism Board to organise the 11-day extravaganza.

"We are preparing for 1,000 delegates and would not be surprised to get more," the Defence assistant minister added at a breakfast meeting to brief journalists on the 56th CPA meeting.

Nominated MP Amina Abdalla, said the main meeting will be preceded by a meeting of all the women MPs attending the event.

There will also be parallel workshops for the women MPs to exchange exchange notes on how best they can influence the making of legislation, added Ms Abdalla.

A final planning meeting and a drill, with the police, immigration and airport authorities will be held on Tuesday ahead of the conference to finalise plans for the meeting, arguably the largest the National Assembly has hosted in recent times.

"We are not leaving anything to chance, we intend to give the visitors a memorable stay in Kenya," Mr Musila said.

The delegates will be treated as Very Important Persons (VIPs), and will be escorted by police riders or a police car wherever they choose to go.

The team has also organised special days for excursions to Mombasa, Maasai Mara, Mt Kenya, Naivasha and Nakuru, which are expected to boost tourism.

Applications to attend the meeting soared after the peaceful August 4 referendum, said Mr Musila, and the numbers have been further boosted by the successful promulgation of the new Constitution last Friday.

With the meeting in Nairobi, President Kibaki will, in keeping with Commonwealth traditions become the CPA's deputy patron. The patron is Queen Elizabeth.

The Commonwealth consists of countries which were colonised by Britain, but Rwanda and Mozambique, although not colonised by the British, were allowed to join.

Each Parliament in the Commonwealth region is a branch of the CPA, and each regional one in countries under a federal system of government is a sub-branch.

Every branch can send four delegates to represent it, and whose costs will be catered for by the Kenya branch, while any extra person will pay $2,500 (Sh200,000).

The cost of hosting the conference is estimated to be Sh470 million. An allocation of Sh89.5 million was made to the National Assembly last year to prepare for the meeting was last held in Kenya in 1983 and was in Arusha, Tanzania, last year.