UPCOMING EVENTS

PAST 2007 EVENTS

The Tax Justice Network for Africa in conjunction with HBF organised a public forum, the first in a series aimed at raising awareness on tax justice issues and on Kenya’s unprecedented tax growth. Tax collection has steadily grown by an average of 13% increasing from Ksh. 200 billion in 2003 to approximately Ksh. 375 billion in 2006. This has led to almost 100% financing of the government's recurrent budget through revenue from internally generated taxation. While these developments are welcome since they ensure the independence of the state from foreign and mostly conditional aid, they do raise a number of questions that are yet to be extensively debated and understood, including: -

• How has the Increase impacted on the poor households?
• Who is carrying the tax burden resulting from this increased revenue collection?
• How adequately have issues of equity and distribution been addressed been addressed in the current tax system?

The key speakers were Jack Ranguma - Tax Research Institute and formerly the Commissioner of Domestic Taxes, KRA; Kwame Owino - Institute of Economic Affairs, and Alvin Mosioma, Coordinator of the Tax Justice Network. The forum was held on 19th September 2007 at the Nairobi Safari Club from 4.00 to 6.00 pm. 

 

Centre for Multiparty Democracy presented a gender audit which assessed political parties' legal and institutional instruments and other key documents, and how they mainstreamed gender within their frameworks. The findings of this assessment will definitely provide a tool for women aspirants, civil society organizations and other stakeholders to lobby and advocate for the rightful representation of women in the political parties profiled. The Forum was held on Thursday 26th July 2007.

In continuation of our theme, which focuses on enhancing women’s political participation in the coming 2007 general elections, the forum on 28th June 2007 constituted a panel of women and youth representatives, who guided the deliberations on a once proposed concept of a Women and Youth Alliance (WAYA) based on the comparable experiences of both women and youth in the pursuit of political inclusion. The idea of a WAYA has been floated through various consultations and fora and specifically in joint sessions of the Centre for Rights Education and Awareness (CREAW), the Association of Media Women in Kenya (AMWIK), Youth Agenda and other stakeholders.

The session thought through the viabilities of such a proposal, and where possible, the mechanisms/strategies for such an alliance in this year’s elections. The invited panellists included: Pamela Mburia of AMWIK, Kepta Ombati of Youth Agenda, Faith Kasiva of COVAW, Irene Oloo of the League of Kenya Women Voters, Ochieng Kanyadudi - Youth Member of LDP amongst others.

The sustainability of any modern economy requires that the state has sufficient revenue to fund the physical and social infrastructure essential to economic welfare, and also to enable a degree of wealth distribution between the rich and poor in order to promote equity and security. Tax collection in Kenya has increased exponentially in the recent years. Today Kenya ranks in amongst the top, in terms of the percentage tax revenue to the GDP which is 22% compared to sub-Saharan Africa’s average of 18%. This success has seen Kenya finance up to 95% of its expenditure through domestic resources. This is indeed high compared to its neighbors like Uganda where only 55% of the Budget is financed domestically. While this increased independence from external donor funding is laudable as it gives the country the freedom to develop and implement its own economic strategies with less external interference, it raises a number of issues that require discussion not only amongst experts but also economic justice organizations and campaigners.

The Tax Justice Network for Africa together with HBF organised a Half-day Round table on 13th June 2007 for participants to discuss the taxation policy and reforms in Kenya. The discussion aimed at achieving two main objectives. Firstly, to create an understanding of what has already been done in terms of research in the area of taxation policy in Kenya, and identify areas that required further research. This would provide an important input for the meeting of the African Chapter Steering Committee scheduled from 21 - 24 June in Cape Town, South Africa. Secondly, discussed the possibilities of creating a platform to facilitate debate and exchanges amongst organizations and individuals on the Kenyan taxation policy. Download [Programme]

In continuation of our theme of discussion this year, which focuses on enhancing women’s political participation in the coming general elections 2007, the topic of discussion for 31st May 2007 was “Affirmative Action: Developing winning strategies". The key speaker was Okiya Omtata Okoiti, a columnist for the Daily Nation who has written varied articles and commentaries on the topic. He focused on the perception of affirmative action in Kenya, making strategic recommendations for an effective system of success in reference to lessons learnt from other countries and their application to the Kenyan context. Ann Njogu, Executive Director of the Centre for Rights Education and Awareness was the discussant.

HBF organised a one-day capacity-building workshop on 28th February 2007 for individuals and organizations interested in learning more about the state, prospects, and risks of extractive industries in East Africa. This was a follow-up to the public seminar held in January addressing the current rapid expansion of the oil and gas industry in many parts of Africa as a side-event to the World Social Forum, which showed a considerable public interest in these issues, but also the need for more information.

The workshop aimed at

• giving an overview about the current state of oil exploration and production and its prospects in the region,
• providing information about the environmental risks involved, and about viable alternatives, and
• introducing and explaining the concept of the “resource curse”, and
• informing about on-going approaches to address it, such as the “Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative” and the “Publish What You Pay”-campaign.
  

The Forum titled "Practicing Politics: The Female Side of the Coin" was held on Thursday, 22nd February 2007 at Nairobi Safari Club (Lilian Towers) from 4 pm - 6 pm. The Key speaker was Dr. Jacqueline Oduol from the United States International University (USIU) who gave a theoretical framework on the conceptual and material importance of women’s participation in politics, both as contenders and as the electorate – providing a value proposition for female oriented politics. Sitting in panel were select women politicians, who provided a practical reality to the discussion points raised.This first forum was intended to offer the theoretical basing for later discussions, strategic plans and action points for enhancing women’s participation – ensuring that any efforts towards enhancing women’s participation in politics is rooted on a well defined and goal oriented framework. Download [Programme]

The current rapid expansion of the oil and gas industry in many parts of Africa provides opportunities for the continent’s development, but it poses big challenges as well. Experiences of the past, especially in West Africa, provide vivid examples of what has become known as the “resource curse” – a situation where wealth generated from oil and gas production has led to economic dislocation, increased corruption, weakened state institutions, devastated the environment, and, in some cases, even violent conflicts.

On Sunday, 21 January 2007, HBFand MPs of the Greens/European Free Alliance in the European Parliament held a public seminar addressing these issues. The seminar took place as a side-event on the occasion of the World Social Forum (WSF Nairobi, January 20-25) that brought together people who were interested in developmental issues and hailed from various backgrounds – from members of parliament to civil society activists, in order to look for alternatives to the current economic world order.

Download [Programme]

Greetings from the Heinrich Böll Foundation, and notwithstanding the late date, Happy New Year to all.

We wish to take this opportunity to sincerely thank you all for continually supporting the Gender Forum throughout the course of last year. Your persistent participation and contribution during the length of the sessions, has contributed immensely to the goals and objectives of the forum, as well as to the generation of knowledge and expertise in the gender fields of engagement embarked on during the last year. Thank you once again.

We also wish to apologize for not having our scheduled fora for the month of January this year, which unfortunately fell concurrent to the World Social Forum closing events schedule. However, our Gender Forum Taskforce managed to meet in January and deliberated on the path of the forum for the year 2007.

This year’s fora is attune to the obvious election fever, and the discussions this year will revolve around the theme of Enhancing Women’s Political Participation, asserting to infuse a gendered dimension to the imminent presidential, parliamentary and civic elections 2007. We plan to have both theoretical and practical discussions on this thematic area, with topics ranging from the rationale of female political participation, the efficacy of Kenya’s electoral system for women’s participation, the tenets and strategies of women’s electioneering, the dynamics of party politics, and media manipulation among others. We hope that you will be able to join us, particularly for NGOs and CBOs who would similarly represent and/or replicate the discussions and outputs made within their local contexts.

Visit our archive for all the past events