The Association held a session in Mombasa to report on advocacy progress on NEMA, a journey we have walked for 8 years. In 2006, The Environmental Management and Co-ordination (Water Quality) Regulations, 2006 –Legal Notice No. 120 of 2006 & The Environmental Management and Co-ordination (Waste Management) Regulations, 2009 legal notices were enacted and became part of the pieces of legislation that affected operations within our member establishments. We did undertake the following 5 steps to advocate for change in this policy:

·         We identified the issues as presented by you the members

·         We sought to Understanding the issues – which required excellent research, that included a systematic gathering of views, that enabled us to draw logical conclusions that then lead to  a process for developing consensus internally;

·         We did Formulate an evidence based policy  – which required the distillation of objective evidence from reliable sources, the consideration of policy options and the preparation of a compelling argument for the chosen option;( see attached position paper).

·         We then reached appropriate people in Government – to influence public policy and it has taken almost 8 years

·         We are now  Monitoring the progress – to ensure that, the proposed/implemented changes are really functioning and adding value to the well being of the sector

After a series of  consultation meetings on the above legal notices and a follow-up to ALL our engagements since 2007 we met to communicate the milestones of the advocacy engagements and report on the amendments undertaken by NEMA to address KAHC’s position

Through the fruitful engagements for example, KAHC members will see the cost and process of compliance reduced to sensible, workable and more affordable levels.  This change is expected to improve the hospitality industry in the following ways:

1.    The cost of compliance with EMCA is no longer a serious deterrent to new investment in the sector i.e. the costs were the same irrespective the size of the establishment.

2.    Lower NEMA licenses costs on existing establishments will be ploughed back into the hotels to improve standards, expand hotels, create of jobs and increase marketing activities.

We thank all members for supporting us through this process and the good lessons learned will be used in our ongoing advocacy agendas.