| GPF Kenya 2010 Commits to Advance Nairobi River Initiative |
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| Thursday, February 25, 2010 |
 On February 16, Nairobi Mayor Geoffrey Majiwa joined a coalition of prominent national youth organizations and religious, business, and elected leaders to mark the launch of the 2010 Global Peace Festival and Convention, with a renewed commitment to advance the restoration of the endangered Nairobi River. “I am proud to support the Convention and will engage the City Council to provide its support,” Mayor Majiwa said at the inaugural event, joining some 300 youth volunteers who planted trees along the Nairobi River as part of the restoration initiative.Once a pristine water source and national treasure, the river is now threatened by toxic industrial pollution, refuse from the rapidly growing city of Nairobi, and untreated sewage from some of the continent’s largest slums. Communities bordering the river are at risk of infectious diseases from water-borne contaminants.  In August 2008 the Global Peace Festival, with the support of Nairobi businesses, civic organizations, governmental agencies, and thousands of volunteers, initiated the largest public cleanup for the Nairobi River in Kenya’s history. The cleanup was widely covered by national media, including expanded television reports by the Kenya News Service.Since the 2008 GPF, more than 16 thousand volunteers have returned to the river in six coordinated mobilizations. Adopting the GPF’s signature goals of inter-cultural and interfaith peacebuilding, the initiative draws on the county’s diverse ethnic population, which finds common ground in the work of rehabilitating the endangered river. “We long for the day when our nation can again be proud of this river, which could provide water to millions,” said Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga at the 2008 GPF main event. The Nairobi Peace Initiative’s “Adopt a Tree” program also involves conservation, sanitation, and tree planting in water catchment areas. “Our objectives are to empower the communities with environmental management skills and to generate youth jobs from biodiversity resources,” says project coordinator Japheth Ouda.   |
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