It is with great pleasure that I take this opportunity to express my gratitude to all stakeholders who collaborated with the Kenya National Commission for UNESCO in 2005. It is through your valuable contribution, support and commitment that the Commission was able to successfully fulfill its core functions. These include; being a catalyst and mechanism for national, regional and international cooperation and a standard setter in UNESCO’s fields of competence, capacity building and support of policy development and advocacy.

Through your support, our main objectives of enhancing and promoting UNESCO activities and programmes, mobilization and monitoring of effective utilization of resources were realized.

First and foremost, I would like to acknowledge and thank most sincerely Hon. Prof. George Saitoti, the imme-diate former Minister for Education and Chairman of the Kenya National Commission for UNESCO for his visionary leadership, support and active participation in UNESCO related activities. Among many other activities, Prof. Saitoti led a successful team to the 33rd General Conference of UNESCO, that saw Kenya reclaim its past glory.

I am very grateful to Prof. Karega Mutahi, Permanent Secretary Ministry of Education for providing financial resources that enabled the Commission to meet its set targets. Many thanks go to Prof. George I. Godia, the Education Secretary and Prof. Justin Irina for co-chairing the taskforce which is currently overseeing the reform process of the Commission. I also wish to thank all the Directors of Education for their active involvement, advice and participation in our activities.
I recognize and appreciate the support accorded to us by Her Excellency, Ambassador Raychelle Omamo, Kenya’s Permanent delegate to UNESCO together with the team in Paris. They have consistently and tirelessly given us valuable support in all our endeavours. The enhanced cooperation and collaboration of the UNESCO Office, Nairobi, is also appreciated.

Special thanks go to the following key stakeholders and partners in UNESCO’s areas of competence whose involvement in the Commission’s activities has contributed to an enhanced visibility of the Commission in particular, and that of UNESCO in general: the Ministry of Water and Irrigation, the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Gender, Sports, Culture and Social Services, the Ministry of National Heritage, the National Museums of Kenya (NMK), the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), the National Council for Science and Technology (NCST), the Kenya National Academy of Sciences (KNAS), the Kenya Institute of Special Education (KISE), Kenya Education Staff Institute (KESI), Teachers Service Commission (TSC), the Kenya Institute of Education (KIE), the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC), the Commission for Higher Education (CHE), the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK), the Kenya Institute of Mass Communication (KIMC), Kenya Water Institute (KEWI), the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Institute (KEMFRI), the Kenya Publishers Association, Universities and other institutions of higher learning.

Finally, I wish to thank my colleagues at the Commission for UNESCO for working steadfast throughout the year and UNESCO for publishing this quality magazine.

Dr. Esther Kakonge
Secretary General
Kenya National Commission for UNESCO