The conference, dubbed "The Kenya We Want," will be held in Nairobi on 2-4 Febru ary to chart the way forward for the country, Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga , announced here Thursday.
It will be addressed by a galaxy of present and past world leaders as well as local and foreign experts, scholars and entrepreneurs.
Odinga, who spoke after unveiling the conference's website in a brief ceremony, said among the foreign participants expected to address the conference were former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, Dr. Mahathir Bin Mohammed, former
Prime Minister of Malaysia, Dr. Abdoulaye Wade, President of Senegal, Joachim Chissano, former President of Mozambique, Graca Machel and former South African First Lady.
Others are Cyril Ramaphosa, a respected South African business executive, Dr. Salim Salim, former OAU Secretary General, Geraldine Fraser Moleketi, South Africa's Minister for Public Service and Administration and Tharcisse Karugarama, Rwand a 's Minister for Justice.
Former Botswana President Ketumile Masire, Kenneth Kaunda, former Zambian President, will also attend.
Odinga recalled that Kenya's peace and tranquility was shattered by last year's post-election skirmishes and that there was need, as a nation, to look at where the country wanted to go.
He said one of the objectives of the conference was to provide the country with a platform to discuss issues that have kept the country on the edge and how to deal with them in the coming years.
"We have had many occasions to look back in the past, usually through task forces and commissions, the result has largely been to assign blame on who did or did not do what," noted the Prime Minister.
He said the conference would take a break from looking at the past and instead look into the future in terms of where the country wanted to go.
"We will be meeting to lay the foundation of the nation we want the next generat ion to build on," he added.
According to Odinga, some of the foreign leaders invited presided over nations that experienced more political turmoil than Kenya did last year, but pulled them out of chaos.
"Some pulled their nations from decades of civil wars and turned them into progr essive countries," he observed, adding that Kenyans were particularly keen to hear from Rwanda on how they were able to emerge as a united nation in such a short time after an ethnic conflict that remains unparalleled in recent times.
The PM said some of the benefits to the country from the conference would be that the findings and recommendations would strengthen on-going efforts in national reconciliation and inter-group harmony that is the central goal of the grand coalition government.
The forum will be used to demonstrate to the world that Kenyans are determined to solve their problems peacefully through open debate and also to strengthen investor confidence by showing its commitment to a bright future, complete with a roadmap on how to get there.
Nairobi - 08/01/2009
Pana
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