Scouting
Kenya’s World Scout Parliamentary Scouts Union (WPSU) has launched a magazine to publicize scouting activities and programmes.
The publication titled Scouting Connect is also one of the projects being undertaken by WPSU Kenya to market Nyeri County as the Scouting City of the world seeing that the county is gearing up to host the 11th General WPSU Assembly in 2025.
In 2022, Kenya beat six countries to win the bid to host the executive global event which will see Kenya become the first African country to host the convention that will bring together more than 2,000 delegates among them Members of Parliament from all over the world.
According to WSPU Kenya Executive Director who is also WSPU Africa Regional Director Poppins Misoi, the union also intends to use the publication to amplify scouting values at both the national and county levels. Misori said the inaugural issue would be distributed to the National Assembly, the Senate, County Assemblies in 47 counties and in schools as the union moves to entrench scouting in all sectors.
“The magazine will be an information sharing document that will talk about scouting and our upcoming activities at WSPU. We will also feature articles about national values like cohesion, peace, leadership and governance. We will also be reminding people about the values that the movement stands for and why we need to keep these values,” said Misori.
Nyeri governor Mutahi Kahiga (R) and Nyeri Town legislator Duncan Mathenge (L) unveil the dummy of the Scouting Connect magazine. The magazine will publicize scouting activities and programmes being undertaken by the World Scout Parliamentary Scouts Union- Kenya on Wednesday July 31, 2024.
The launch of the magazine comes a few months after the Union signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the County government of Nyeri to promote scouting in Nyeri. The agreement will also see the two partners develop income generating programmes centered on the scouting movement such as the Founders Day that is held in February.
The annual event is considered to be the world’s biggest Scouting Tourism event which sees scouts from all over the world troop to Nyeri to pay homage to the movement’s founder. Through the MOU, Nyeri and WSPU will collaborate to support scouting programme through policies and legislations with Misori revealing that plans were underway to draft a legislation which will designate Nyeri as the Scouting City of the World.
Misori said that the Union has already scheduled sensitization forums with stakeholders from the Nyeri Business Community and the County Assembly to create awareness about scouting. The series of meetings will also identify additional areas of collaboration.
“Nyeri is critical to us because this is where the founder of the scouting movement spent his final years and it is here that his remains are interred. We have been saying that Nyeri is the Scouting City of the World and now we want to actualize this through the support of the county government, the County Assembly and WSPU,” said the Executive Director.
World Scout Parliamentary Scouts Union Kenya Executive Director, Poppins Misoi during the launch of Scouting Connect magazine at the governor’s office on Wednesday July 31, 2024.
“We want to come up with a Bill which will make Nyeri the Scouting City of the World and also put Nyeri on the global map. WSPU will have a meeting with the Speaker of the County Assembly and other stakeholders, and we want them to be taken through basic understanding of scouting and why we want to make this town the scouting city of the world,” added Misori who was speaking during the event at the Nyeri governor’s office.
The launch was also attended by Nyeri Governor Mutahi Kahiga, his deputy Warui Kinaniri, Director Capacity Building in the State Department for Devolution, Kennedy Nyambati, Nyeri Town MP Duncan Mathenge and WSPU Kenya 2nd Vice President and Kisii Women Representative Dorice Donya.
In his remarks, the Nyeri County boss underscored the importance of scouting in instilling discipline and molding the youth into responsible people. He noted that there was a need for both levels of government to support the movement as a way of ensuring that the movement does not die out.
“As we launch this magazine, we pray that it is going to carry with it the tenets and teachings of scouting. We must support WSPU because the teachings of the movement need to be repeated so that everyone who comes across it, the scouting in them is reawakened,” said Kahiga.
“As a country, we must be founded on the faith that we can make our country a better place and we can make our voices heard without necessarily creating unnecessary destructions,” he added.