KENYA:
Legislative Exchange, Education and Economic Development Missions
November 2014 and August 2016
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Christopher Mwambingu, a World Partnerships 2012 IVLP alumnus from Kenya, founder and former Executive Director of the Taita Taveta Resource Center and advisor to the Speaker of the Taita Taveta County Assembly in Kenya, approached World Partnerships with a project to create interaction between the newly-created Taita Taveta County Assembly and the Florida Legislature. Kenya's new Constitution called for the creation of "counties" (states) in a closely-watched "devolution" (Federalism) process. The Taita Taveta County Assembly is equivalent to a State Legislature.
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In November 2014, a group of 10 first-generation elected Assembly representatives, accompanied by the County Clerk and the Speaker's personal advisor, spent 12 days in the Tampa Bay area. The Taita Taveta delegation learned about how a US State Legislature organize themselves, how the legislative process works, and how different levels of government interact. The delegation also had hands-on experiences with our approaches to workforce education, vocational-technical education, and economic development and tourism development.
A second County Assembly mission took place in August 2016, and included visits to Tampa Bay, Tallahassee, Savannah (GA), St. Augustine, and Orlando. This mission was designed to explore and identify potential partnerships for: Economic development linkages; education and workforce development collaboration; sustainable tourism funding, development and marketing; and investment partners in the areas of information technology, agribusiness, energy infrastructure, and mining and natural resources.