Kenya

The Republic of Kenya signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Oslo on 3 December 2008. The status of the ratification process is unknown. Kenya is not believed to have ever used, produced, stockpiled, or transferred cluster munitions.

Kenya did not attend the first two international diplomatic conferences of the Oslo Process in Oslo and Lima, but did participate in the subsequent conferences to develop the convention text in Vienna and Wellington, as well as the formal negotiations in Dublin in May 2008. It also participated in the regional conferences in Livingstone (March/April 2008) and Kampala (September 2008).

At the Wellington conference, Kenya said it was not affected by cluster munition remnants, but supported the call for a ban on cluster munitions.^[1] Kenya endorsed the Wellington Declaration, indicating its intention to participate in the Dublin negotiations. At the Livingstone conference, Kenya said past users of cluster munitions need to take responsibility for clearance and cooperation and assistance.^[2] Kenya endorsed the Livingstone Declaration, calling for a comprehensive treaty with a prohibition that should be “total and immediate.”^[3]

During the negotiations in Dublin, Kenya worked to achieve a strong treaty text and to defeat proposals to weaken it, including the proposal of a transition period before obligations took effect.^[4] When it joined the consensus adoption of the convention, Kenya said, “Although we did not achieve all that we had wanted,” it welcomed the convention as a balanced compromise of all concerns.^[5] Kenya described it as “a significant milestone in international humanitarian law” and particularly welcomed the provisions on victim assistance and international cooperation.^[6]

At the regional meeting in Kampala in September 2008, Kenya announced that it would sign the convention in Oslo. It endorsed the the Kampala Action Plan, which declared that states should sign and “take all necessary measures to ratify the convention as soon as possible.”^[7] Upon signing, Kenya’s Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs, Richard Momoima Onyonka, said the convention had provided “new impetus to multilateral diplomacy.”^[8]

Kenya is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

The Kenyan Network to Ban Cluster Bombs, which is coordinated by Handicap International, conducted several activities in 2008 including People’s Treaty petition collection and a public march in the center of Nairobi on 31 October.^[9]