COP28: Hussein Mohammed finally clears up no. of Kenyan delegation in Dubai

The number of Kenyan delegates to the COP28 meeting in Dubai has been a topic of contention. According to State House, only fifty-one government personnel were approved.

Hussein Mohamed, a spokesman for the State House, explained that many Kenyans are supported by non-state actors, which explains why there are so many of them.

“Non-government entities are facilitating several Kenyans to participate in this COP28. The list of the people that were cleared by the national government is 51,” he said.

According to sources, Kenya has 763 people on the summit's participation list.

It came in at number twelve with the most delegates, trailing only the United Arab Emirates (4,409) and Brazil (3,081).

There are 1,411 participants from China and Nigeria.

“We have so many other Kenyans from the private sector, non-state actors, county governments and parliament. Is that part of the Presidency? No,” he said during an interview with Citizen TV on Sunday. 

"The President, he noted, was very clear on reducing the numbers and he has done so."

Dennis Itumbi, a digital strategist, reaffirmed this, saying that the President is interested in reducing trip expenses, which is why the list was whittled down from 189 to 51.

"He asked for the list of those travelling with him to Dubai for COP28. He got a list of 189 people. He returned it to the bureaucracy and demanded cuts," he wrote.

"It came back as 144. He instructed that the list come down to below 60.  Finally, only 51 essential staff travelled from across the government. That was a 73 per cent cut on travel costs."

Hussein continued, saying that the counties and Parliament had agenda items for the meeting and that they had been told to cut back on attendees to the bare minimum.

Started on November 30 and running through December 12, the gathering is being attended by some 97,000 delegates from 195 countries.

The fifth conference of the COP acting as the Paris Agreement Meeting (CMA 5) and the 18th meeting of the COP acting as the Kyoto Protocol Meeting (CMP 18) made up the COP28 conference.

It also contains the 59th meetings of the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA 59) and the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI 59).