On arrival at Nairobi Airport in Kenya, on Sep. 26, 2013, we were received by Alex Kimani, a former intern at Asia Plateau and stayed with Mr. B. Lakxmi, an Indian Businessman who shifted to Kenya many years ago and started his tannery, single handedly.

Later that day, we met David Bernard Stevens, a former American Senator from Nebraska. He had left everything behind to follow his heart and work for the people of Africa. He is now the CEO at Effective Change Ltd. in Kenya. His special area of work is in rural empowerment. This is where he met his wife, Ruth, who is working with an offshoot of IofC called Creator’s of Peace. A few days later we also had dinner at their home where we met Ms.Vicky, a dynamic lady working with the Kenyan Anti-Corruption Department in Nairobi. David and Ruth plan to join us at CIB 2013.

On day 2, we went to Kabarnet, the State Capital of Baringo County to meet H.E. Benjamin
ChesireCheboi, Governor (Similar to Chief Minister in India) and H.E. Mathew Tuitoek,
Deputy Governor. After a good discussion the Governor decided to send H.E. Tuitoek and 5 more from the business community for the CIB Conference. He was much taken by the phrase we used saying, “we may have the best of plans, but if we do not have ethical people to execute them, we cannot expect proper results”. He then offered to give us land to build a Centre of IofC in Kabarnet, which looks like Panchgani.

The next day, we met James Mageria. This is a man of great achievements, one of which is being the Police Chief of Nairobi. He made many reforms during his time but did not want to stop at that. So he went to the US and did his MBA, then worked there for a long while. Hereturned to Kenya to head a Hospital chain called the Karen Hospital. Mr. Mageria was so interested in CIB and the concept behind it that he invited us for a breakfast meeting to interact with the “Think Tank”, a group of very high powered people, from all walks of life, who had two things in common, viz (i) a deep concern and will to help society and (ii) their faith in the higher power. This group consisted of lawyers, the Chancellor of a University, a judge, CEOs, the Director General of Kenya`s Vision 2030 and many others.

Later that day we met H.E Ms. Dorothy NditiMuchungu, the Deputy Governor of the EmbuCounty. She has some very impressive plans and vision for her County and hopes to find likeminded people at the CIB Conference. In the evening, we met the ShamazSavani, Group MDof the African Banking Corp. Ltd.

On Oct. 2, 2013, we flew to Entebbe and then drove to Kampala, the lovely Capital of Uganda, spread out over 7 hills, next to Lake Victoria. That evening, we met the Permanent Secretary of the Prime Minister, Ms. Christine GuwatuddeKintu. We chalked out a hectic schedule of meeting senior Government officials over the next 3 days. There is also a delegation of 10 officials, from the Prime Minister’s Office, who are coming to India for the International HEL program and Ethics in Public Governance, that are immediately following the main CIB Conference.

There was great enthusiasm for Indo – Ugandan exchanges to improve the business environment and for ethical governance. Many contacts have been madefor the future. We went to the Civil Service College in Jinga, which conducts similar programs like ours on ethical governance and interacted with Ms. Jane, the Head of the College and Frederick Anyine, Program Manager, Leadership and Management Development. Mr. Anyine is part of the 10 member official team coming to India.

We had good meetings with Mr. Badagawa, Executive Director of the Private Sector Foundation of Uganda, and Daniel Karibwije, Director of the Uganda Export Promotion Board in Kampala. Mr. Balinda, Executive Director of the Uganda Tourism Board, who is co ordinating business investors coming into Uganda, also expressed his keen interest to come to India and participate in our programs at Panchgani. He has a lot to share on corruption.

On the last evening in Uganda, we had dinner at the residence of Ms. AhunnaEiakonwa-Onochie, Resident Co-ordinator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Uganda. We were joined by Mrs. Christine GuwatuddeKintu and her husband. We discussed how future exchanges could take place not only for Govt. officials, but also for business heads. Both husbands were from business.

We are very grateful to Joseph Karanja, B. Lakxmi, Ashwin and Chandrika Patel,
Ann Njeri, MbindyoKimanthi all from Kenya.

We came back very hopeful of a good beginning of a long association between India and Africa.

Dr. Amit Mukherjee and Ms. Neha Mukherjee