Pan-African Parliament Promotes Climate, Soil and Food Security Model Laws in Kenya

PAP meets Kenyan parliamentary and government leaders to advance its draft climate law and promote model laws on soil management and food security.

The Pan-African Parliament (PAP) has strengthened engagement with Kenya’s parliamentary and government leadership as it seeks to translate its model laws into practical references for national legislation on climate change, sustainable soil management, and food and nutrition security.

A delegation of PAP’s Committee on Rural Economy, Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment held meetings with senior Kenyan leaders during a programme of technical consultations and model law promotion in Nairobi from 28 September to 1 October 2026.

The delegation met Hon. Moses Masika Wetang’ula, Speaker of Kenya’s National Assembly; Hon. Kathuri Murungi, Deputy Speaker of the Senate; and Dr. Eng. Festus K. Ng’eno, Principal Secretary for the State Department for Environment and Climate Change.

According to the PAP release, the engagements received a warm welcome and assurances of support from the Kenyan parliamentary leadership and the State Department. The meetings provided an opportunity to connect PAP’s continental legislative work with the national institutions that can consider, adapt and implement its proposals.

Advancing the draft climate change model law

Discussions focused on the ongoing development of the PAP Model Law on Climate Change in Africa, which is intended to help African Union member states strengthen their legal and institutional responses to climate change.

The proposed instrument seeks to support climate resilience and climate-resilient development by providing a legislative reference that countries can adapt to their circumstances. Its development formed a central part of the Nairobi programme, which included a technical consultation on the draft.

Engagement with both chambers of Kenya’s Parliament and the State Department for Environment and Climate Change brought the initiative before institutions with complementary responsibilities. Parliamentary consideration can help shape legislation and strengthen oversight, while government institutions contribute the policy and administrative experience needed for implementation.

These discussions also underline the importance of involving national institutions during the development of continental model laws. Their input can help identify practical needs, potential gaps and the conditions under which proposed provisions could work within domestic legal systems.

Promoting sustainable soil management and food security

Alongside the draft climate law, the delegation promoted two previously developed instruments: the PAP Model Law on Sustainable Soil Management in Africa and the PAP Model Law on Food and Nutrition Security in Africa.

Booklets of both model laws were presented to the Kenyan parliamentary and government leaders to support dissemination and encourage their consideration when strengthening national legislation and policies.

The three areas form a closely connected sustainable development agenda. Climate resilience, the protection of soils, and reliable access to adequate food require coordinated policy and legislative attention. Bringing the instruments together gives national institutions an opportunity to consider how their responses in one area can support progress in the others.

The presentation of the booklets was therefore part of a broader effort to move PAP’s model laws beyond continental discussion and into the hands of institutions that can assess their relevance to national priorities.

From continental guidance to national implementation

PAP’s model laws are intended to serve as reference instruments. Their presentation to national leaders does not itself amount to adoption or domestication; those steps require consideration through the relevant national legislative and policy processes.

Their practical value depends on how member states use them when developing new laws, reviewing existing provisions or strengthening institutional arrangements. Adaptation allows countries to draw on a common continental framework while taking account of their constitutional systems, administrative capacity and social and economic conditions.

The assurances of support reported during the Kenyan engagements provide a basis for continued cooperation. Follow-up will be important in helping parliamentary committees, government departments and other stakeholders examine the instruments and determine how they can inform national action.

The Nairobi programme reflects PAP’s effort to connect the development of model laws with their wider dissemination and eventual national use. For climate change, soil management, and food and nutrition security, the next measure of progress will be whether that engagement contributes to stronger legislation, effective oversight and sustained implementation.