Ambassador Muhindi welcomed all officers and interns to the Karen retreat which was held in Karen county club and kicked off the meeting with greetings. She called for everybody to introduce themselves and welcomed Joram and Aden to the Africa and AU directorate. During the retreat several issues were discussed such as ways in which the directorate could receive customer feedback. Ole sein suggested a visitor’s book with simple questions where visitors can answer by ticking. Mustafa suggested using a suggestion box whereby forms can be filled and inseted. The ambassador commended both ideas and recommended Mustafa to carry out the idea.

The next issue was brought by Eugene who requested a process of knowing how much of the budget has been allocated, how much has been spent at a particular time and how much of the budget is remaining at any given time. The ambassador responded by recommending that a written memo be forwarded to finance or pds. This issue was left to Eugene to follow up on with Catherine.

It was also agreed that the directorate would take stock of unused and idle assets. Pictures of the ministerial open day were to be uploaded to the ministry’s website as evidence.

The ambassador called for Catherine to do a gender analysis and it was confirmed that at the time 30% of the threshold had been met.

The ambassador requested the officers of the directorate to seek ways in which they can show support towards the disabled. Eugene suggested using posters of positive messages to show support

On the issue of the procurement of tickets, the ambassador suggested seeking advice from Masila. The idea was backed by Catherine as she emphasized that it is difficult to to project the exact number of flights that come up in the future.

The ambassador called for the directorate to make drug awareness more practical.

Catherine requested the officers of the directorate to give their training need assessments to Tamara.

Strategic plan for 2015

Ole sein suggested JCC’s should be one target in terms of monitoring, initiating and executing.

Catherine pointed out that the directorate should learn from past mistakes and seek guidance from the officers who have been in the directorate the longest

Ole sein suggested doing away with issues out of the directorates control such as training. Although Catherine stated that it’s the directorate’s responsibility to ensure training needs are met.

It was agreed that records of meetings should be recorded each month to see how many meetings have been attended.

Joram suggested a balance for targets It was agreed that a budget for bus maintenance should be kept aside It was also agreed that Africa should share a bus with Horn of Africa