Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi has left for Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where he will represent Kenya at the 48th Ordinary Session of the Executive Council of the African Union ahead of the continental summit of Heads of State and Government later this week.
The Executive Council meeting will take place on February 11 and 12, paving the way for the 39th Ordinary Session of the AU Assembly scheduled for February 14 and 15.
This year’s summit is themed Assuring Sustainable Water Availability and Safe Sanitation Systems to Achieve the Goals of Agenda 2063, and will focus on water security as one of Africa’s long-term development agenda.
Mudavadi said the focus on water and sanitation is timely, noting that it builds on the outcomes of the second African Climate Summit held in Addis Ababa in September 2025.
“I consider this very timely and much forward-looking. Remember, this second Climate Summit builds on the first African Climate Summit held in Nairobi, Kenya, in 2023,”.
The AU deliberations come amid growing warnings on the economic cost of climate-related water stress.
World Bank experts project that by 2050, droughts, floods and water pollution linked to climate change could cut GDP growth by up to six per cent across large parts of Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
In 2001, former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned that competition over fresh water could emerge as a major source of conflict, even as he observed that shared water challenges could also drive cooperation among states.
On the sidelines of the Executive Council session, Mudavadi is scheduled to hold bilateral meetings with leaders from across the continent as Kenya advances its foreign policy priorities.
