NEWS

Details

Published: 28 May 2021

Last Updated: 28 May 2021

A PRAYER FOR OUR NATION, KENYA BY MRS. JACQUELINE MUGO, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR FEDERATAION OF KENYA EMPLOYERS

Recognize God’s sovereignty, our hope at all times. 

Our heavenly Father, we thank you for the privilege we have as your children to approach your throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need (Hebrews 4:16).

We acknowledge that You are seated on Heaven’s throne in glory, majesty, and supreme authority and that we are here today as a nation only by your providence.

You have carried us through a very difficult season of our life as a country. We thank you for your word that assures us that you have a plan for our lives to prosper us and not to harm us. Plans to give us hope and a future. (Jeremiah 29:11). We thank you that Kenya has a bright future as a nation. 

Lord, we also know from your word that you always work things out for our good even when we do not see it. 

Yet Lord, you know that when we look at the world today and the events in our country over the last 15 months brought about by the Coronavirus pandemic, we are at times confused, fearful or grieved by all that we see around us. 

Lord, you have been our Help in ages past, and You are our Hope for years to come so help us as a nation, to put our trust in you. Lord, ”May you, the God of hope fill us with all joy and peace as we trust in you so that we u may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Rom 15: 13).  

Lord “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.” Psalm 20:7

We pray that You would exercise Your authority, fulfilling Your purpose on this earth…in this nation…so that your will is carried out here as it is in Heaven.  Because we know Your will is good, perfect, and pleasing to those who live according to it.  All that is said and done outside of Your will is like chaff that the wind blows away.

Lord, your word tells us that  “Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people he chose for his inheritance.” Psalm 33:12. May our nation be one that honors your name.

We pray for humility and healing in our land

Lord, we pray that you would help us to trust you knowing that you are sovereign and always in control over the affairs of our nation. You say, “blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted”. 

Lord, give us comfort as we mourn with those mourning throughout our land over the loss of their loved ones. Give us strength to comfort those who are hurting. Yet Lord, we thank you for all those who have recovered from various illnesses including from Covid- 19 infection. We have seen many nations lose hundreds of thousands of people to the pandemic and other disasters. So even as we mourn the loss of many Kenyans, we recognize your hand in protecting many others.

Lord, we pray for your Protection and Restoration from the Ravages of the Pandemic.

The pandemic has led to loss of jobs livelihoods and the collapse of many enterprises especially those that are in the Small and Medium Enterprise category. Many enterprises are struggling to survive and to retain people on the payroll leading to fragile workplace relations. So many are  in dire financial need…with businesses shuttered and incomes shrinking… please provide  for your children . Give us what we need each day: food, clothing, rent, mortgage payments, and other necessities.

Lord, many workers have been affected and are now living in abject poverty causing a lot of tension and psycho- social trauma manifested in many different ways – violence, many cases of murder. Have mercy on our enterprises and employees. Help employers to treat their employees with utmost consideration and employees not to lose hope.  

We pray for wisdom for leaders in the labour sector to resolve emerging workplace conflicts through Social dialogue and accommodation to reduce workplace tensions and industrial strife. 

Lord let there be industrial peace in our workplaces. Let there be honesty and accountability in the corporate world and overall, in the use of national resources.

May you grant wisdom to our government, policy makers and Legislators to make decisions that support enterprise recovery, sustainability and job creation for so many of our people especially our youth. 

Lord, we choose to place our trust, our faith and our hope in you. We know that hope is ultimately about us trusting in your sovereignty.  Our hope is based on the  confident expectation of what you have  promised, and its strength is in your  faithfulness as God.

Lord, you do not hold your goodness from those who put their trust in you so would you show us your goodness in the land of the living. 

So, would you show yourself strong in the events of our country? Would you move mountains that have yet to move? Would you make a way where there seems to be no way? We pray that you would you be glorified in our lives and in our country as a whole.

Please protect us from this deadly pandemic of the Coronavirus. Restore health to those who are sick. Please open doors for our country to get the vaccine to be able to protect our people.

Finally, Father we pray that your will would be done in our country that our hearts as a nation would  pursue righteousness rather than sin. Your word says that “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin condemns any people.” Proverbs 14:34. 

May the fear of the LORD and Godly wisdom drive all our actions and our country. 

Pray that each of us in our great nation would show love toward one another as Christ demonstrated for us.

We pray that we would live up to the aspirations of our National Anthem and that we would dwell in peace and unity to the Glory of your Holy Name!

In the Name of Jesus, our Lord and Savior !

Amen !

Details

Published: 24 March 2021

Last Updated: 24 March 2021

Employers from both the private and public sector in the Western Region congregated in Kisumu to learn how best they could make their processes inclusive to facilitate employability of Persons with Disabilities. Through FKE Human Resource Forum, various partners including the Central Organization of Trade Unions Kenya ( COTU-K), the Federation of Kenya Employers (FKE), National Employment Authority (NEA), Association for the Physically Disabled of Kenya (APDK) and the National Council of Persons with Disabilities (NCPWDs) took participants through inclusive training. This covered inclusive language, provisions of the law and its implication for businesses, 

Dr. Margaret Oloo, the President Western Kenya Regional Branch urged the public and private sector employers in the region to honor the call to reserve 5% of jobs for disabled persons. 

FKE aims to create a safe space for employers to discuss, champion inclusion of Persons with Disabilities & develop inclusive processes because employment of persons with Disability makes business sense. “We are championing that Persons with Disability are employed on merit because it makes business sense. To achieve this, we must create a safe space for employers to discuss this and make their processes inclusive and accommodative.” Mrs. Jacqueline Mugo the Executive Director, FKE  

This is the time for workers and employers to come together and establish a pipeline of initiatives, interventions and dialogue that translates into the increased employment of persons with disabilities, she said.

COTU noted that in their collectively bargaining role, they factor in the conversation about responsible inclusion is integrated in the Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBA’s) to improve the working conditions of PWDs in employment. “Workers living with disability need to enjoy decent work as it should be, we are therefore working closely with our members to ensure that Persons with Disability gain meaningful employment.” Mrs. Dorcas, COTU- Kenya 

Since persons living with disabilities require a National Council Disabilities identification Card, Leonard Cheshire have supported partners to come up with PWDs Career Portal and are therefore working closely with Safaricom to ensure that candidates are able to access the portal offline. “PWDs are hardest hit hard with unemployment, we are therefore excited about the collaboration between FKE, COTU and NCPWD as it will be critical in unlocking the challenges that have hindered PWDS from accessing employment opportunities. “ Daniel Masyuki, Leonard Cheshire

The National Council of Persons with Disability developed a Career Portal to ensure that Kenya wins the battle towards enabling persons with disability to join the workforce. 

Our duty therefore as corporates is to leave no one behind, especially persons with disabilities who were disadvantaged even before the pandemic. Through the i2i project, the Federation has also held two similar capacity building forums with employers in Mombasa and Nairobi. This has facilitated the placement into employment for over 100 Persons with Disability.

Other stakeholders in this initiative include; Leonard Cheshire, Action Network for Disability (Andy) and CBM International.