Kenyan legislators attending a regional peace and security summit in Luanda, Angola, have called for deeper collaboration among member states of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) to tackle worsening instability in the region.
The ICGLR comprises 12 member states, including Kenya, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Sudan, South Sudan, Zambia, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Congo and the Central African Republic (CAR).
In a statement issued on April 22, 2025, the Kenyan Parliamentary Caucus announced that the delegation, led by Senate Speaker Amason Kingi, highlighted the urgent need for coordinated responses to the escalating conflicts within the bloc.
The delegation during the 15th Ordinary Session of the Plenary Assembly of the ICGLR Forum of Parliaments singled out growing violence and humanitarian crises in the DRC, Sudan, South Sudan and CAR, warning that their ripple effects were threatening the broader region’s stability and human dignity.
“The Kenyan delegation noted with concern that the recent escalation in conflicts including some bordering on civil war within some Member States had come with devastating regional repercussions,” the statement read.
Buuri MP Mugambi Rindikiri, who represented the Kenyan delegation in the Committee on Peace and Security, urged the ICGLR to expand its scope of fact-finding missions and to clearly define recommendations that can be adopted swiftly by all member states.
“The humanitarian crisis in the individual countries has come at a hefty cost to the rest of the region. We need to harmonise our efforts and iron out sticky issues to restore peace and dignity,” Rindikiri stated at the forum.
He stressed the importance of addressing the root causes of unrest, noting that inconsistent strategies and a lack of unified data collection have hindered timely regional intervention.
The parliamentarians in attendance further underscored the importance of shared diagnostics in tackling insecurity, noting that for peace to prevail, member countries must commit to thorough analyses of threats and bolster existing peace mechanisms.
“The forum also stressed the need for ICGLR Member States to renew their commitments to resolving the challenges of insecurity and poverty,” the statement added.
According to parliament, the sessions are part of a broader agenda that will culminate in the meeting of the ICGLR Executive Committee and the Conference of Speakers later in the week.
“Committee Members further pointed out that stability and security in the ICGLR depended on a rigorous and shared diagnosis of threats and existing peace efforts,” the statement read.