December 2012, Issue n°4 Embassy of Belgium in...

colleagues in a first formal political dialogue since the political turmoil of 2009, with Prime Minister Ber-izisky and 19 members of his government of national union. We concluded that the first steps in the tran-sition were promising while still insufficient: European cooperation will only restart after the es-tablishment of a democ-ratic government as a re-sult of free and fair elec-tions. Here in Kenya our minds are very much focused on the forthcoming elections. The Nairobi Embassy and the Mombasa Consulate are gearing up to observe the elections and we fine-tune our preparations for any repeat of past election incidents. We all hope for the best but must be ready for any possible sce-nario. An art exhibition in the Belgian Residence brought us a Belgian sculpture which com-memorates the violence in Europe during the First World War. ‘In Flanders Fields’, like the other work by Nairobi based artists,

Dear friends of Belgium, I just returned from Moga-dishu where I met with members of the new gov-ernment. After twenty years of chaos and strife there is now real hope for peace and stability for the Somali people. But much remains to be done and the Somali capital is still very insecure. If Somalia appears on its way to a more prosperous future, we may also hope for a successful transition in Madagascar. Elections are planned in May next year and a few weeks ago I joined with European

A word from your Ambassador

Embassy of Belgium in Nairobi

Friends of Belgium - Newsletter

December 2012, Issue n°4

News from the Embassy of Belgium in Nairobi on Belgian relations with Kenya, Somalia, Madagascar, the Seychelles, the Comores, Eritrea and UN institutions in Kenya.

brings a message on suf-fering and healing which I perceive as a warning against more useless vio-lence during the coming election period. Over the past weeks we have seen very encouraging interest from Belgium: in the com-ing months I expect some major projects to come up in the water sector and in health equipment. At the end of November, a Ken-yan delegation was in Bel-gium to consider the transfer of a research ves-sel from Belgium for the benefit of the Kenyan maritime research com-munity. If we can have free, fair and peaceful elections in Kenya these projects and many others will have a bright future. Finally, I congratulate my team with the new format of this newsletter. I be-lieve it looks more up to date and makes this news-letter a better instrument for dialogue with Friends of Belgium. My very best wishes for peaceful holi-days and for a happy 2013!

Bart Ouvry

Consular News Belgian nationality — The Belgian Parliament recently passed a profound change in the Belgian Na-tionality Code which rules out the possibility to ac-quire the Belgian nationali-ty for non residents. In other words, people who are not legally resi-

ding in Belgium will no longer have the opportuni-ty to apply for the Belgian nationality from abroad as from 01/01/2013 (date before which the file has to be at the Public Prose-cutor). This means for example that spouses of Belgian nationals can no

longer apply for the Bel-gian nationality if they are not residing in Belgium. All procedures with regard to minor children of Bel-gian nationals (for exam-ple attribution of nationali-ty of children) remain valid

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Friends of Belgium Friends of Belgium Friends of Belgium Friends of Belgium ---- Newsletter Newsletter Newsletter Newsletter

Diplomatic news King’s Day - The recep-tion on the occasion of King’s Day was a very suc-cessful event. More than 400 Belgians, the diploma-tic community and Kenyan officials and businessmen enjoyed the Funika-Fufuka contemporary art exhibi-tion, the opportunity to network as well as the fa-mous Belgian beer and fries. In his speech the Ambassador stressed the importance of free, fair and peaceful elections in Kenya in March next year and requested for a mi-nute of silence in remem-brance of victims of vio-lence in Kenya, particular-ly the recent killing of more than 40 police offi-cers in Samburu.

Visit from the Sey-

chelles — The Seychelles Minister for Tourism and

Culture, Mr. Alain St.Ange, was received by Mr. Denis Mathen, the Governor for the Province of Namur on a working visit to Belgium on October 16. Minister St. Ange visited the Hotel School of Namur and accepted to work with the Province of Namur to develop a MOU to pave the way for a long-term rela-tionship between the Prov-ince of Namur and Sey-chelles. “The friendly ties that exist between Belgium and Sey-chelles will be further en-hanced by this visit on the Governor of the Province of Namur. The meeting was cordial and the Gover-nor spared no effort to show his desire to further strengthen the existing relation between Sey-


In pictures - King ’ s Day Reception

De Groote - Karen-Ngong Road : Jan Vandenabeele and Kris De Pooter The crisis plans for Mom-basa and other regions are also under constant review in close cooperation with our Honorary Consul Lou Dierick.

Biometrics — Contrary to many other European countries, Belgium has during many years shown great flexibility by allowing its fellow-countrymen resi-ding abroad to apply for their passports by post. As such, long journeys could be avoided. With the bio-metric passport, this alter-native is no longer availa-ble since all citizens have to submit their passport application in person. Fur-thermore, only the official missions – and no longer the honorary consulates – will have the authority to register passport applica-

tion and process biometric data. When submitting your application you will need to supply 4 kinds of data to be stored in your passport: 1. Your identity and natio-nality; 2. The fingerprints of two fingers, preferably the in-dex-fingers (as from the age of 12); 3. A photograph that will be taken on site (as from the age of 6); 4. Your signature (as from the age of 6). Children younger than 12 years old do not need to provide their fingerprints but will need to have their photograph taken. Chil-dren must sign as from the age of 6. Therefore their presence at the time of application will also be mandatory once they have reached the age of 6.

and unchanged. Practically: Only files duly c o m p l e t e d b e f o r e 10/12/2012 can be pro-cessed on time by the Em-bassy. Crisisplan — We encou-rage those who are not registered but who want to be included in our crisis plan to contact the Embas-sy and to provide their personal details. All regis-tered Belgian people in Nairobi received an e-mail in which we announce the deployment of our Liaison Officers. The following people are Liason Officers in Nairobi: - Lavington: Jean-Paul De Prins, Lut Laenen and Joël Darche - Westlands : Kris Ver-specht and Olivier Lau-vaux - Greater Muthaiga-Gigiri: Lieven Claessen and Hugo

chelles and the Province of Namur in Belgium. We used the opportunity of the meeting to formally invite the Governor to visit Seychelles and to lead a working delegation to Sey-chelles,” said Minister Alain St.Ange. Ngong Hills, the first

wind-farm in sub-

Saharan Africa — During a ceremony at the Kenyan Treasury on 19 Septem-ber, a credit agreement worth more than € 12 mil-lion was signed for the second phase of the cons-truction of wind turbines at Ngong Hills. These tur-bines are installed by the Belgian firm TPF Econoler through its Kenyan partner KenGen. After the € 10 million first phase which resulted in the construc-tion of the present 6 turbi-

nes, the second phase will add an additional 8 turbi-nes with a capacity of 6.8 Megawatt. The project will be completed before the end of 2013. Speakers at the ceremony were Minister of Finance Githae), CEO of KenGen Eddy Njoroge and Ambas-sador Bart Ouvry. In his statement, Ambassador Ouvry called the project another step in the very productive relationship between Kenya and Bel-gium. He recalled that the total portfolio of Belgian cooperation with Kenya during the present or near future in the fields of ener-gy, healthcare, firefigh-ting, education and ICT amounts to 130 million euro. He expressed Bel-gium’s commitment to continue the relationship,

and expressed the hope to complete it soon with a treaty for the protection and promotion of invest-ments. Together with good, fair and peaceful elections, this will pave the way for more intense trade with and investment in Kenya.

Louise-Marie— The Bel-gian frigate Louise-Marie participates for the third time in the European ope-ration ATALANTA against Somali piracy. The vessel and its crew of 166 sailed from Zeebrugge on No-vember 7th and have now arrived in Djibouti. On De-cember 5th, the Louise-Marie is expected in Mom-basa, where it will receive the visit of a European press delegation.


Did you know...

Belgium has

88 Embassies in the

world ?

Belgian corner Children’s competition

— We encourage all Bel-gian children to test their painting skills as the Uni-ted Nations Environmental Program organizes the International Children’s Painting Competition on the Environment. It has been held since 1991 and has received more than 3 million entries from chil-dren in over 150 coun-tries. The theme of the 22nd painting competition will be “Water: The Source of Life” and children will have until 29 February 2013 to submit their entries. http://unep.org/tunza/children/int_comp.aspx

BVN — BVN viewers might have already noti-ced but since October 16, BVN is received by the SES-5 satellite and, as a consequence, also another frequency. For more infor-mation, please surf to

h t t p : / / w ww . b v n . n l /ontvangst/actueel

Sunshine4kids — In Oc-tober, the Embassy had the pleasure to receive a team of Sunshine4Kids. This is a Flemish gras-sroots initiative providing basic educational support to children in four schools in Southern Kenya – from schoolbooks and pens to benches and uniforms. Teachers receive didactic training, and Belgian stu-dents get the opportunity to do part of their appren-ticeship in Kenya. The la-test achievement of Suns-hine4Kids is the installa-tion of a water well in one of the schools they sup-port. Read all about their project and support them via www.sunshine4kids.be. Funika Fufuka exhibi-tion — On the occasion of King’s Day, the Ambassa-dor opened a contempora-


S4K: Pascale Perneel and Philippe Vancayseele with a class of Kenyan pupils

The children received a Belgian flag from the Embassy


Contact:

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Friends of Belgium

Friends of Belgium is a three-monthly publica-tion of the Embassy of Belgium in Nairobi. Limuru Road, Muthaïga P.O. Box 30 461— 00100 Nairobi Kenya Tel.: +254 (20) 712 20 11 All rights reserved

News from the Embassy Goodbye — Isabelle Pri-gogine leaves the Embassy after one year as the per-sonal assistant of the Am-bassador. « My one year contract with the Embassy of Belgium has come to its term. It was a great plea-sure meeting some of you and getting to know you better. My special thanks go to the Ambassador Bart Ou-vry : I will keep in memo-ry his availability and sup-port », Isabelle says, « I wish to thank our team - Kenyan and expatriate -, for their kindness and pro-fessionalism. I will stay in Kenya and hope to have the pleasure to meet you again. I am going back to what I was doing before: fighting for more justice in DRC and for the continued existence of the Virunga National Park where I grew up, as well as wor-king as a SA8000 certified social auditor across Afri-ca. » We wish Isabelle all the best in her future en-deavours.

… and welcome — The Embassy welcomes the new personal assistant to the Ambassador Nadine De Smedt. Nadine joined the Ministry of Foreign affairs in 1989 as an expa-triated secretary. She started her career in Vienna. Then, she spent 6 years in Cameroon with her baby daughter, Caro-line. The family grew up in Cameroon as Nadine “adopted” an orphaned Cameroonian nanny to take care of the baby. The three of them travelled to Costa Rica, Brazil and Cy-prus which was Nadine’s previous posting.

New website — The Em-bassy is proud to an-nounce the launch of its new website. Visit us at

The students made a movie on their travels through Kenya

ry Art Exhibition of Belgian and Kenyan artists in his residence. The exhibition contains art of the Belgian Berlinde de Bruyckere and 11 Belgian, Kenyan, Eri-trean and Sudanese ar-tists. The exhibition ‘Funika-Fufuka’ is still ac-cessible until December 9 (by appointment only). You can subscribe via [email protected].

Visit of Belgian stu-

dents — A group of 6 Bel-gian students was received by the Belgian Ambassa-dor allowing them to share their experience of mee-ting with local youth clubs and schools in Nyanza pro-vince on November 3.

http://diplomatie.belgium.be/kenya/ ! Facebook — If you do not want to wait 3 more mon-ths for the next update, please consider ‘liking’ us on Facebook. You will find a link to our Facebookpage on our new website.

Thank you for sponsoring the Funika-Fufuka exhibition!

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Students of the New Dawn School

visited the art

exhibition and drew their own

work of art

December 2012, Issue n°4 Embassy of Belgium in...

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