1. Our Chief Guest, the Principal Secretary State Department for Internal Security and National Administration Dr. Raymond Omollo, Director General Kenya School of Government Prof. Ludeki Chweya,

BCOCC Principals and BCOCC Contact Persons Development Partners; – IOM, USCBP, GIZ, UNODC….

Director – Security Management Institute Mr. Mokaya and team Border Management Secretariat team

Border Officials /9th Cohort participants Ladies and Gentlemen, Good morning?

2. We thank our God for yet another opportunity to meet and undergo a 10 days training under the Reviewed Kenya Coordinated Border Management Program, popularly known as the Curriculum. I am aware that we have come from far and wide from Coast, Nyanza, Western North Eastern, Eastern, South Rift Valley and Nairobi Regions and that you arrived safely yesterday. We thank God for his journey mercies.
3. I wish to thank our guest of honor for finding time from his busy schedule to be with us and grace this very important occasion in the calendar of BCOCC/BMS. As Chair BCOCC we are ever grateful and blessed with your presence amidst us.
4. Equally I wish to thank KSG for being very dependable partners. The very fact that we are here again for this training is a clear testimony that the work we did together in reviewing this curriculum was not in vain. We ideally spent 2 weeks to review both the curriculum and the facilitators manual. This is the 9th cohort after successfully training close to 180 participants here in KSG Nairobi, Mombasa and Embu campuses respectively courtesy of BCOCC, UNODC and USCBP.
5. I wish to take this early opportunity as well to thank our IOM partners for accepting to sponsor the 10th and 11th cohorts. This is besides the previous and continuous support we continue enjoying as an organization. The 5-year strategic plan sponsored by IOM revolutionized the way we do business at the secretariat. It speaks on:
6. a) BCOCC/BMS existence /creation as per the Security Laws (Amendment) Act of 2014 Section 75
7. b) BCOCC/BMS Vision, Mission and Mandate
8. c) Justification for the strategic plan for BCOCC
9. d) On specific Key Results Areas (KRA) – Coordination of Border Operations; Border Security and Control; Institutional Capacity; with specific strategies, key activities and out comes as well as timelines for various activities to be undertaken in a span of 5 years. In a nutshell therefore, this Strategic Plan does help BCOCC/BMS realize its long-term vision by setting up goals and objectives in a systematic incremental manner.
10. Another milestone, working with IOM was the development of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for Land, Air, and Maritime environments. This has enabled our officers in all our PoEs works seamlessly in a coordinated manner.
11. Sir, our collaboration with development partners have eased pressure in our resource envelop hence enabled us to do much more as guided by our strategic plan We will be inviting you to receive a brand-new vehicle that will assist the secretariat in assessing far flung and remote areas of our country as we continue appraising our BMCs and viability of opening up more PoEs courtesy of IOM
12. Let me be quick to mention that this training was sanctioned by the BCOCC to enable Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) work as a team by embracing the “whole of government approach”.
13. It is therefore, expected that you (the 9th cohort) will gain skills, knowledge and have the right attitude in the context of working as one besides adding value in the overall border management. The silo mentality, not sharing of information and resources, working in competition and duplicating efforts will be a thing of the past.

10. This course is meant to empower you on Coordinated Border Management (CBM), for the sole reason of enhancing legitimate trade, travel in a very secure environment. 11. Sir, as you are aware, the desire of this country is to move from Coordinated Border Management (CBM) to Integrated Border Management (IBM). Towards this end, we have partnered with Kenya School of Government to develop appropriate questionnaires This has been administered to the BMC membership. We shall do the same with the principals before the end of this month. We shall however rely on your guidance going forward.
11. Once more feel welcome and let’s learn together to make our borders more safe and secure for trade and travel ‘Mipaka dhabiti kwa ustawi”