In 2019, John Kamiri, Secretary General of the Green Congress of Kenya, took part in the Green Talent Accelerator programme.

John’s main goal in the programme was to further develop his leadership abilities in his role as a party official, where his responsibilities included acting as the party spokesperson, managing campaigns and communications and assisting with party organisation. In addition, John had the longer-term aim of standing as a Member of County Assembly in the next local elections in Kenya, scheduled for 2022.

A tailored programme was designed to address these objectives, focusing on public speaking, communication skills, messaging and campaigning, as identified by John as areas he wanted to further develop for his current role and responsibilities and in preparation for future elections.

For this, John was paired with an experienced public relations and campaign expert who provided both face-to-face and remote coaching, tailored to John’s specific role and aspirations. This began with a 3-day, in-person training in Nairobi, including sessions on public speaking skills and speech writing, personal branding, message development, campaign strategy, content and organisation, the use of data to identify campaign issues, different communication channels and social media management and campaigns.

This was followed by remote coaching to build on the training and apply the skills learnt, providing support on activities including social media strategy, preparing for a press conference, party branch organisation and a by-election campaign, where John was also able to share some of the skills he learnt with the party’s candidate.

Since the training, John has continued in his role as Secretary General of the Green Congress of Kenya. He has recently worked on a national Climate Action campaign, helped to devise a party branch development plan, spoken a several official party events and in one instance, appeared on a national TV channel. John has also assisted others in the party, including youth members, to prepare for public speaking opportunities.

On his experience in the Green Talent Accelerator, John explained that “the programme was timely for me, the knowledge gained has been helpful in executing my role in the party”.