Policies

ABOUT

Kenya Chemical Society (KCS)

Innovation, Education, Social Responsibility

The Kenya Chemical Society (KCS) is a non-political, scientific and professional society for chemists which is registered with the Registrar of Societies in Kenya since 1991. KCS draws membership from the chemical industry, research institutions, government institutions and international chemical practitioners. The secretariat of the society is based at The Technical University of Kenya, Nairobi.

The national office is comprised of an elected governing council which has a chairperson, a vice-chairperson, a national secretary, a national vice-secretary, a national treasurer, an editor-in-chief and an industry representative. Furthermore, the society has 6 regional chapters namely; Nairobi, Western, North Rift, South Rift, Eastern and Coast Chapter. The chapters are semi-autonomous with their own elected office bearers. The regional chapters report to the national office on matters of the society. As of October 2020, KCS had a membership of 787 categorized as; life, ordinary, associate, student and corporate.

KCS

Objectives

The main objective of KCS is to promote networking among chemists in Kenya and beyond. KCS also promotes Chemistry and other Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education and life-long learning. In so doing, KCS works with not only chemists but also with other relevant stakeholders in education, industry, policy and legislation both locally and internationally. This is achieved by providing information, education, trainings, career services and engagement programs with members, international partners and the public at large. With this, KCS aims to use chemical sciences and technology to promote education, development of chemical industries, improvement of health, alleviating poverty, enhancement of food security and development of robust policies on chemicals and chemical usage in Kenya.


On education, KCS has been involved in promoting Chemistry and STEM education in secondary schools in Kenya by conducting career talks, providing personal protective equipment (PPE) and guidance on secondary school national examination handling. Of note, since 2018 KCS has worked with Merck KGaA (Germany) in engaging secondary school students and teachers from nomadic pastoralist communities on use of readily available materials to improve the delivery of STEM practicals. KCS has also participated in development of university level chemistry curriculum, conducted trainingson best practices in testing and evaluation of chemistry as well as chemical safety workshops for chemical practitioners and secondary schools. On virtual engagements, KCS launched a chemical security e-learning platform (https://training.kenyachemicalsociety.org/) for chemical practitioners in July 2020 to promotecontinuous access to chemical security education in Kenya in partnership with US Department of State (DOS).

Membership Package

Join KCS - Make KCS your professional network.

KCS

Policies

Specifically on policies, KCS has been involved in the process towards domestication of Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) and Minamata Convention in Kenya. Recently, KCS has also been involved in the development of the Kenya National Chemicals policy, 2020 and Strategic Goods Security Control Bill, 2018.

KCS has been subcontracted by implementers under the US Department of Energy (DoE) such as Sandia National Laboratories, Pacific Northwest National Laboratories, Oak Ridge National Laboratories and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories to implement projects in chemical security.
Furthermore, KCS has partnered with Organization and Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Interpol, The European Union Centers of Excellence, Government of Kenya, Kenya HazMat Responders, Merck KGaA and Kenya Association of Manufacturers to promote issues related to chemistry and chemical technology. Through these partnerships, KCS has had workshops, trainings, outreach campaigns, road shows and industrial visits to both formal and the informal sectors. These engagements have not only been in Kenya, but also in Somalia, Tunisia, Rwanda, Phillipines, Algeria, Nigeria, Malaysia and Netherlands.