13-12-2024

CHAIRMAN’S REPORT

Good afternoon colleagues and industry professional, It is yet another time of the year that we gather here as members of a professional association to mark the 5th Annual General Meeting and to assess our performance during the year. The advance version of the Chairman’s report was circulated and considered read. However, I need to emphasize sections of the report in my remarks.

Before I make my remarks, kindly let us be upstanding and observe one minute of silence in honour of the late Obadiah Otieno Abuga, Member number: FAHPK:010/2016. Who passed on 11-09-2024!

May he rest in eternal peace!

I take this early opportunity to salute and thank all of you present here, as well as our colleagues following via the link, for once again finding time to participate in this important activity in the association’s calendar. We do not take your attendance and participation for granted, as we know very well that hospitality professionals are very busy people especially during the festive season.

I would like to extend our gratitude for the privilege and honor that you have bestowed upon us to serve on the management board. We have diligently managed the activities of the association through the momentous journey to the best of our abilities, that has brought us this far.

As history may reveal, the idea to form the association was mooted on Saturday, 10th January 2015, when 23 professionals met and felt it was time for practicing professionals to have an association of their own, through which to channel their views and discuss their professional wellbeing. The process faced many obstacles, including the loss of the preferred name and opposition from some organizations that saw our registration as a challenge to their monopoly in advocating industry affairs. I wish to reassure those who felt threatened by our registration to appreciate that the more we are the merrier, especially when it comes to lobbying. The profession and indeed the industry is currently facing many challenges and only a strong and united voice can alleviate the distress.

It was on 16th September 2016, after persistent pressure for almost two years, that the association was finally registered by the Registrar of Societies under certificate number 48570.

Since then, the association has managed to acquire all the requisite compliance documents and with a fully functional bank account through which members' funds are channeled. To date, we have met all legal requirements, including acquiring a KRA PIN, filing annual returns to KRA, and recently obtaining an IFMIS number, required to transact business with the government at both national and county levels. We have successfully convened our Annual General Meetings since 2020, when we held the first AGM, and today, we are proud to be at the 5th AGM.

Besides our normal member information and advisories, we have engaged in several activities over the past years that have added our voice and presence in the industry. These activities are highlighted in the booklet.

MEMBERSHIP

This is how the membership of the association has grown during the years.

The Board managed to recruit 14 new members, 5 Student members and 1 Fellow Member which it considers below par, a factor attributed to slowed activities within the association. The association currently has 98 full members (MAHPK), 4 Student members 11 honorary (HAHPK) and 17 fellow (FAHPK) members. All the members are encouraged to promote the association by sensitizing the potential members in their regions and social platforms and have them sign up as members. We represent a very large sector and the current numbers falls below the target population. We have yet to recruit student (SAHPK) members despite having some of our members running and working in the training sector

NEW MEMBERS FOR YEAR 2024

FELLOW MEMBERSHIP

The management team has embarked on strengthening the FELLOW Membership and they will come up with programs that will make AHPK even more visible not only in the region but globally. I urge those who are eligible to seek admission to this premier club of AHPK membership.

STUDENT MEMBERSHIP CATEGORY

The association through the interaction of our members from the academia tertiary colleges have undertaken to fast track the recruitment of student members from their institutions that we have planned to support with awards during their graduation ceremonies. These are KUC, IHTI, BIHC, and ATRS. It is expected that these student members will graduate and take over the leadership of the association for sustainability. I commend the respective members who have agreed to drive this initiative that will soon extend to other tourism and hospitality training institutions.

ADVISORY COUNCIL

As noted, the profiles of our honorary members is quite impressive as these are men and women with great professional experiences and of high societal standing. Just yesterday, our honorary member professor Charles Musyoki was conferred the coveted honour of The Moran of the Burning Spear. To fully utilize their immense potential, the board at its sitting will be considering converting the honorary category into an AHPK advisory Council (Council of Elders) to guide the upcoming professionals and help elevate the associations’ visibility profile.

MANDATORY ASSOCIATION MEMBERSHIP

Members, I wish to reiterate what I said last year that it has become extremely important for one to belong to a recognized professional association. More and more employers including the government are now insisting on membership certificate or a letter from an association in order for one to apply for a job or be considered for certain appointments. This happens both in private and public sectors. It will soon become mandatory for purposes of regulating the profession, to have all practitioners in the industry belong to a recognized associational association before they are allowed to practice and employers will be demand such membership while recruiting employees especially in the supervisory and managerial cadres. Just for record, we have been receiving numerous requests from hospitality workers from other Countries applying for the AHPK certificates which means, it is already a mandatory requirement in their countries.

INVOLVEMENTS AND COLLABORATIONS

As elaborated in our constitution, AHPK will continue to collaborate with other stakeholders within our industry namely; KTF, KAHC, KATO, KUC, KATA, KCTA, TRA, KTB and professional associations among others, as we strive to achieve a common purpose of bettering the industry in general. To extend our hands of collaboration, we have invited various trade and professional associations and have also been in the forefront advocating for the formation of an umbrella body representing the interests of all the tourism & hospitality professional associations that will comprise of leadership of the members associations. This will clear the confusion where each individual association claims to be self-regulating or representing the interests of tourism and hospitality professionals in the Country.

INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION

The Ethiopian Hotel Professionals Association (EHPA) has requested a collaboration with AHPK, in fostering professional development, innovation, and excellence in the hospitality industry to share expertise, exchange experiences, and collaborate on initiatives that support the growth and development of our respective associations.

Our goals for this collaboration include:

1. Experience Sharing: Learning from your best practices in association management and industry advocacy
2. Capacity Building: Collaborating on training programs, workshops, and seminars to upskill our members.
3. Joint Initiatives: Exploring opportunities for co-hosting conferences, research projects, and other events that benefit the global hospitality industry.
4. Networking Opportunities: Connecting members of our associations to foster a global network of hospitality professionals.

Greetings and warm regards from Ejigu Endeshaw, General Secretary Ethiopian Hotel Professionals Association

AHPK CERTIFICATES

The board of management in a resolution last year decided that future membership certificates will be issued per year and such certificates will be renewed only upon payment of the subscriptions for the year. This was triggered by the realization that quite a good number of members who joined the association quite a long time ago only paid joining fees and have huge arrears on the subscriptions thereby crippling the association’s activities

FUNDING AND FINANCIAL STRENGTH

The Financial Statements and the Auditors Report for the year ended 31st December 2023 are part of this report and forms the agenda for the meeting.

The association’s main source of income is currently the members’ subscription, which is adequate to run the affairs of the association, only if all the members pays their dues on time. The Board therefore implores upon all the members to fast track the payments so as to enable the association meet recurrent and scheduled programs which can only be met by having a good financial standing.

The Chairman has written to Tourism Fund and Tourism Regulatory Authority seeking funding for some of our programs like the proposed hospitality conference and the AGM, after being informed during a TF training program, that funds to support activities undertaken by the tourism sector professional associations were available and other associations have already benefitted from these funds, besides grants and donations from partners and well-wishers, the association has put in place income generating activities such as training programs and symposiums organized during the annual conference which will attract exhibitors and sponsors.

HOSPITALITY CONFERENCE

We plan to organize a two-day conference to celebrate the Hospitality Day, which is observed annually on April 24th and 25th in Kenya. The conference aims to bring together hospitality professionals, government representatives, industry leaders, and other key stakeholders to discuss the future of the hospitality sector, in line with the Hospitality Professionals Bill 2023. This will be a major milestone and the management committee is in the process of identifying suitable speakers and venues for the conference. We urge members to find ways of supporting this very noble initiative through sponsorship, participation and promotion, as the same will be open to all stakeholders. Discounted or complimentary venue offers are hereby sought from our members at the Coast and other resort destinations, will go a long way in facilitating this conference. Venues hosting the association’s events will be featured in the current or future newsletter and AGM booklet free of charge.

HOSPITALITY BILL

One of the objectives that informed the formation of the association was to participate in regulating the performance of the professional practitioners so as to harmonize and create a level playing field in the sector of hiring, training, curriculum, service delivery, standard operating procedures and to ensure best professional practices in the industry so as to make Kenya a desired destination for visitors in search of value for money. To achieve this objective, the association has petitioned the Senate to consider the enactment of a hospitality professional bill and our consultant will be talking about it later today.

EMERGING ISSUES – DISAPPEARING BOY CHILD

Having attended a number of graduations in institutions offering hospitality and tourism courses, there has a notable worrying trend where the BOY child is missing in action. At the last weeks graduation at the KUC out of 750 graduates 520 (70%) were female with males only 230 (30%), At another institution, out of 147 only 3 were males. There is a serious problem with BOY Child and the is right time to establish the problem and address it as a Kenyan social challenge

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

As I conclude, I wish to give a big thank you to you, the distinguished members, for having had faith in the Management Board and entrusting us with the mandate of running the affairs of the association, a function we have performed with determination and enthusiasm without any reservations. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Management Board for their collective efforts in the running of the association despite the various challenges and promise the incoming officers and members of the board that we shall ensure a smooth transition and induction is undertaken to see the association grow to the desired levels beyond the Kenyan boundaries. On the same note, we call upon our members to come forward and volunteer to serve as the current team has done since the association was founded.

ORBITUARY

As your chairman, I wish to sincerely appreciate each and all members for heeding my distress call, to support the late Obadiah Otieno Abuga, during his hospitalization and his burial, where the presence and the team spirit of the association was highly manifested in terms of financial and moral support. May his soul rest in eternal peace

May I finally take this opportunity to extend to our membership, an early Merry Christmas and a prosperous 2025 full of hope and success!

Robert M Kinyua FAHPK

CHAIRMAN - ASSOCIATION OF HOTEL PROFESSIONALS-KENYA