PRESS RELEASE AUGUST 2019

TO ALL PROFFESSIONAL MEDIATORS IN KENYA, UGANDA, TANZANIA AND RWANDA , TRAINED AND CERTIFIED BY MTI INTERNATIONAL EAST AFRICA

We do hope this press release finds you well in your practice.

Foremost, we wish to welcome all those who have recently graduated as Certified Professional Mediators. MTI International East Africa will continue to guide you, coach and mentor you to ensure you provide quality mediation services that meet the public expectations. Please complete your examinations and hand over the booklets to the office for marking. Without submitting your examination papers, your certification is incomplete.

We have received a number of complaints from the public about a few mediators engaging in malpractice. In our practice standards (which were prerequisites for your certification) available on the our website, we have an elaborate Code of Conduct for all mediators trained and certified by MTI E.A.

We also have conditions for maintaining your certification through continuous professional development i.e. Refresher courses and round table conferences.

Our disciplinary committee will be sitting in the first week of September 2019 to analyse the complaints of misconduct. We will be communicating privately to individual members the outcome, and for those found culpable, appropriate disciplinary action will be taken in line with our standards of practice which may involve suspension of certification awaiting retraining or complete withdrawal. Those aggrieved can pursue the appeal process provided for in the standards. Be duly notified.

Please note that MTI International East Africa’s Professional mediation training program was approved by Singapore International Mediation Institute (SIMI) as a Registered Training Program (RTP) Just to remind you once again that MTI (i) East Africa is a Qualifying assessment program for the International Mediation Institute (IMI) Netherlands. We are also accredited locally by the law society of Kenya and lawyers who attend our program receive 3 CPD UNITS. We will continue to strive to maintain our quality standards of training and Certification in the International arena. In MTI E.A we don’t compromise standards or cut corners for short terms gain .We jealously guard the quality of the international mediators we train.

There are a few assumptions that we want to clarify through this press release. We train, certify and mentor international Mediators for international consumption. If you get accredited by courts, that is an added advantage. But remember the court handles only 15% of mediation matters, the other 85% are out there. The narrative that you must be accredited by the courts to enable you to practice mediation is a false narrative. The courts accredit mediators for their own use. Let this be very clear. Continue to practice your own private mediations as you await the court’s accreditation.

Our mentorship program is progressing well. We have had more than 120 mentees mentored and issued with completion certificates. The remaining lot will be mentored in due course. Our mentors are properly trained and certified. The process of mentorship for our international professional mediators is a technical process and cannot be taken casually. Currently our mentorship program is operational In Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania; We are expanding it to other territories.

The good news is that we have now launched our New Mentorship Centre at Agip house 1st floor suites no 101 and 102. The mentorship Centre has all the requirements and amenities for a modern mentorship centre. Mediators, Clients and mentors and mentees will enjoy all the amenities i.e. clean washrooms, tea/coffee and snacks and a bottle of water. Mentors can schedule their sessions with our program officers in advance. I wish to thank those mentors and mentees who have used the premises recently; I encourage more to make use of this free facility.

It is important to note that Mentorship is now a requirement for all our trainees. Mentorship will be done in chronological order. We shall do it class after class and therefore we request all to exercise extreme patience. You are all encouraged to read our Mentorship Guidelines in our website. www.mtieastafrica.org .

For those who are keen in being certified as international Mediators by IMI through MTI International East Africa, You will be subjected to an assessment after which the reviewers will prepare for you a report which will be submitted to IMI before you are certified. Certification is open to all qualified mediators who meet the Certification criteria. For those interested you may make inquiries directly to our secretariat.

We will be training trainers (TOT) on the first week of September. We require at least 30 trainers to serve in Kenya and Uganda, now that our Uganda branch is fully operational and has a number of programs lined up for this year. We invite candidates for TOT from all the five countries of East Africa. (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi). Admission is by application only.

ICMC - Institute of Chartered Mediators and Conciliators (the mediators professional body that sets mediation standards and self regulates mediation in the country) has interviewed more than 150 members who have been issued with membership certificates. ICMC has 450 more applicants for membership lined for interviews and they hope to finish the exercise by the end of September this year. The process will continue throughout the year as new entrants apply.

For those who have not yet been included in our International Mediators Directory, Please forward your details to our secretariat with immediate effect. i.e. Your current CV in soft , and your latest passport photo. Of late we are receiving inquiries from Customers both locally and internationally asking us to recommend to them Credible Professional Mediators. We will recommend only those who are in good standing i.e. those who attend at least one half day refresher course per year as per our Certification requirements and are of good Conduct. We have started cleaning up our Directory. A New directory will be posted on our website in November 2019.

We invite members to apply and join the following committees :-

- Peer Mediation Committee

- Prisons for peace committee

- Community mediation committee

- Insurance mediation committee

- Commercial mediation committee

- Family mediation committee

- Labour and industrial relations/workplace mediation committee

- Court annexed mediation liaison committee

- Medical negligence disputes mediation committee

- Land disputes mediation committee

Please send your application to join the committees to Email: .

If you want to expand your mediation library and would like to buy new books for mediation practice go to this website. www.familymediaonline.com , then double click on the link The mediator to view a number of topics in mediation that we have had in discussion on Family TV Previously or visit http://familymediaonline.com/video_cat/the-mediator/ to view The Mediator Videos. You can also watch another TV Interview on Citizen TV at the following link https://youtu.be/gURzg2HIsc another for KTN is https://youtube.be/RNTr6dPYOOM

For more information please visit our website. www.mtieastafrica.org

Thank you.

James Mang’erere Advocate

President MTI International East Africa,-Distinguished Fellow of the International Academy of Mediators.

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