Former First Lady Mama Ngina Kenyatta received her 2019 Macky Sall Prize for Dialogue in Africa on February 7.

The Prize was awarded on December 11 last year at the Museum of Black Civilization in Dakar, Senegal by President Macky Sall and received by Defence CS Monica Juma.

Mama Ngina could not travel to receive the award herself due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

She received the award for using dialogue to diffuse tension in the country and the region and for her role in ending the political tension that followed the August 8, 2017, General Election.

The prize comes with a trophy, a medal and a cash prize of €50,000 (Sh5.7 million).

What is the Macky Sall Prize for Dialogue in Africa?

The Independent Centre of Research and Initiatives for Dialogue founded the prize during its extraordinary session of June 2, 2016.

With the award, CIRID hopes “to stimulate the birth, then the consolidation, of a spirit of mutual listening and tolerance favourable to the peaceful resolution of conflicts”.

It is meant to recognise African mediators who use dialogue to end conflict. It was officially launched in Nairobi on June 28, 2017.

Why Macky Sall Prize?

CIRID named the prize after Macky Sall for the work the Senegalese President has done to use dialogue in promoting peace.

Sall has initiated a national dialogue forum in his country that brings together the state, opposition figures, civil society, workers’ unions, religious and traditional leaders. He also instituted the High Council of Social Dialogue, now called High Council on Labour Relations to use dialogue to solve disputes.

Sall designated May 28 as a National Day of Dialogue.

He is serving his second seven-year term while leading dialogue on constitutional changes. Top among them is a review of the term duration to five years.

CIRID considered all these efforts by President Sall and the fact that much of his work has no foreign influence to name the prize after him.

Former Burundi teacher, journalist and diplomat Déo Hakizimana founded CIRID in 1996.

Past winners

The inaugural winner of the prize was the 37th Emperor of the Mossi Tribe of Burkina Faso, His Majesty the Mogho Naaba Bâongho. It was awarded in 2017 in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

CIRID awarded Mogho Naaba for his use of dialogue to solve crises ranging from those in families of his kingdom to those of the Burkinabè nation.

Mogho Naaba Bâongho also played a leading role in a return to stability and peace in the “People’s insurrection of October 2014” in Burkina Faso. He also brokered peace following the failed coup d’etat in September 2015