Kenya is hosting the 23rd Coordinating Committee of the Global Counterterrorism Forum (GCTF) in Nairobi from Monday, to Thursday.

The agenda will encompass several critical sessions, starting with the Oversight and Accountability for Counterterrorism Operations Initiative Trans-Regional Group Meeting.

Civil society consultations and a side event on addressing the threat of terrorism in East Africa will follow.

According to Director of Kenya’s National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) Rosalind Nyawira, the upcoming forum co-chaired by Egypt and the European Union (EU) is a “timely and important event” for the country and the region as well in the wake of the evolving terrorism landscape.

“This unique forum accords practitioners from across the world an opportunity to develop and share effective interventions to respond to the complex, dynamic, and widespread threat of terrorism and violent extremism,” she said.

Kenya joined the GCTF in 2023 as part of the efforts to rally regional and international efforts in degrading the growing threat of terrorism and violent extremism in the region.

Kenya is among the countries in the East African region that has borne the brunt of terrorist attacks, particularly from the Somalia-based Al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorist outfit Al-Shabaab that has continued to wreak havoc in the region.