Makueni County Arts, Culture and Heritage Policy 2022

Abstract

Governments cannot determine a people’s culture; indeed, they are partly determined by it. But they can influence it for better or worse and in so doing affect the path of development. UNESCO (1995). Every human being has the right to culture, including the right to enjoy and develop cultural life and identity. Culture is the hallmark of a people’s consciousness and is the pillar upon which a community bases its own political aspirations, economic development and social identity. Cultural background is one of the primary sources of identity. It is the source for a great deal of self-definition, expression, and sense of group belonging. As cultures interact and intermix, cultural identities change. This process can be enriching, but disorienting. The confluence of peoples and cultures has resulted in an increasingly global, multicultural world brimming with tension, confusion and conflict in the process of its adjustment to pluralism. This County Arts, Culture and Heritage policy is timely and addresses rich areas of our cultural and natural heritage that have been handed down from time immemorial. The policy presents the rich and vast endowments of the County in its cultural and natural heritage and outlines ways in which we can harness these for the socio-economic development of our people. We are convinced that working with partners such as the National Museums of Kenya (NMK) with whom we signed a memorandum of understanding recently, we will make progress in this endeavour.