FOLLOWING the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the subsequent end of the cold war a series of onferences and summits come up with blueprints that marked the new era that would make it possible once again to realize the old ambition to feed, educate and care for the health of every child on the planet. With the update of the traditional concept of development to include concerns for the environment, human rights, cultural diversity and the conditions of women the development of the globe! social movement was underlined. Civil society began to participate n this process in every country.

The World Summit on Social Development has thus evolved and regional and country social forums have undertaken its domestication. Yet social auditing in Kenya has not become o function of grassroots communities. The Basic Rights Campaign launched some years back by Kenyan CS0s failed to take off beyond middle class ranks- The civil society in Africa generally has lost a lot of ground. The union movement is a pale copy of its former self; religious organisations long abandoned the agenda of social good just as NGOs continue to proliferate but without any ideological underpinning to their work. What this has meant is that the effects of global capital continue to prevail in Kenya because civil society lacks the self-confidence that can shake the international financial and economic system. The government seems to have chosen to stick with the failed policies of the Washington consensus- deregulation, privatisation, trade and financial liberalization that continue to swell the ranks of the poor, gender inequality and poor working conditions. It is in response to these trends worldwide that the world social forum was convened.

The forum is an open meeting place where groups and movements of civil society opposed to neo-liberalism and a world dominated by capital or by any form of imperialism, engage in building a planetary society centered on the human person. They debate, think freely, formulate proposals, share their experiences freely and network for effective action. The forum is a platform that debates alternative means to building a global!-zotionjn solidarity, which respects universal human rights and those of all men and women of all nations and the environment, and is grounded in democratic International systems and institutions at the service of Social Justice, equality and the sovereignty of peoples. The first two editions of the odd Social Forum were held in Porto Alegre, Brazil, on the same denes as the World Economic Forum was meeting In Davos. The WSF has made it possible for the widest imaginable range of civil society groups and movements from all the countries in the world to come together and network in agreement with the principles that guide the Forums. Building a fairer, more egalitarian, human-centered society is the forum's main mission. Kenyan civil society has been a port of the process and efforts to root this in Kenya is on. Ujamaa is a part of this effort. In Kenya even with government's professed commitment to eradicate poverty over the last five decades state policies since the 1990s have led to the decline in social services and tremendous inequities. Again even With over 40,000 voluntary development organisations that work to rid Kenya of poverty the number of people who ore absolute poor continues to increase at on alarming rote. Peasant formers, the landless and stockless pastoralists comprise the bulk of the poor yet within these also the destitute, laborers, people with disabilities, female headed households and people living with AIDS are affected more chronically. The nearest the government has gone in responding to social justice is when the free primary education policy was enacted. How sustainable this programme will be depends on how ordinary Kenyans monitor its implementation.

Domesticating the social agenda in Kenya meets with the challenge of finding the social activists and social energy to sustain the movement. The social agenda is about confronting authoritarianism, it is about dealing/ with exclusion of citizens from development and the economy, and it if about enabling citizens to determine the fate of their natural resources. Its too about balancing economic and social relations.

Powerful individuals and groups currently capture the civil society in Kenya; it is therefore captive to dominance by agendas of its most powerful members. In organizing a credible social forum in Kenya it will be essential that energy is spent in mobilsing committed social activists from the ranks of citizens, farmers, workers and women who at the moment suffer the curse of exclusion. It will be important too that an ideological underpinning is found for the social sector which means that solid debates will be needad that can get the student movement back to its former self, build durable linkages between NGOs and CBOs and get the workers movement to engage with the major social issues of the day.

Centralized dictatorship, a bud and outdated constitution and politi¬cal demagoguery are Kenya's biggest obstacles to rooting the social fo¬rum. CSOs will have to organize beyond the middle class and critical social policies must be proposed and enforced. The ruling elite in Kenya must be stopped from bullying the people so that the poor speak on social policy. Ujamaa as part of the national steering committee has commenced serious discussions on domesticating the social forum regionally in the coast We , see our grassroots work on natural resources which spans 300 villages in Kwale and Kilifi providing the link needed to root the social forum. We find our work on education campaign, LASDAP and our in¬volvement with the rights and advocacy organizations very ideal to carry this engagement forward. Our plan is to launch a forum that will debate social justice issues and develop potential to build a mass movement.