Kenya will on Thursday, August 1, host a joint meeting of the East African Community (EAC) and Southern African Development Community (SADC) Co-Chairs in a renewed push to  end conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Korir Sing’Oei confirmed the Nairobi meeting will also serve as a formal briefing for the Panel of Facilitators appointed to lead peace talks in the region.

“The time has come to harmonise our peace tracks and give this region a single voice,” noted Sing’Oei during a Tuesday briefing with Prime Cabinet Secretary and Foreign and Diaspora Affairs Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi.

The session will bring together Co-Chairs of the Joint EAC-SADC Summit, African Union Commission (AUC) Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat and executive heads of both EAC and SADC blocs.

Sing’Oei explained that Kenya is ready to coordinate the dialogue, warning that uncoordinated military and diplomatic tracks have weakened earlier efforts.

“We must stop duplicating interventions and speak with clarity if we want sustainable peace,” he observed.

The meeting follows years of separate mediation missions by EAC and SADC, which have deployed troops and diplomats to eastern DRC with little lasting success. Armed violence continues to displace civilians and undermine efforts to hold elections and restore governance in the region.

Kenya previously hosted the Nairobi Process, an intra-Congolese consultation that led to several ceasefire agreements under the EAC-led track.

A joint EAC-SADC summit held in January appointed five former heads of state from Kenya, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Tanzania and South Africa to co-lead the mediation. In April, retired President Uhuru Kenyatta was named the EAC Facilitator to oversee implementation.

President William Ruto and Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa co-chaired a virtual Joint Summit in March, calling for rapid progress in the peace roadmap adopted during earlier meetings in Dar es Salaam and Harare.

The roadmap includes findings from a joint meeting of ministers held on Monday, March 17, in Harare and a separate Chiefs of Defence session on implementing military drawdowns and peace-building strategies.

Other regional leaders who have backed the unified peace push include Presidents Félix Tshisekedi of DRC, Paul Kagame of Rwanda, Samia Suluhu Hassan of Tanzania, Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, Évariste Ndayishimiye of Burundi, Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, Hakainde Hichilema of Zambia, Andry Rajoelina of Madagascar and Lazarus Chakwera of Malawi.

During Tuesday’s briefing, Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary for East African Community Caroline Karugu and senior ministry officials including Ambassadors Josphat Maikara and Dennis Mburu, as well as Abdishakur Hussein, Head of EAC and the Great Lakes Region, were also present.

The Nairobi meeting is expected to formalise a unified strategy to de-escalate tensions in the DRC and align ongoing peace operations under a single mediation track.