A/HRC/41/43/Add.2 Human and Peoples’ Rights and the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Establishment of an African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights. In October 2016, a National Policy and Action Plan on Human Rights was launched. 13 IV. Awareness of business and human rights 10. Following its acceptance of the recommendation from the second cycle of the universal periodic review, in 2015, to develop a national action plan for the implementation of the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (A/HRC/29/10, para. 142.27), Kenya initiated the process of developing a national action plan on business and human rights under the lead of the Office of the Attorney General and Department of Justice and the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights.14 This process has increased awareness of issues related to business and human rights within the Government, civil society and the business sector. The experts noted that several stakeholders with whom they met were not fully aware of the process of preparing the national action plan. The experts therefore encouraged the Government and the steering committee responsible for preparing the national action plan to extend efforts to raise awareness of this process and involve more actors, including other governmental departments, business associations and their members and other stakeholders, in order also to benefit from the multiplier effect that this initiative could produce, as well as to strengthen policy coherence. 11. Among the business community, the Working Group observed that awareness of the corporate responsibility to respect human rights varied depending on the size of business enterprises. Some of the larger business enterprises demonstrated good practices in implementing the Guiding Principles, such as conducting human rights due diligence processes and establishing independent grievance mechanisms within business associations, while others, including micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises, seemed unaware of the business and human rights agenda. However, the Working Group also met with smaller enterprises that seemed committed to responsible business and respect for human rights as part of their business operations. The Working Group acknowledges the important role played by business associations in raising the level of awareness among their members and promoting good practices of human rights due diligence and community engagement. V. The State as an economic actor 12. Kenya is a critical economic actor, not only for the enterprises that it controls or owns, but also when acting as a purchaser or promoter of trade and investment. In this context, some measures have been taken to address critical issues. For example, the Export Promotion Council, under the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Cooperatives, has an anticorruption policy (2011) that includes enhanced due diligence of its potential local export partners. The Working Group encourages the Government to extend the anti-corruption policy for export promotion to include an expectation that businesses respect human rights as a precondition for receiving government support for export activities, as further explained in its report on economic diplomacy (A/HRC/38/48). A. State-owned enterprises 13. There are currently 220 State-owned enterprises in Kenya, which contribute to 11 per cent of GDP.15 These enterprises are governed by the State Corporations Act (Chap. 13 14 15 4 Kenya, Office of the Attorney General and Department of Justice, Sessional Paper No. 3 of 2014 on National Policy and Action Plan on Human Rights (Nairobi, 2014). See http://nap.knchr.org/. Kenya, Executive Office of the President, Report of the Presidential Taskforce on Parastatal Reforms (Nairobi, 2013).