County government leadership urged to decentralise public participation forums

By Peter Ochieng

The Kisumu county government leadership has been challenged to decentralise public participation forums to villages at all levels, so as to enable as many citizens as possible to attend.

Debra Otambo, advocacy officer at the Kisumu Medical and Education Trust (KMET) organisation says as it stands now, only the Annual Development Plan (ADP) public participation forums are held up to the village level, with other meetings going up to Ward or Sub-county levels.

“As it is right now, it is only the annual development plan that is done up to the village level. The other public participation forums are either done at the Ward or the Sub-county level. More so for the Assembly, they only conduct theirs at the Sub-county level and this limits the level of community participation in the same,” she said.

Otambo, in addition said Kisumu governor Anyang’ Nyong’o’s administration should endeavor to among others, ensure full enactment of the public participation act which is still under review.

“The public participation policy that would help streamline this is also still under development. There is an urgent need to ensure that the act and the policy are in place,” she added.

She exclusively spoke to Nairobi Review at a Kisumu hotel on Wednesday, on the sidelines of a meeting with members of the civil society from Kisumu’s Muhoroni Sub-county.

KMET, in partnership with the Kenya Community Development Foundation (KCDF) is implementing the Uongozi Bora (quality leadership) in the Sub-county, with civic education, citizen awareness for meaningful participation in county development agenda, and capacity building civil society organizations to effectively perform their watchdog roles being at the nerve-centre of the project.

The advocacy officer said they settled on the Sub-county after records showed that very few people were turning up for public participation forums, possibly occasioned by low literacy levels.

During the one year period that the project has been up and running, Otambo says one of their key achievements has been greatly improving engagement between civil society groups and county leaders.

Philomen Otieno Odhiambo who works with the Community Rescue Initiative Community Based Organisation (CBO) concurs.

“The most important thing that this project has done is that linkage part of it. Definitely we will be working with the administrator’s office and the MCAs office at Sub-county level to continue doing what we have been doing.”

Emily Vivian Odago from the Chemelil Social Justice Centre said the Uongozi Bora project to be an eye opener in her community.

“It is helping to sensitize the community, besides bridging the gap between members of the community and duty bearers,” she said.

Muhoroni Sub-County is home to five Wards namely; Miwani, Ombeyi, Masogo Nyang’oma, Chemelil Tamu and Muhoroni/Koru.