County Governments Urged to Open Ombudsman Offices

Embu, Wednesday April 19, 2023 

K.N.A By Justus Anzaya

The Commission on Administrative Justice, office of the Ombudsman Chairperson Florence Kajuju has said that plans are underway to help counties establish the office of the County Governments’ Administrative Ombudsman.

Kajuju said the commission has made notable strides in ensuring that counties achieve this goal, adding the commission has already established a grievance redress mechanism policy that will support the devolved units to establish the office of the County Governments’ Administrative Ombudsman.

The commission chair added that the establishment of the office of County Governments’ Administrative Ombudsman will assist in ensuring better services for mwananchi in the various counties across the country.

She added the establishment of Ombudsman office is in line with schedule four of the 2010 Constitution on the devolution of services in counties adding the said office will enable citizens to launch various complaints in counties to ensure quality service delivery.

She was speaking at Kenya School of Government (KSG) Embu during the training of information officers from the counties of Nyeri, Isiolo, Tharaka-Nithi, Kirinyaga, Meru and Embu.

 Kajuju said that the Ombudsman office seeks to domesticate access to information Act according to section 96 (3) of the County Governments’ Act that demands counties to domesticate the access to information Act.

She said this will enable residents of various counties to access information ranging from tendering processes to malpractice in the counties and challenged information officers in counties to always release information to citizens proactively.

Kajuju added that the commission has made enormous progress in ensuring whistle blowers in counties are protected disclosing that the whistle blowers bill is already being processed by the commission in partnership with the office of the Attorney General.

She said that once the bill is enacted into law, it will ensure the safety of the whistle blowers.

“We know that there are those who have very sensitive complaints and it becomes very difficult to release it because they fear for their lives, we encourage them to launch their complaints anonymously,” she said.

The chair said that the Commission on Administrative Justice, office of the Ombudsman is training information officers from the seven counties in partnership with the Financing Locally-Led Climate Action (FLLoCA) program.

She also noted that FLLoCA intends to train counties on adapting locally led actions to climate action.

Courtesy K.N.A