Civil Society Organizations from four counties in western Kenya have been trained on how to enhance their capacity to fight corruption and promote transparency on public resource management.
The forum, which brought together 81 organizations from Kisumu, Siaya, Kakamega and Homabay counties, focused on enhancing the capacity to analyze public finance reports, identify irregularities and advocate for transparency and accountability.
The session was part of the Tupigane Na Ufisadi project, a European Union-funded initiative led by the Institute for Social Accountability in partnership with Konrad Adenauer Stiftung and Transparency International Kenya.
Kennedy Anjejo, a representative from Kisumu County Accountability Alliance, emphasized the importance of ensuring that advocacy for accountability is based on solid evidence, adding that there’s need to ensure corruption issues are grounded in facts and figures.
“There has been significant backlash against our efforts, which shows the need to rebuild our capacity.
This meeting is an opportunity for CSOs to come together, review financial reports and engage in evidence-based advocacy,” he added.
The major focus of the forum was the performance of counties in managing their budgets and the implementation of development projects.
Participants discussed issues raised in the Controller of Budget report of 2023-24, which revealed that counties were struggling to generate sufficient own revenue resource.
Josh Odira from Siaya county and a member of the Tunu network raised concerns about stalled projects and mismatch between increased budget allocations and the delivery of services.
“Why are we seeing a rise in budget allocations when projects remain stalled? This is a question that needs to be addresses,” Odira said.
“We must push for matching funds for donor supported projects to avoid a situation where essential services are paralyzed.”
Paul Odingo from Network for Research and Governance underscored the importance of access to information as a tool for CSOs to monitor public spending and hold government accountable.
The forum also focused on the importance of inclusive information dissemination, with Susan Kanyoko from Homabay county stressing the need for accessibility of information for people with disability, calling for documents to be made available in braille and other accessible formats.
“The materials and documents are
not in braille form and our people
are left behind on these conversations,”
she said. The Tunu project is empowering CSOs to become more effective
in their watchdog role.