PEN in collaboration with her national level partner Civic Freedoms Forum (CFF) and county based Civil Society Organization (CSO) Networks, held sensitization and advocacy meetings in the months of February, March and April 2023 on enhancement of civil society capacity and enabling environment on achievement of SDGs in Kenya.
These meetings targeted CSOs, Community-based organizations (CBOs) and officials from relevant county government departments in the counties of Kwale, Kilifi, Kitui and Turkana.
These meetings aimed at creating awareness and sensitizing the CSOs groups on laws and policies that affect their work in the counties of Kwale, Kilifi,Kitui and Turkana and identifying various county specific policies that affect them upon which to carry out advocacy.
From these sensitization meetings, county – specific policy briefs on CSO laws and policies were developed. Some of the county specific identified legal and policy gaps included:
- Kitui County Public Forums Act 2019 does not provide oversight for MCAs as public participation is limited to the ward level
- Kitui Public Participation Policy of 2017 lacks an operation matrix and is not clear on the role of CSOs.
- Turkana County Public Participation Act lacks feedback mechanism
- In Kilifi, many Civil Society Organizations are not aware of the County Public Finance Management Act as well as their legal rights and obligations essential for effective engagement in the budget formulation process in the county.
- Kwale County Public Participation Act of 2016 lack policy regulation framework as section 4 of the Act has not been implemented since the law came into existence in 2017
The developed policy briefs also highlighted opportunities for advocacy that can enhance civil society capacity towards an enabling environment. Some of the opportunities include non-disclosure of public information, lack of public participation, inadequate resource allocation, lack of civic education.
Therefore, the forums presented the need to build deeper synergies between the county government, CSO actors, citizens and national government in ensuring effective public participation is enhanced. A total of leaders comprising 85 male, 58 female, 60 youths, 9 government officials and 11 persons with disability in Kitui, Turkana, Kwale and Kilifi were reached during these forums.
