Governance and Accountability

OSIEA supports advocacy efforts to strengthen the institutional framework of representative democracy, to promote greater public participation in and oversight of state governance, and to press for accountability for state officials.

The following are some examples of recent Governance and Accountability grants:

Tracking the Money—Budget Monitoring

OSIEA has facilitated community groups to conduct budget monitoring in Kenya at the grassroots. Working with the International Budget Project, OSIEA prepared a simple manual for community groups to track the use of a new local development fund. The Consituency Development Fund (CDF) is used for community-based projects such as the construction of schools, health facilities, water projects, and roads. OSIEA's work promotes greater public accountability in the use of these funds.

With OSIEA support, Muslims for Human Rights (Muhuri)—one of the leading human rights organization in the coastal region of Mombasa, Kenya—is monitoring the status of CDF projects in several constituencies. This project educates communities that they can demand from politicians how they want their public funds used and to ensure that such projects are constructed in an open and non-corrupt manner.

In 2003, the Kenyan government allocated 2.5 percent of ordinary collected revenue (approximately $100 million) to be administered by Parliament through the CDF. Three quarters of the amount is divided equitably between the 210 parliamentary constituencies, the unit of political representation in Kenya, while the remaining quarter caters for less-developed constituencies.

If well utilized, the potential of these funds is enormous. It is the first time in Kenya that state monies are being devolved to the local level, allowing people at the grassroots to decide their development priorities. However, the implementation of the fund is dogged by controversy and acrimony, generated by weaknesses in the Act. Members of Parliament have excessive powers to pick the committee members disburse the contracts. There have been cases of financial mismanagement, corruption, lack of community participation, and few mechanisms of oversight to hold Parliamentarians accountable. Budget monitoring of these funds will help diminish misuse and corruption.

Rocking the Vote!

"Vijana Gutuke—Youth Wake Up!" is the campaign slogan that Kenya's top entertainers directed at the untapped six-million youth constituency of voters. In the 2007 election lead-up, OSIEA supported a national campaign of music concerts and media messages that mobilized youth to register and vote. Thousands of young voters were registered at large daylong concerts that interspersed entertainment with messages about voting and nonviolent political activism. A voter's card was required for entry, and those without were immediately registered at booths set up by the electoral commission. A lack of faith in the political system has marginalized the youth vote and frustrated youth are often manipulated to participate in electoral violence. Now armed with their voter's card for life, many young Kenyans can thank this model collaboration between the Institute for Education in Democracy, Trueblaq entertainment, and Redykulass comedy group, with the Electoral Commission of Kenya.

OSIEA works with Youth Agenda, an organization with a wide grassroots network that mobilizes young people to participate meaningfully in political processes. Youth Agenda assists youth acquire their national identity cards to enable them to cast their votes. A proportion of Kenya's unregistered voters are eligible youth who cannot access their national ID, which is mandatory to obtain a voter's card. This effort helps young people to acquire their ID cards and register as voters as well as to sensitize the Provincial Administration, specifically the local area chiefs, on the need to facilitate and support youth to acquire their documentation.

Making Parliamentary Debate Belong to the People

At each convening by Citizen's Assembly, over 500 ordinary Kenyans attend to discuss public policy issues usually relegated to the corridors of power. Citizen's Assembly is an open inclusive forum that enables citizens to engage in debates on social and political issues that affect their lives. Convened all over Kenya in public places that are accessible to ordinary citizens, discussions have included debates on budget monitoring, a proposed media bill, HIV/AIDs, voter's registration, ethnic violence, women's rights, election violence and leadership. Citizen's Assembly provides a representative platform for debate, with procedures and proceedings akin to Parliament. Members of the Kenyan public feel they lack adequate representation or information on policy debates in Parliament that affect them on a day to day basis. To bridge this gap, Citizens Assembly provides the space for ensuring citizens' voice and participation. Citizen's Assembly is predicated on the belief that a vibrant democracy is possible where citizens engage in policy discussions and resolve problems affecting them, and hence creates the space for citizen's voices.

Ensuring Oil is not a Resource Curse in Uganda

With the recent discovery of oil in Uganda, there is a need to ensure a sound legal and policy governance framework and to prevent oil-related abuses that have plagued so many other oil producing countries in Africa. Eager to ensure that Uganda does not fall victim to the "resource curse," the Africa Institute for Energy Governance (AFIEGO) equips citizen and community groups with the necessary information and capacity to demand information and their rights from government oil programs and incomes, including the application of the internationally recognized Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) principles. In February 2008, AFIEGO, with support from OSIEA and Revenue Watch Institute, brought together stakeholders from the oil producing area, including members of parliament, district officials, Bunyoro Kingdom officials and local community leaders to discuss critical governance issues, including access rights, the EITI principles and the role of parliament in policy formulation.