Part of President Kibaki’s, right, re-election strategy is to weaken, if not altogether kill, the once powerful civil society. This is in addition to the Government’s publicly stated intention to reduce the powers of the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK), the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC) and the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR). (14-SEP-06)

This article, written by Otsieno Namwaya, first appeared 6 September in the Kenyan newspaper the Standard.  It has been and edited for republication here by HRH / Martin Oluoch.

For now, KACC is preparing abuse of office charges against Mr Maina Kiai, the KNCHR chairman, in a move likely to be interpreted as aimed at harassing the human rights campaigner into silence.

Financial squeeze strategy
In an elaborate strategy targeting the money hitherto available to democracy and human rights NGOs, the Kibaki administration has ensured donors line up to fund State as opposed to NGO activities. So serious is the cash crunch in the sector that its hitherto Sh3 billion-plus a year budget has been whittled down by 83 per cent – to Sh500 million.  Investigation by The Standard Newspaper reveal that the Kibaki Administration has ensured that donors no longer pump sufficient funds into the human rights and democracy sector, as was the case during the KANU regime. To compound the civil society’s predicament, the Kibaki Administration has also been raiding NGOs, incorporating key civil society personalities into Government, thereby compromising NGOs or depleting their human resource base. The result is that Kenya’s civil society is unable to meaningfully blow the whistle on the Government’s human rights abuses nor can it mobilise mass action to push through desired change as happened in 1991 (to reintroduce multi-partyism), 1997 (to force through the IPPG deal) and 2002 (to conduct civic education).

Gloomy future for civil society
If the current trend persists for another two years, the already weakened civil society sector will be no more. This is being seen as part of the Government’s strategy to muzzle criticism and consolidate power ahead of President Kibaki’s second term, which his key strategists believe is within sight in view of what they consider to be an elaborate re-election strategy they are already rolling out. “Part of their strategy is to ensure the civil society is in a perpetual state of paralysis. And in this they have been aided by donors who, when Narc took power, radically shifted their policy of supporting democracy and governance through civil society. They have instead been supporting the Government even though it has become clear that Kibaki is a reluctant reformer,” says Mr Kepta Ombati, the executive director of Youth Agenda, a Nairobi-based civil society organisation.

Collaboration with Government
However, the Government insists it has nothing to do with the woes afflicting civil society. In an interview with The Standard, Ms Mary Ngaruma, the Public Relations Officer in the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, said the Government is only trying to integrate with civil society so that they can work together. “The Government wants them to participate in the reorganisation of the governance structures through the Governance, Justice and Law Order Services (GJLOS)

GJLOS: the donor monster
The five-year legal reform programme was used by the Government to persuade donors to channel human rights and democracy funds not through NGOs but through the Government. “The Government told donors the work that NGOs were doing was now being done by the Government and the donors fell for it. Thus, most NGOs were asked by donors to join the Government-fronted GJLOS. But the Government didn’t want any input from the NGOs,” says Ombati. GJLOS saw donors sign a memorandum of understanding with the Government in 2003 according to which, out of the over Sh3 billion per year that donors were pumping into NGOs dealing with human rights and democracy, Sh2.6 billion per year was to go into the JGLOS project, leaving a paltry Sh500 million per year to the NGOs. To date the Government has not even been allowing the donors to release the Sh500 million to civil society to carry out human rights and democracy work. “Before this money is released, it has to be approved by the Ministry of Finance. The Government has been reluctant to approve this funding, a situation that has seen a number of NGOs fold up,” says Ombati. The situation could be worse for the civil society next year as Treasury sources indicate the Finance minister could have declined to approve funds for the next financial year.

Seeking consultancy in Government
Some individuals in the NGO sector could not hold on any further, according to Ombati, and thus accepted consultancy jobs from the Government, especially in the JGLOS programme. “This is what completely finished off the NGOs. These individuals can no longer criticise the Government’s excesses because they are in dire need of the consultancy jobs,” says Ombati. Prior to the Government’s dangling of consultancy jobs, it had lured senior NGO figures into its ranks in the hope of using their influence to temper the perceived radicalism in the sector. This, according to Mandera Central MP Billow Kerrow, seems to have handed the Government its first success in containing criticism.

Key personality poached
Some of the civil society personalities who have since joined the Government include ministers Prof Kivutha Kibwana (Environment) and Dr Mukhisa Kituyi (Trade); Information Assistant minister Mr Koigi wa Wamwere; Ms Martha Koome, now a Judge; Dr Smokin Wanjala (Deputy Director Kacc) and Mr Gichira Kibara, who works in the Attorney General’s Chambers. Besides, other people who backed up the civil society including Justice Minister Martha Karua and lawyer Gibson Kamau Kuria are either in Government or closely allied to it. According to the JGLOS contract signed with donors, the Government is the senior partner. As such, Ombati says, the donors do not want to offend the Government by appearing to be going against its wishes. This is being cited as the explanation for the donors’ decision to radically reduce funding to and then reluctantly fund democracy and human rights NGOs for the better part of the Narc era.