A human rights organization, Inform Action, has unveiled a three-year project, shifting power to the people, to fight corruption to enhance service delivery in Kakamega and Kisumu.
Through funding from Bread for The World(BFTW), Inform Action will support the formation of Community Action Teams(CATs) that will be involved in tracking development projects.
The CATs together with community members will be trained on using a monitoring tool to identify budget allocated on projects and progress made.
Speaking to KNA after the inception meeting of the project, Inform Action western region field director Paul Odongo said part of the project outcomes is to ensure the citizenry are equipped with knowledge and tools to write petitions by themselves and access information from the county government without any problem.
He said Inform Action came up with the project after realizing that despite devolution, most citizens are still unaware of what to do in demanding service delivery for lack and denial of information.
Odongo noted that some administrators take advantage of police to swindle funds a fact that the citizens cannot be able to demand accountability leading to runaway corruption.
In Kakamega, the project will focus on service delivery in the health sector, especially on the availability of drugs in hospitals, human rights abuse that is on the rise in the county, and access to information.
In Kisumu county, Odongo said Inform Action teams will focus on the inclusivity of people with disabilities.
Odongo noted that the organization will work closely with human rights defenders, the Ombudsman office, Civil Society Organizations(CSO), and the Office of the Attorney General.
The Chair of Kakamega Civil Society Network Edward Wambani decried that the Kakamega county government is always reluctant to disclose information by failing to avail implementation reports of projects when requested.
He says that CSOs are sometimes ignored when seeking information with officers in charge tricking them into delay tactics.
An Activist from Matungu Community Empowerment Network, Anastacia Munyendo asked Inform Action, to work with neglected groups like women, youth, and people with disabilities for them to be involved to access important information that they may need from different government offices and other non-state offices.
“We also ask Inform Action to work with us, people from the community, because our major work as activists will be to mobilize and sensitize community members to ensure they have received the information that is correct from Kakamega county government and the national government,” she pointed out.
A youth representative in the Kakamega County Budget and Economic Forum(CBEF) Daniel Adika noted that good governance is part of Governor Fernandes Barasa’s six-point agenda, pledging the county government’s cooperation to open up the governance system.
