Towards open Government The Anchor June-July 2011

EDITORIAL
Hasten strides towards

an open government

Over the years citizens of the Republic of Kenya have hoped to benefit from the range of taxes they pay to the State, yet these hopes have been dashed.

One of the reasons for this situation is the fact that many citizens remain in the darkness about what to expect from the government.

The State has made it its business to draft budgets, approve and implement them, much to the exclusion of those it is supposed to benefit.

This is done in sheer secrecy.

So secret are the deals such that citizens hardly know how much the government has planned to use in a locality for their benefit.

 For instance, each year, the Government funds most line ministries in the districts for activities that officials plan to carry out  allegedly for the benefit of the citizens, yet the citizens remain in the darkness.

This has resulted in wrong projects being carried out and millions of shillings being stolen and at times, being returned to the Treasury- thus causing suffering to citizens failing to get the service the funding was supposed to provide.

Worse still, there is no forum where citizens are told what programs line ministries must carry using funding available in a given year.

Information related to this is regarded as exclusive to the officials yet it is for the benefit of citizens.

Officials, on their part have a grotesque justification for doing what they do. First, the lack of information to citizens provides a great highway to riches as money unknown to citizens is easily stolen.

Secondly, there is no written policy or law that is en-forceable that obliges officials to provide information of this nature to citizens.

For  journalists, it is a nightmarish experience to extract information from government offices because of bu-reau-cratic red tape, often insulated with statutes such as the Official Secrets Act and a host of other rules, whose impact is to ensure that the governance process is as closed as possible.

TOWARDS AN OPEN GOVERNMENT

To end this administrative malaise which directly en-croaches on the quality of life citizens live, a frame-work must be created in Kenya where the Right to Know must be seen as a Human Right.

To achieve this, a regime of Freedom of Information must be put in place in both law and policy and tradition so as to fling open  all closets where information gathered by use of public resources and is for public good is kept under lock and key and its use is abused, rather than used for public good.

Kenya MUST ensure that policies and laws on the right of access to information are legislated, implemented and enforced.

The right of access to information is an important human right, necessary for the enjoyment of other human rights. It is essential for transparent and accountable gov-ernment.

Access to information makes possible the public par-tici-pation in formulating social policies and in the decision-making processes of governance

The enjoyment of the right to information can only be effective on the basis of laws, regulating this right in accordance with international standards

Every individual’s right of access to government-held information MUST BE assured by Law. We all have the right to know how elected officials exercise power and how the tax-payers’ money is being spent.

Clearly, we must have an open, explaining government, devoid of secrecy  statues and underlined by  policies of openness and manifest transparency.