ADVOCACY AND GOVERNANCE PROGRAMMES

URAIA PROJECT:

Project Name: ROOTING DEMOCRACY IN MURANG’A COUNTY

Area of coverage:

Duration: 30 months

Donor: Uraia Trust

Other partners: none

Rationale/Short description

Governance of any country cannot be proper without full participation of the people. One way of doing this is by ensuring that there is change of the local people in their participation in governance and political activities. People should be very clear in their minds why they vote so that they cannot be cheated by the self-claimed leaders who contest not for the best interest of the people but selfish ends. Through this project, people will be capacitated to advocate for transparency and accountability through exercising of their rights and eventually uplift their living standards.

In view of the above, this project proposal becomes absolutely necessary to bridge the gap between the people and the politicians in exercise of their voting rights to choose the best leaders who can bring positive changes. What we need is transformative civic education where everyone needs to be part of the transformation in a positive way.

The youth on the other hand should be very much engaged in the governing system by vying to elective positions in order to participate in all levels of governance.  They should be encouraged to keep law and order as well being involved in the electoral process and also in the civic education awareness pertaining the electoral process and devolved government. We therefore intend to engage youth through theatre and village parliament to reduce violence, increase their participation in leadership positions within the current constitution as well as to enable them to promote peace and reconciliation.

Objectives:

1. To provide civic and voter education to at least 500,000 citizens
2. To facilitate citizens and active community based organizations to engage and promote accountability in electoral processes in Murang’a County by 2018.
3. To increase participation and representation of marginalized groups (women, youth, PWDs) in leadership and political processes.
4. To strengthen the capacity of Catholic Diocese of Murang’a to lead and support democratic transformation processes that enhances good governance and service delivery.

Outcomes:

40 tots with an understanding of the electoral process and qualities of a good leader, Leaders in the 7 sub counties being sensitized and at least 500,000 citizens acquire civic and voter knowledge on the constitution, devolution, electoral processes, gender equality, environmental governance, national cohesion and public participation. A vibrant network of like- minded CSOs providing oversight

Capable members of staff and board who are able to handle the implementation of the programme. 2500 young people participating from two different communities being sensitized on the need of peaceful coexistence, choosing leaders responsibly during and after elections.

Status of implementation-Major activities and status what has been accomplished to date:

1. Identification, training and engagement of 40 civic education facilitators. 35 civic educators have been engaged since the 2016 November 2016 after the training.
2. Mobilization and sensitization of the community members, community based organizations, government official and private sector on voter education in the County. At 16,949 citizens were reached in 2017.
3. 44,734 citizens have been reached with civic education and acquired civic knowledge on the constitution, devolution, gender equality, environmental governance, national cohesion and public participation. The citizens were reached through organized groups which meet regularly. Each group was trained for at least 4 days by civic educator.
4. 35 Radio program/talk shows have been held through Radio Maria which was being aired every week.
5. Citizens have been sensitized through Mwihoko articles which is a diocesan Magazine
6. Assorted IEC materials have been distributed to citizens to facilitate access to information e.g simplified public participation materials, COK 2010, Devolution volume 1 and 2, simplified electoral information among others
7. Organize lobbying and advocacy forums at the County and community level. Several meeting have been held at all level and have been fruitful and engaging and some of the proposals put forward to the officials implemented.
8. Mobilization, sensitization and formation of social accountability cells. Two social accountability cells have been established to look on health sector in Kirwara health facility where there is notable improved service delivery and in Katipanga where the process is ongoing. Each cell has 10 members who have been trained on community score card
9. Sensitization of County leaders on their roles towards good governance.
10. Sensitization of women groups leaders, people living with disability groups and youth on their need to take part in decision making and vying for elective posts. During civic education there has been no Gender discrimination and at least 5 actions have been taken by PWD, this includes writing of petitions to the county clerk.
11. Establishment of one county civil society organization network to provide oversight for engaging the government and monitor the electoral process. the CSO network has been established and has been engaging county government of several issues e.g writing of memorandum
12. Identification and training of 80 independent election observers. They were engaged and gave feedback on the general election process in 2017
13. Training and orientation of staff and board members to provide oversight and smooth implementation of the programme.
14. Reporting writing every month which inform on achievements of the month and quarterly with areas of improvements. This has enabled the project to change some strategies and adopt new approaches e.g adopting online reporting
15. Monitoring and evaluation

Lessons learnt:

Collaborations, partnership and networking with other partners/community structures and community groups is key in realizing the success of this project

AHADI PROJECT:

Project name: Enhancing Citizen Participation in Murang’a County”

Project Location: Murang’a County

Duration: July 2018 to November 2018

Donor: USAID and UKAID through Agile and Harmonized Assistance for Devolved Institutions (AHADI)

Rationale/Short description  

It is a five months program (July-November 2018) entitled “Enhancing Citizen Participation in Murang’a County” in seven sub – counties of Murang’a County i.e. Kigumo, Kandara, Mathioya, Kangema, Gatanga, Kiharu and Maragua.  The program is funded by USAID and UKAID through Agile and Harmonized Assistance for Devolved Institutions (AHADI). The activities of the program are aligned around the first, third and fourth components of AHADI i.e. Support Sub-County and ward mechanisms for enhanced citizen participation; deepen the citizens and non-state actors’ engagement on specific county sector issues; and, conduct purpose-driven citizen education about county Public Expenditure Management processes.

The program’s overall objective is to contribute towards improving good governance in Murang’a County through enhanced citizen participation in the health, education, agriculture and water sectors in Public Expenditure Management process for improved service delivery. CDM’s technical approach to achieving this objective is through:

1. Capacity building of TOTs and Nyumba Kumi leaders
2. Conducting purpose driven civic education

• Capacity and partnership building between the sub-county structures and the lowest national government structure

1. Training of cell committees to conduct community score card in the following sectors:

• Health
• Education,
• water,
• agriculture

Target

The target beneficiaries for the program are citizens and citizen active groups i.e. the already existing groups formed by the citizens themselves in the entire Murang’a County.

Achievements

• So far, 41,555 citizens have been reached with thematic messages focusing on: Devolution in Kenya; Roles and Responsibilities of Citizens; County Planning and Budgeting Processes; County Budget Implementation, Monitoring and Review processes.
• 10 social audit teams,one in each sub-county comprising of 10 members have been formed and are now conducting social audit on service delivery by the county governement using community score card.
• 119 TOTs(civic educators) trained on public expenditure management
• Radio talk shows held in the diocesan Radio Maria on Public expenditure management
• Articles produced in the diocesan Mwihoko magazine
• 127 Nyumba Kumi Leaders trained on public expenditure management

The aim of the project is to:

• Strengthen relationships between Citizen active groups and national government structures (Nyumba Kumi) at the ward level for an enhanced citizen participation in Public Expenditure Management processes in Murang’a County.
• Build capacity of the citizen organizations on social accountability and the relevant tools in community scorecard and mentor them to use the process and tools to monitor the implementation of the commitments by the county government.
• Support purpose-driven civic education at the local level that enables the citizens to understand and appreciate their specific rights and responsibilities as well as those of the county governments in the county governance and Public Expenditure Management process.

Through the program implementation, some of the lessons learnt include:

• Through the TOTs civic engagement, it is clear that most citizens were previously unaware of their rights, devolution and public participation. Therefore, more civic education would be vital in increasing their knowledge levels on the same.
• Many of the grievances from citizens have been constantly forgotten by leaders in the implementation of county projects such as better health care, water and agriculture. Educating the citizens on social audit, petition and memorandum writing would go a long way in ensuring the citizens demand good service provision in those sectors.
• Majority of the citizens do not understand the new constitution as most still refer to the old one making them unaware of the elective posts, their functions and most do not understand the difference between the functions of the national government and those of the county government. It is through civic education that they would be able to understand the new constitution and devolution in particular