Kenyan NGOs oppose proposed restrictive law

Press statement, 12 November 2013

We, the registered Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) represented here wish to show our concerns and rejection of the proposed amendments to the Public Benefits Organization (PBO) Act 2013.

We are aware that the proposed amendment were conceived and executed by the state through the Cabinet Secretary in charge of Devolution and Planning Madam Anne Waiguru.

The proposed amendments, contained in the Statutes Laws Miscellaneous Amendments Bill 2013, are not only malicious but illogical.

The Amendment Bill seeks to insert new Articles and delete some.

Under the proposed Article 27 A (l), “Any funding of a Public Benefits Organization shall be made through the federation and but by an individual member organization”. This is an inverted logic.
It is not possible for an organization to write concepts and proposals, secure funding for their projects and then surrender the money to a third party organization that has no idea what the project is all about! Fundraising through concept and proposal writing are intellectual properties of the applying organization and the intended public beneficiaries. The National Federation of PBO is a union of PBOs that gives them a platform to articulate their rights and interests through representation. The Federation’s key role is to provide leadership, capacity building, discussion forums or topical issues and develop rules and procedures for self–regulation for the sector.

Article 27 A (2) as proposed in the Amendments says that “A Public Benefit Organization shall not receive more than fifteen percent of its total funding from external donors”.

Do we really have local sources of funding for NGOs and civil society in Kenya? NO. So where will the NGOs get the remaining 85% of their budgets? It is proposed in the PBO Act that the government will sometimes fund NGOs but looking even at the current national budget of the government, there is no single line item called funding for NGOs. In any case the country is faced with a budgetary deficit of close to one trillion shillings. With such a deficit, it is an act of inverted logic for the government to pretend that they do not need the 200 billion shillings NGOs inject to our struggling economy.

The proposed amendments did not originate from the sector. The drafter and promoters of this piece of law did not consult and allow participation by key stakeholders notably the NGOs, Coordination Board, the NGO Council, and the Civil Society Reference Group.

The Amendment not only fails to meet various constitutional threshholds but also contravenes the UN Human Rights Resolution (A/HRC/22/L.13) adopted during the 22nd Session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva on 21st March 2013 and in which Kenya was represented. The resolution, among other things, makes it clear that discriminatory and unreasonable restrictions on the sources of funding for NGOs and Human Rights Defenders (HRDs) violates International Human Rights Law.

RECOMMENDATION

1. We demand that the government withdraws the Proposed Amendments on the PBO Act with immediate effect and sends it back to the relevant organs and institutions of the NGOs sector for review and further consultation. We are giving the Cabinet Secretary for Devolution and the Attorney general a one week ultimatum to withdraw the offensive Bill failure of which the NGOs will organize sit ins at their offices and go on hunger strikes to demand for their resignation.

If this bill is not withdrawn, then NGOs and Civil Society will organize more public demonstration and protest marches in all the counties in the country and eventually have a parallel Jamuhuri Day Celebrations at the Freedom Corner, of Uhuru Park to protest the return of dictatorship after 50 years of shame and suffering.

2. We demand that any future review of laws relating to NGOs must be done within the framework of the National Policy on NGOs. The Sessional Paper No. 1 of 2006 which was approved by the 9th parliament, remains in force and offers guidelines on how legislation on the sector should be carried out.

3. We are concerned as civil society by the current attempts by the government and the National Assembly to reverse all the democratic gains that we have achieved through the New Constitution. Why does the government want to gag the media? Why does it want a week and poorly funded civil society? Why does the National Assembly which seeks to be a tool for national government, want the senate out? The salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) out? The Constitution Implementation Commission (CIC) out? The national Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) out, the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) out? Why?

Democracy is on trial in Kenya.

Signed
Ken Wafula
PRESIDENT
National Association of Human Rights Activists
Immediate Former Chairman, NGO Council
Mobile: 0722 809714