New law will boost relations between State and NGOs

On September 9, Devolution CS Mwangi Kiunjuri signed and forwarded a gazette notice to the Office of the Attorney General to publish the commencement of the Public Benefit Organizations Act of 2013.

For starters, the Act is the new law providing for the establishment and regulation of Public Benefit Organizations (PBOs), commonly known as NGOs. The law will repeal the NGO co-ordination Act of 1990.

The law is not new as the anticipated gazettement of its commencement seems to imply. The Act was passed by Parliament in 2012 and assented to by retired President Mwai Kibaki in January 2013.

The passage of the law followed consultations dating back to 2009. This is when a group of civil society actors, under the aegis of “committee of the wise”, came together to reflect on the role the civil society had played in the social, economic and political development in Kenya.

The Cabinet, under the Grand Coalition Government, had adopted Sessional Paper No.1 of 2006 on NGOs as its policy framework for the sector. The Paper was a culmination of consultations that started in December 2001, when the NGOs Co-ordination Board decided to involve stakeholders in developing a law that would reflect Government plan in enhancing delivery of quality services by the NGOs. It would also redefine the relationship between the government and the sector from one characterized by suspicion and antagonism to one of respectful partnership and collaboration.

Indeed, the then Heritage minister Suleiman Shakombo aptly captured the mood of the moment in the Forward to the Policy Paper saying: “The aims and aspirations expressed in this paper will however remain a distant dream if the identified policies and strategies are not put in practice and strategies put in practice by both the regulator and the sector players”.

But implementation of the PBO Act has been stymied for the last three years. The process has been dogged by controversies as the government made spirited attempts to amend it even before its operational challenges are appreciated and appropriate remedies proposed.

The sector is, however, relieved that after the long procrastination and prevarication, wisdom finally prevailed, with the CS pointing out that “after gathering information about the controversies surrounding the new law, the Government decided to operationalize the law as it balances Government regulation with self-regulation”.

The new law brings about a paradigm shift in the manner in which the new regulator, to be known as the Public Benefit Organizations Regulatory Authority will be constituted, run and conduct its affairs.

Unlike in under the old law, the Authority will now have 60 days, after receiving an application, to consider it and if it meets the requirements, register an NGO. This is one area where those seeking to register organizations have greatly been aggrieved. The regulator, acting in cahoots with individuals and groups with vested interests, kept applicants waiting until they gave up.

NGOs have been defined by what they are not as opposed to what they actually are. Drafters of the PBO Act realized not every outfit that is non-governmental defines what the voluntary sector does. For example, there are private businesses, trade unions, political parties, societies within the meaning of the Societies Act, co-operatives, Saccos and micro-finance institutions that are not necessarily governmental but which champion the cause of their members only and not the general public.

Thus, for the first time, there is a law that will separate the not-for-profit sector with the profit making non-governmental organisations. The work of PBOs is voluntary and benefits the general public.