State should not interfere with operations of NGOs

President of the Law Society of Kenya Eric Theuri flanked by other lawyers and representatives of NGOs during press conference on August 29, 2023 where they condemned President Ruto's terms on dealing with issues that they said is intimidation to investors. [Denish Ochieng, Standard]

Internal Security and National Administration PS Raymond Omollo, has directed non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to align their operations with Kenya Kwanza's agenda.

Dr Omollo's directive draws from the perception that activities of NGOs operating in the country are skewed to benefit donor countries. But while this could be true of some NGOs, it misses the fact that NGOs fall into different categories; social, religious, interest groups and political.

A similar attempt by the government to micromanage NGOs was made in 2015 by the then Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria through the Public Benefit Organisations Act that sought to rein in NGOs whose source of funding the government wasn't aware of. At the time, some NGOs were suspected to have served as conduits for money that went into funding the activities of Al Shabaab. Among the provisions of Mr Kuria's Bill was the capping of foreign funding of NGOs at 15 per cent of their overall budgets.

Ideally, most NGOs have been serving the most disadvantaged in society, hence, their operations are perfectly aligned with the bottom-up economic agenda. NGOs have and continue to play key roles in improving the lives of rural folk in areas where, for decades, government presence has hardly been felt.

Some of the worthwhile campaigns that NGOs are notable for include supply of anti-retro virals to HIV patients, campaigns to eliminate jiggers, construction of dykes on rivers in Western Kenya, bursaries to orphans and the fight against Female Genital Mutilation. NGOs have also been instrumental in empowering rural women groups economically. Then there are NGOs that give State officials the jitters by pointing out poor governance, corruption and human rights abuses. How would such organisations work in a way that appeases the government?

The government should stick to its lane as long as the NGOs operate within the confines of the law. Attempts to muzzle NGOs by micro-managing them could prove counterproductive. Government's action could end up denying poor Kenyans services that they only get from NGOs.