Spending billions on public participation forums unwise

The Constitution recognises public participation as a key national value and principle of governance but the focus should not only be on inclusivity, transparency, and accountability but also the price tag that comes with the exercise.

Today, there is no way any public institution can just wake up and ambush a region, or community with a programme or a project.

Our Constitution is very specific that you must have public participation, which means you must talk to the people. You must engage. You must disclose what you intend to do, and you must allow them to make their input. We cannot push any policy position. We cannot even take up a development programme without public participation.

We have seen situations where, in the absence of public participation, legislation is declared unconstitutional. Our courts have thrown out projects or programmes where no public participation was undertaken.

Following keenly on the recent events and realities, I believe we need to reflect on this noble endeavour. We must appreciate that public participation has also come along with unique challenges.

I believe there is a need for the country to strengthen its legal framework for public participation, moving beyond mere consultation to ensure meaningful and cost-effective citizen engagement.

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There is a need to audit the cost-effectiveness of public participation processes both at the national and county levels.

This means the government has to balance between accelerated development and ensuring that citizens are part and parcel of the engagements.

Public participation has sometimes been perceived as a mere formality, rather than a genuine effort to involve citizens in decision-making, not forgetting that the cost implications also impact the taxpayers.

This has left the government and its institutions grappling with the balance between citizen engagement in policy formulation and programme implementation as compared to service delivery. In some cases, the public participation process has stagnated and interfered with the timelines of some projects that the government would like to implement.

As the government, we cannot undertake any piece of legislation, push any policy decision or even take up a development programme without the involvement of citizens through public participation.

You must talk to the people, engage and disclose what you want to do, and similarly listen to the citizens by allowing them to have their say in what the government intends to do.

Lately, rather than pursue development projects, you find leaders in the villages asking people what they think about this or that project.

The government, through the originating ministries and State departments, undertakes public participation through stakeholder engagement in developing the policy paper. The process then moves to law making where the pieces of legislation are submitted to Parliament.

Here Parliament again is mandated, and obligated to undertake public participation. Thereafter, the piece of legislation is debated and passed. Where there are statutory instruments needed, again it calls for public participation, and if there is a need for subsidiary legislation the process has to also undergo public participation.

As part of the need for accelerated development, a recent audit of the State Department for Parliamentary Affairs under my Office of the Prime Cabinet Secretary identified over 1,000 pieces of legislation or amendment under the Government Legislative Agenda (GLA) to align laws.

GLA was tasked to effect a robust reform agenda and we have scoped that each ministry brings or designs its priorities in terms of the legislative agenda. So far, we have a record of all the legislation that requires either an amendment or a fresh overhaul of the legislation.

From the feedback after engaging the ministries to tabulate the cost-effectiveness of reviewing one legislation in relation to the public participation exercise, the least costly was an estimated Sh10 million. Others depending on the complexity quoted between Sh50 million and Sh100 million.

Democracy is expensive. But the question is, if public participation costs at least Sh10 billion, how do you choose between public participation and supplying drugs to hospitals, building a bridge, or supplying farmers with inputs? Billions of shillings are spent by ministries, the National Assembly, Senate, and County Assembly in this process. Some of these money could have gone into buying drugs, bursaries for needy students, building roads and water provision.

This is a big debate that we must have as a country. We need to identify a cheaper way for citizens' engagement.

I request that Auditor General Nancy Gathungu to do an audit of the billions of shillings that have been used in public participation. This could perhaps form a good basis for the review the handling public participation.