Civil society organisations in Kisumu have demanded the county government fully implement what the Act stipulates for the realisation of climate change action.
The CSOs working with Sustainable Environmental Development Watch Network (Sustwach) Kenya said the county climate change fund has not been operationalised since the enactment of the Act.
In the 2022-2023 financial year, the county has allocated about Sh3 billion for annual development. But it has emerged that only Sh10 million instead of the Sh76 million (2 per cent) has been set for climate change action.
This is the first time that the climate change directorate will be receiving the allocation from the county assembly.
Magnam Environmental Network chairman Michael Nyaguti said the county government should strictly follow the law on climate change mitigation and adaptation.
He argued the funding gap will derail the planning, budgeting and implementation of mitigation geared towards addressing the adverse effects of climate change.
He spoke during the workshop on implementation of the two per cent of climate finance as a provision in the Kisumu County Climate Change Act 2022.
The meeting organised by Sustwach Kenya in collaboration with Hivos brought together Kisumu MCAs, CSOs and stakeholders from the environment, water, climate change and natural resources.
“The money should be channeled to fund local climate change-led projects at the ward levels under stewardship of the ward climate change planning committees,” Nyaguti said.
He said they will be forced to seek legal redress if the county government fails to adhere to the county climate change Act 2022.
Nyaguti challenged MCAs to properly do their oversight role and ensure the executive publish their budget and other relevant documents on its website for the public.
“This has been the biggest failure. Kisumu has been one of the counties found to have failed to upload their documents on a website based on the county budgetary transparency survey by the International budget partnership Kenya,” Nyaguti said.
This, he said, has given Kisumu a bad image before the donors and development partners who would want to fund projects in the county.
He wants Governor Anyang Nyong’o to ensure transparency by availing county government financial books to the public for scrutiny.
Nyaguti advocated for transparency in the implementation of climate change action projects. “We would want projects approved by the community to be fully implemented and not selfish and corruption issues,” he said.
Sustwach program officer Ronny Cowino emphasised on the involvement of communities in decision making and compliments and strengthened participation and integration of climate change concerns in planning and budgeting.
“The committee plays a critical role in strengthening adaptation planning by the provision of linkage between County government planning and local communities, who ought to benefit from the implementation of the plans,” Cowino said.
They are mandated to conduct participatory assessments of their respective community vulnerability and resilience in regards to Climate Change Hazards and impacts.
County department of water, environment and climate change officer Judith Wanjallah said two per cent of the annual development budget should be towards issues of climate change.
Wanjallah said the fund should be executed through the ward climate change planning committees (WCCPC), whose members are set to be vetted.
“The committees are very key in ensuring the programmes and actions are implemented in the county and funds are used on the intended projects.
The committees will monitor that climate change actions are implemented across all the sectors for the realisation of mainstreaming of climate change.
“This will ensure we achieve the climate change action which is locally led,” she added. The department has so far developed various legal frameworks to deal with issues of climate change.
“We have a policy and climate change action plan. Basically the documents provide the guidelines on how to deal with issues of climate change as well as develop climate change resilient initiatives,” Wanjallah said.
The Climate Change Act provides establishment of WCCPC which is domiciled at the ward level with each of the 35 wards required to establish the committees.
The committee's sole mandate is to ensure issues of climate change in the ward are well articulated in terms of projects, programmes and different activities.
Last year, the county government directed ward administrators in the 35 wards to give proposals for members to these committees.
“Based on the Act, the committee members are required to be vetted publicly in order to get views from the members fit in the committees and able to articulate issues of climate change. The ward is able to deal with climate change.
-Edited by SKanyara
