The government of Kakamega is reviving mechanisms to expand public participation in development programmes.
Governor Fernandes Barasa said the county government is in the process of revamping community councils as the first institution for harnessing people’s views in regard to development programmes.
Barasa said community councils will work closely with community administrators in aligning development interests with the people’s needs.
Community councils consist of professionals who identify development priorities for their areas.
He said the councils will complement the operations of the new call centre that was launched on December 10 to provide an avenue for feedback on services by the county government.
“My administration is seeking to deepen public participation because we fully embrace it as a national value and principle of good governance,” he said.
Barasa said that his administration plans to make the new call centre multi-media to enable the people to text and use other social media networking services to communicate with the county, besides calling.
He said the call centre is a transformative facility that will offer the people of Kakamega, including those in diaspora, a platform to contribute their ideas on governance.
All processes, including preparation of development blueprints such as the periodic County Integrated Development Plan and budget documents, will be preceded by adequate public participation.
Barasa said the call centre will ensure real-time communication between the people and the county government and facilitate fine-tuning service delivery meet the needs of the people.
A report by Twaweza East Africa released last week indicated that residents are divided on whether the county is doing well on citizen participation.
The report said that the majority of Kakamega residents are dissatisfied with how democracy is working in Kenya.
It shows that only 40 per cent of the residents have attended a public participation meeting and were given a chance to speak in the last one year.
The residents are however, uncertain whether public input to county planning processes is meaningful or tokenistic, according to the report.
It says that most residents have never seen or heard of any consultations taking place about county government planning.
