By Nandwa Hope
Lion Place Nairobi, Kenya; June,26,2018.
Registrar of Political Parties this week holds county multi party forums on the role of political parties in strengthening devolved governments. The forums will provide a platform for the members of county assemblies to engage with their political parties officials to build consensus on county governance.
These forums, supported by the National Democratic Institute (NDI) will be held in six counties; Makueni, Siaya, Murang’a, Meru, Kilifi and Transzoia.
Despite the fact that constitution provides for public participation, many political parties have not used such opportunities to participate in the county decision making and dialogue process.
“This is an opportunity for the county executives, and members of the county assemblies (MCAs) to engage political parties in the county decision making. We expect parties to develop score cards they will use to hold accountable their elected leaders. This is in line with our objective of strengthening and institutionalizing political parties” Registrar of Political Parties said.
“It is over five years since its inception, but devolution continues to present lots of opportunities and challenges for Political parties and elected officials. We therefore encourage political parties and their membership to participate in such forums to influence county governance policies and their implementation” Said Lucy Ndung’u.
The program will see a properly established public oriented county engagement framework and an effective integrated development framework where all the elected MCAs will remain accountable to their parties.
Accountability to the electorate from the politicians has been a challenge with increased social media use and awareness amongst the citizens. Politicians are faced with lots of challenges as they are expected to deliver to their electorates. The forums therefore are a learning process for both the citizens and politicians on how to work within the devolution structure.