In October 2015, Kenya’s NGO Board threatened 957 NGOs with de-registration for failing to remit their financial reporting to the Board—most of those named denied the charges outright. Only a few months prior, the Cabinet Secretary for Defense issued a listing of individuals and institutions that were suspected of having funded terrorism. Among those listed were two prominent NGOs, one of which had been working with the Independent Policing Oversight Authority to investigate cases of extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances. The matter of stifling their operations ultimately ended up in court for appropriate adjudication, and the actions against both organizations were reversed by a court order.
This fight for legitimacy is nothing new: Kenyan civil society has been battling the government over operating space for decades. In early 1990, when the Paris Club resolved that humanitarian assistance to Kenya would be facilitated by the NGO sector, the country’s leadership developed a sudden—and understandable—interest in the NGO sector. Who were they, what did they do and (presumably) how could the government get a handle on the sector and get access to funding? Shortly after, the NGO Coordination Act of 1990—establishing registration and licensing procedures for NGOs—was debated and passed in parliament. However, this law was only operationalized in 1992 following many amendments negotiated between the sector and the Kenyan Government.
The sector’s significant push back on the NGO Coordination Act is itself instructive, given the range of strategies and tactics adopted, and the sense of solidarity that was attained at the time. An ad-hoc group led the fight by identifying a range of pressure points—within government and the international donor community—through which to demonstrate how the new law would negatively affect the operations of the sector. At the same time, the group consulted widely within the sector and legal advisors to generate consensus around the necessary changes. The group then entered into direct negotiation, at the urging of the international donor community, with a government representative. In the end the Act was amended to take account of all the CSO concerns and operationalized soon thereafter.
