NGOs world over are
arguably the best paying employers and provide dream jobs for majority of the
graduates who are fond of the phrase ‘I want to work in an NGO’. The move by the government to control their
funding to 15% is beyond retrogressive and has elicited sharp reactions from
the NGO community and other stakeholders. Meanwhile, the government has also
come after the media in a bid to gag their freedom. The two are guilty of
putting the government in check and if the bills are assented to law, it will
greatly curtail two powerful entities that contribute significantly to good
governance.
Currently, it is difficult
to tell the number of NGOs in Kenya given that not all of them duly register
with the NGO Coordination Board but all the same they are many. However, most of them receive their funding
from foreign donors. They have been recognized for their pivotal role in
complimenting government efforts in realms of social and economic development.
They actively take part in poverty reduction/eradication, health, water &
sanitation, relief, agriculture and other humanitarian aid. Some have been able
to positively transform the lives of people in the communities that they work,
for instance sinking boreholes in water scarce areas giving huge relief for the
locals.
Conversely, on the
flipside, NGOs have come under criticism on how they conduct their projects and
what they actually achieve despite the fact that there is the NGOs Coordination
Board that plays sort of a supervisory role but doesn’t have complete control
on how the NGOs spend their funds. As much as they receive millions in grants
to fund life changing projects, some of them have little or nothing to show for
it. They have been reduced to money making scheme where people draw hefty salaries
and allowances. Take the case of Turkana
county which perhaps hosts the highest number of NGOs in the country supposedly
working (or so we think) on various projects which ideally are meant to improve
the quality of life or we are meant to believe so. Nonetheless, Turkana has
continued to feature in the news headlines for some problems that the NGOs are
supposedly working on and would therefore be able to mitigate.
Cases of briefcase NGOs
which draft award winning grant proposals and upon receiving them, they disappear
never to be seen again have become all too familiar while other genuine ones
waste a lot of money in paying themselves exorbitant salaries and ludicrous allowances
yet they are charity organizations whose core value is compassion and not
wealth accumulation. As a result, they leave little money for the project and
in the end it fails. In addition to that, some fall short to conduct proper
project feasibility and sustainability studies which also lead to collapse of
the projects. Graham Hancock in his book Lords of Poverty cites several
instances of NGOs setting up projects that are not sustainable especially in
poor communities.
Others have been accused of sheer arrogance as
they come implement the project without involving the community members because
they imagine that they are ignorant or illiterate. Take the case of an NGO that
built a water point in Nandi County but the residents preferred to fetch water from the river since they could chat as they go and the was
left there untouched. That particular NGO in their own wisdom thought that it wasn’t
necessary to consult the locals.
Lastly, given that NGOs
largely depend on donor grants, they tend to duplicate projects as they compete
to win grants and also be seen as the most active. This has continued to be the
case despite the fact that there is an established body that seeks to coordinate
the projects and hence avoid duplication. The duplication of projects prompted
the Governor of Homabay County, H.E Cyprian Awiti to give a directive that all
the NGOs operating in the county to coordinate their projects through his
office to avoid duplication. Granted, there is need for tighter controls but
not controlling funding of the NGOs as Cabinet Secretary Ann Waiguru proposes
so as to bolster transparency, coordination and accountability among the NGOs
in Kenya.
