An abridged version of this article was published in the The Star Newspaper, 22-07-15 The establishment of a Taskforce to review the Public Benefits Organisations Act (2013) by Cabinet Secretary Anne Waiguru in November 2014 broke what was becoming a predictable tradition of “NGO legislation by ambush”. It was hoped that consensus could be built on any necessary changes. It was also hoped that the Act, already dormant for two years, would finally be commenced. Seven months fr

By Irungu Houghton[1] As the issue of shrinking CSO space inevitably will come up again during the US Kenya talks this week, it is worth republishing this article that I wrote a few months back that summarises the major tensions between the Kenyan state and its Public Benefits Organisations. It was published by The Star Newspaper. The original paper was written in response to Dr. Alex Awiti’s February 24th article “Has Civil Society outlived its Use” Dr Alex Awiti makes an im

“We said that Kenyans had enacted the best and most progressive Constitution in the world. The struggle for this Constitution was by the civil society….”Hon. Fatuma Ali, MP “Regulation and accountability is important but let us … not take away the freedom and space within which the public benefit organisations act and operate.”Hon. Oyugi, MP “Alongside many of my colleagues here were the alumni of the civil society at one time…as we are trying to streamline those that are ver