back to top
Did you know that public entities are required to disclose information without the need for the applicant to give reasons for inquiring the requested information? Yes, that is what the Right to Information Act ,2016 states. It further states that private entities are only required to do so if the information is needed to protect … Continue reading “The Access to Information Act , 2016 Simplified For You”
It is said that ‘justice delayed is justice denied’ and Kenyans know this very well since cases take too long in court. A court cases can be expensive considering that lawyers usually charge fees based on among other things, the number of appearances made in the court on behalf of their clients. The involved parties … Continue reading “Kenyan Courts Record 84 % Reduction in Case Backlog”
Some government officials have been accused of dishing out bursaries to their relatives, friends and close associates who do not deserve it.This goes against the reasons as to why Constituency Development Fund (CDF) Bursary was created . Read more HERE In September 2018, two Nairobi ward representatives were also accused of colluding with rogue county … Continue reading “Corruption in CDF Bursary Allocation”
There are even more Auditor General Reports on the Counties online by now. After the reports on the county governments those on the county assemblies have been added to the Kenao.go.ke-Website (see link below). For their interpretation: the reports of the Kenyan Auditor General mostly contain quite technical language that should be known by those … Continue reading “New Auditor General Reports – and how to interpret them”
On 18th July 2019, Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) confirmed that they had verified the signatures submitted by the Thirdway Alliance Kenya Party for the proposed Punguza Mizigo ‘referendum. The signatures were delivered to the Commission together with a draft Constitutional Amendment Bill and details of supporters of the draft Bill both in soft … Continue reading “ELOG Query IEBC Over Punguza Mizigo Signatures”
If you love history and would like to understand things that happened even before Kenya got independence then this site will excite you. Kenya Gazette has Kenya Gazette Notices from 1895 to 2012 that you can easily refer to and even download if necessary. Below are some notices that you might not known about Liquor … Continue reading “Kenya Gazette Notices from 1895 to 2012”
The media has been flooded by news of medical negligence, overcrowding in hospitals and in some instances, successful procedures that bring hope to Kenyans. Some hospital managers have however complained that they are overwhelmed because people do not go to the right facilities near them for the services they require, instead they go to referral … Continue reading “Kenya’s Health Structure and The Six Levels of Hospitals– an Overview”
In August 2018, Cabinet Secretary for Water and Sanitation, Simon Chelugui, suspended water abstractions from the Mt. Kenya and Aberdare regions for two weeks illegally without following the procedure set out in law for revocation of permits. Though the Cabinet Secretary cited the provision of illegal licences and farmers farming inside the forest … Continue reading “Water Permits and Regulation; The case of The Mt. Kenya Controversial Abstractions”
According to the IMF World Economic Outlook database, October 2018, the percentage of public debt to GDP in Kenya from 2012 is 43.88 while 2018 is 56.101. To be precise the country owes more than half the value of its economic output (GDP).The level of government debt has continued to increase from the early 2000. … Continue reading “Kenya Overburdened by Debt”
Parliament and the County assemblies are required under Section 39 of the Public Audit Act to make public within seven days all Auditor General’s Reports after they are tabled in national and county assemblies respectively. The Auditor General (OAG) has to comply with part 2 and 3 of section 39 of Public Audit Act by … Continue reading “Access to Information Laws not obeyed by Parliament and Auditor General”
There is a lot of talk and news reports around the Auditor General Reports about the Counties for the Financial Year 2017 / 2018. But all this focuses just on a few points that politicians have brought up. As media, we should not get carried away by the political discussions. Let us set the agenda … Continue reading “Auditor General Reports: Read the Originals!”
You enjoyed a nice Easter Break? That’s good! Now is the time to be updated during your work days. Subscribe to our newsletter. Recommend it to others if you already receive it yourself – especially if your friends work in Kenyan media, the target group of RoGGKenya.org. Subscribe to our newsletter to stay informed. Each … Continue reading “Subscribe to our Newsletter to keep up-to-date”
Very importants, but usually underreported: The supplementary budgets for the financial year 2019 /2020, where the parliament and the county assemblies shift money around between different programmes – but not always to the benefit of the citizen. We have added an extensive page about this to the budget section in our toolbox. Click here. The … Continue reading “Now is the time for Budget-related Media Reports”
The owners of their stations are considered by many radio journalists to be the main cause for their unsafety on the job and being considered to be politically partial. This was the outcome of a recent meeting with journalists from seven Kenyan radio stations when the participants took the initiative to bring their safety and … Continue reading “Media Owners as main Threat to Press Freedom”
On the eve of International Labour Day, we at RoGGKenya have consulted the website of the International Labour Organization (ILO) to find out about the status of labour and labour rights in Kenya. The result a big disappointment: On the ILO country page for Kenya, the latest statistics were ten years old – and older. … Continue reading “Where is the Labour Data for Kenya?”
An assessment worth reporting on is to be found in the latest term-end report of the IPOA: While the Independent Policing Oversight Authority claims that it diligently investigates suspected cases of Police misbehaviour, its investigations stops where the Police does not cooperate. On page 93 of the report the IPOA writes: Non-cooperation by the National … Continue reading “What’s wrong with Police Investigations?”
Migori County Government has illegally been collecting revenue without a finance act in place for the financial year 2018/2019. This is against the law and any citizen could move to court to and have county stopped from levying any taxes until the crucial law is passed. But the County Government is not aware of any … Continue reading “Migori County keeps operating illegally without Finance Bill”
Several County Assemblies in Kenya are once again on an illegal path with the budget making process. Already several critical documents that inform the budget making process have delayed in terms of submission, processing and approval in the County Assembly. Media in the Counties are yet to report on the budgeting delays which are illegal, … Continue reading “Delay of County Budget Budget Papers may cause Trouble”
Counties have been spending millions of shillings annually to finance employees and Members of the County Assemblies (MCAs) to participate in sports activities that are ordinarily supposed to be a private affair. Each participating county spends approximately Sh 20 milliom annually to finance the games for both MCAs and executives. This will translate to Sh … Continue reading “Counties spent Millions to finance Sports Activities, illegally it seems”
See our latest toolbox page, if you are a journalist wanting to expand your market and are looking for alternative outlets who will pay for your valuable work! Click here.
Did you know that on womens’ equality Kenya is trailing far behind most other nations? According to the UN, Kenya is on rank 135 only in the Gender Inequality Index. Now how can that be true, even though the Kenyan Constitution states in article 27 (3) that “Women and men have the right to equal … Continue reading “Devastatingly negative Data for Kenyan Women by UN Report”
The Kenyan Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission has provided no convincing answers to the questions arising from the high concentration of multiple IDs in the 2017 voter register in only two Homa Bay constituencies. Follow-up questions by RoGGKenya.org editors as to what the reasons were for the accumulation in Homa Bay, and how the IEBC … Continue reading “Multiple Voters on one ID Number – but no convincing Answers by the IEBC”
As the Kenyan Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) officially concludes the 2017 elections cycle today, February 12, 2019, by releasing an evaluation report, a serious constitutional question about the 2017 elections is unanswered: Has the commission properly gazetted the complete results of the Genearal Elections in all six positions, as the law requires it? … Continue reading “Has the IEBC gazetted Election Results as required by Law?”
People like to hear and read about conflict. It’s always about one person against another: husband against wife, president against opposition leader, tenant against landlord, revenue authority versus taxpayer, neighbour against neighbour, employee versus employer, gang A against gang B, police against suspect, etc. There are a myriad causes and characteristics of conflict, and many … Continue reading “Why Court Sessions make News”
The latest Report of the Controller of Budget on the Budget Implementation in the counties in the financial year 2017/2018 reveals interesting data about sitting allowances of MCAs. They vary considerably – and, at least on first sight, unexplainably. A good opportunity for county media to follow-up on. The extremes: The Turkana MCAs received only … Continue reading “Kakamega MCAs cost 12 Times as much as Turkana MCAs – why?”
The international free speech organization Article 19 has today published a report saying that the the murder of journalist John Kituyi in Eldoret in April 2015 remained unpunished. A suspect, a soldier, was acquitted by the court earlier in 2018, whereof the family of Kituyi was not notified, Article 19 reported. The case file is … Continue reading “Murder of Journalist John Kituyi remained unpunished, Article 19 reports”
An analysis of the Register of Voters for the 2017 Elections reveals that the occurence of duplicate voter records was heavily concentrating in just two constituencies in Homa Bay. The two, Rangwe and Karachuonyo have more than six percent of the registered voters as illegal duplicates. Moreover, the duplicates were concentrating in a few wards … Continue reading “Duplicate Voter Records concentrated in two Homa Bay Constituencies”
Most of the Audit Reports that the Office of the Auditor General (OAG) has uploaded to its web page in the last few years are not machine-readable for your computer without special software. You don’t care? Read here why it matters. And, because it matters, we have made the reports computer-readable and uploaded more than … Continue reading “We made the Auditor General Reports computer-readable”
The Budget Implementation report by the Controller of Budget (CoB) for the financial year 2017/2018 reveals massive differences and massive under-expenditure in sitting allowances for Members of County Assemblies. Both raise serious questions on what informs the inclusion of the huge amounts in the budgets and where the differences stem from. The media can follow … Continue reading “Analysed: The huge Gaps in MCA Sitting Allowances”
The killing of Rongo-University student Sharon Otieno has raised a lot of public interest. Beyond the public outcry for the perpetrators to be charged and punished, there are legal questions on the process of investigations and arrests. On November 16, Governor Obado of Migori was released again after repeyted police custody. And earlier, a key … Continue reading “When can a Person be held in Police Custody for over 24 Hours?”
The arrest and ongoing detainment of the eight Ambira Boys High School students is most probably illegal, a legal analysis made for RoGGKenya has found. In addition, the harsh reaction of the state agencies against the minor school boys is in sharp contrast with a leniency we can observe when famous politicians are involved. This … Continue reading “Detention of eight School Boys probably illegal”
The enforcement of the so called Michuki rules for Public Service Vehicles (PSV) may be unlawful, according a new legal analysis made for RoGGKenya. While the rules themselves are valid, it is the abrupt implementation of the rules that can be challenged by the matatu businesses, the analysis by constitutional lawyer Steve Ogolla says. The … Continue reading “Michuki Rules Enforcement may be unlawful according to Constitution”
14 of the new 47 County Integrated Development Plans for 2018 to 2022 are still missing on our download page, because we did not find them on the county websites. As a journo, look at our page, find out if your county is alread represented and ask the follow-up questions. What is the planning stage … Continue reading “Still missing: 14 new County plans for 2018 – 2022”
The fiasco that occurred in Parliament during the passage of the President Uhuru Kenyatta’s memorandum on the Finance Bill, 2018 has left many wondering whether MPs acted within the law. The National Assembly passed the Bill that contains a raft of punitive taxation measures, including the introduction of an eight per cent Value Added Tax … Continue reading “The Finance Bill 2018 and the Legal Rules”
Well, this might not be the most important story about good governance, but anyway: It seems to be fashionable especially for elders to threaten to “curse” someone who misbehaves according to them. If you have time and would like to do a fairly unsusual story about those who threaten: Look at the Kenyan Witchcraft Act … Continue reading “Curses are common but illegal according to a 91 Year old Kenyan Law”
Many counties seem to be very late with formulating and publishing the new plans for the new election period running from 2018 to 2022, according to a web search conducted by RoGGKenya.org. As of today, Aug 21, 2018, RoGGKenya.org has found only 24 County Integrated Development Plans (CIDPs) on the web pages of the county … Continue reading “Many Counties are late with their new Five-Year Plans”
The Kenyan president is at fault, because he has not yet started the legal process of appointment of new IEBC commissioners after April 14. Constitutional expert Steve Ogolla says the procedure is so clearly prescribed in the laws that “every law student, no, every highschool student can read it and draw correct conclusions.” Here are … Continue reading “The President is at fault over IEBC appointments”
The news on this is reported mostly stereotypical – and they miss the point that state organs rarely follow the correct legal procedure. “Illegal structures” on public land are common in Kenya – e.g. people have often erected their informal settlements on such land, or some who are struggling for income have set up such … Continue reading “When media miss the point. The Law on Demolitions and Evictions”
Five years after the launch of AGPO, an assessment by media is worthwhile: whether the initiative reached the intended goals of allowing marginalized groups preferred access to government contracting opportunities. On July 29th 2012, former President Mwai Kibaki launched the Access to Government Procurement Opportunities (AGPO) initiative after the realization that in addressing the issue … Continue reading “Is Public Procurement really favouring the Disadvanged?”
Start the year with reading the Audit Reports of the Kenyan Auditor General, if you find the time. The County Reports for the financial year 2016/2017 have been finally put online a few weeks ago here on the oagkenya.go.ke-Website. They usually entail a lot more stories than the few that a national newspaper can pick. … Continue reading “A New Year’s Read for Media People: The latest Auditor General Reports”
Kisumu Governor Anyang Nyong’o has issued a publication called “Executive Order No. 1” (see picture) meaning to ban all non-NASA-demonstrations in his county. Steve Ogolla senses a “brazen abuse of office”: In short, this is nothing more than a passionate appeal to Kisumu residents to shun violence, maintain peace, law &order, and tranquillity in the … Continue reading “Nobody in Kenya can limit constitutional Rights”
The petition of the Civil Society Organizations of November 6 against the conduct of the fresh Presidential election in Kenya raises serious questions about the behaviour of the IEBC, Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission. Reading from our download page is highly recommended; the words speak for themselves and contain many arguments that could not reported … Continue reading “Recommended Reading: The CSO Petition”
In law, the country is just about to enter the Elections Dispute Resolution Stage at the Courts. This is the predictable pathway, whether politicians and citizens like or not.
What next after the Kenyan Presidential Election? This Interview with election law Expert Steve Ogolla was conducted after the election day, but before the declaration of results by the Election Commission IEBC. RoGGKenya: Is it correct to postpone the election in Nyanza counties indefinitely, as of today, Saturday, Oct 28, 2017?
A scrutiny with election law expert Steve Ogolla on Roggkenya.org Q: Just a day before the repeat Kenya’s Presidential Election, the opposition, the NASA coalition, has declared to transform itself into a “resistance movement.” And promptly, during election day we have seen NASA supporters set up illegal blocks on highways under that name of … Continue reading “How legal is the Kenyan “Resistance Movement?””
A group of civil society organizations has filed a case in the Supreme Court on Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2017, seeking an interpretation whether the Kenyan Presidential election of Oct. 26 can be postponed or not. The interview below was conducted on the same day and reflects what the effect of the petition could have been. … Continue reading “Supreme Court of Kenya to postpone the Election? – a legal assessment by Steve Ogolla”
Legal expert Steve Ogolla has identified with us five legal ways why the election day Oct.26 might be canceled by a court and has weighed the likeliness of such decisions. To shed light on the heated debate, we are leaving out all the political arguments for and against a postponement and just cite the legal … Continue reading “Five legal Paths to “No-Election” on October 26″
Interview with Steve Ogolla, Election Law Expert RoGGKenya Last Saturday, a new threat of the opposition to prevent the fresh Presidential election on October 26 has emerged. It is different from the boycott threat that a constituency does not vote at all, with the effect of making it an invalid election that was not conducted … Continue reading “What if the IEBC postpones the Election in one Constituency?”
It is not so easy to put the original resources together for reporting needs on the 2017 elections. On our download page, you find the original texts, like the election laws and amendments and the most relevant Supreme Court and High Court judgments of 2013 and 2017 about the Presidential elections. Direct link to the … Continue reading “New: Download Page for Election Reporting – 2017”
On Saturday, October 14, Journalists in Nakuru are cordially invited to discuss with top legal expert Steve Ogolla the consequences of the legal developments around the fresh elections for our reporting in the media. The discussion will take place from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Hotel Cathay, Tom Mboya Street. The place is restricted. … Continue reading “How to report on the Fresh Elections – Discussion in Nakuru”
Police may use force if it is necessary to protect law and order – that is a truism. But like almost everywhere in the world, Kenyan police are bound by some rather strict laws about when and how to use force. The law says, in short: 1. Non-violent means shall always be used as long … Continue reading “Peaceful Means first. Rules for Police Force and Firearm Use”
The Elections Observations Group (ELOG) has released the results of its Parallel Vote Tabulation of the Kenyan Presidential Elections. They match with the official results of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC). It is now up to the opposition to specify why they think the election was manipulated. Not in the database, but through … Continue reading “ELOG confirms IEBC Presidential Tallying Results”
Up until August 3, just five days before the elections, it seemed to be common knowledge “in the public domain”, that unstamped ballot papers are invalid. This is not true. Regulation 77 does not list a missing stamp on a ballot to be one of the reasons for the rejection of a ballot. IEBC’s Ezra … Continue reading “Just Days before the Polls IEBC starts reading its own Regulations”
For your reporting needs, we have compiled the complete lists of the candidates vying for various electoral positions in the Kenyan August 8th elections. This list is a handy tool both on the road and in your newsroom. You may download the complete list as Excel-File. Or you access the lists for the different electoral … Continue reading “The Candidates at your Fingertips”
Part 2 of our Step-by-Step-Guide for media who report on the the Kenyan elections is online! A lot keeps changing, so we will keep it up-to-date. READ IT HERE
The IEBC Rules simply cannot apply to Media covering the elections Media representatives who missed the deadline to apply for accreditation by the electoral commission to cover this year’s polls still have a chance to get their cards. And although IEBC states otherwise, they may try to do it even without valid Media Council of … Continue reading “Late Accreditation even without MCK Card”
Accredited journalists play a special role in the electoral processes. They are among the privileged who are allowed to stay in the polling stations and tallying centres whereas voters have to leave the polling station after casting their ballot. As a journalist, you should be impartial. You cannot openly subscribe to any political party. You … Continue reading “How to monitor the Elections Process – A Step-by-Step Guide”
The voter register audit has indicated serious problems in database controls and infrastructure security. But looking at what was publishedby the Kenya electoral body, Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), the respective chapter and the whole annex of the report has been left out. The executive summary, however, lists serious issues that at least in … Continue reading “KPMG Audit has found serious Security Problems”
Without an IEBC media accreditation, no journalist will be allowed to enter the polling stations and tallying centers during 2017 General Elections in Kenya on August 8 and thereafter. Earlier the IEBC had stated that media can apply for accredition for election reporting from June 2, 2017. But so far no accreditation has been issued. … Continue reading “Get your IEBC media accreditation ASAP!”
Detailed procedures that must be followed in the election process are laid down in the Elections Regulations, as required by the Elections Act. Our editorial team at RoGGKenya has been anxiously waiting for the publication of the amended general regulations which has now been published – only four weeks to the General Elections. We will … Continue reading “Exclusively online here: Elections Regulations – 2017 version”
