Ongoing Project: Civilian Oversight Project

  • by LENGGO

The term ‘civilian oversight’ refers to measures that allow civilians to engage the government. These watchdog measures empower both individual citizens and groups. It is the constitutional responsibility of citizens to watch over governmental bodies. The public/civilians can monitor law enforcement agencies for accountability and transparency which is a critical factor in any democracy.

Civilian Oversight is an essential component of any democratic society. Effective civilian oversight serves various purposes: 

  • Broadly, it helps the public advance and achieve certain ideals: rule of law; protection of human rights; good governance (advance fight against corruption & maladministration), and; national values
  • Civilian Oversight is a key facility that allows citizens to participate in tackling identified societal ills such as corrupt practices and maladministration 
  • Ensure that public bodies use their powers, and authority and operate in an accountable and transparent manner that reflects respect for the rule of law and human rights guarantees that underpin any democratic society.
  • Ensuring accountable use of public resources and; ultimately, improving service delivery.

This project is being implemented in Mombasa and Kilifi counties of the coast region in Kenya.

Activities in this project include:

  1. Capacity building to CBOs on civilian oversight
  2. Creating linkages of the CBOs to government oversight institutions.
  3. Collection of cases of Corruption, human rights violations, and maladministration and reporting them to the oversight institutions.
  4. Interface /Round table meetings with oversight institutions of KNCHR, EACC, CAJ, and IPOA.