LOCAL LEVEL INSTITUTIONS:

LOCAL LEVEL ORGANIZING FOR

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT IN
KENYA

Report Prepared for the Government of Kenya and the

World Bank

by

Gertrude Kopiyo
and
John Thinguri Mukui

November 2001
I

TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS............................................................................................................................ ii
ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS .................................................................................................... iii
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ...........................................................................................................................v
INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................1
1.1
BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE FOR THE STUDY ..........................................................1
1.2
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY ...................................................................................................2
1.3
TERMS OF REFERENCE ............................................................................................................3
1.4
STUDY METHODOLOGY .........................................................................................................3
1.5
TOOLS AND INSTRUMENTS ....................................................................................................4
TYPES AND CATEGORIES OF LOCAL LEVEL INSTITUTIONS ...........................................................5
2.1
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT IN A HISTORICAL CONTEXT ..........................................5
2.2
TYPES OF LLIs IDENTIFIED IN THE BURKINA FASO STUDY............................................6
2.3
CLASSIFICATION OF ORGANIZATIONS INTERVIEWED ..................................................6
2.4
FUNCTIONAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL SPREAD OF LOCAL INSTITUTIONS ....................8
2.5
BROAD ACTIVITIES UNDERTAKEN BY LOCAL INSTITUTIONS ....................................13
2.6
SIMILARITIES AMONG LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS ...........................................................15
2.7
ORGANIZATIONS PREFERRED BY DIFFERENT COMMUNITIES ...................................17
STRUCTURE OF SELECTED ORGANIZATIONS ..................................................................................19
3.1
SAMPLE OF KENYA LOCAL LEVEL INSTITUTIONS ..........................................................19
3.2
A SAMPLE OF KEY STRUCTURES .........................................................................................22
3.3
INTERNAL ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISMS ..................................................................29
3.4
PARTICIPATORY MONITORING AND EVALUATION .....................................................30
EMERGING ISSUES ..................................................................................................................................32
4.1
CHALLENGES LLIs FACE ........................................................................................................32
4.2
REGION-SPECIFIC ISSUES .....................................................................................................36
4.3
GENDER PERSPECTIVES ........................................................................................................37
4.4
PEOPLES VIEWS ON THE PRSP ...........................................................................................39
PARTICIPATORY INSTITUTIONAL ANALYSIS IN THREE VILLAGES ...........................................42
5.1
PURPOSE OF THE INSTITUTIONAL ANALYSIS .................................................................42
5.2
METHODOLOGY AND PROCEDURE ...................................................................................42
5.3
ULOMA VILLAGE, SIAYA DISTRICT ....................................................................................43
5.4
WARUGARA VILLAGE, MURANGA DISTRICT .................................................................44
5.5
IGUHU LOCATION, KAKAMEGA DISTRICT .......................................................................47
5.6
LESSONS LEARNT FROM PARTICIPATORY INSTITUTIONAL ANALYSIS ....................49
ANNEX 1: TERMS OF REFERENCE .......................................................................................................50
ANNEX 2: INSTITUTIONS AND PERSONS INTERVIEWED ..............................................................51
ANNEX 3: SAMPLE OF INTERVIEWS CONDUCTED BY THE RESEARCH TEAM .........................53

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The report is a product of inputs from many people of various walks of life and a
cross-section of institutions and organizations.
The consultant team is grateful to the Government of Kenya (Central Bureau of
Statistics) and the World Bank, custodian and sponsor of the study, respectively. We
are grateful to the different institutions and organizations including bilateral donors,
NGOs (both northern and local), CBOs, private sector, and federations and networks,
whose names appear in the abbreviation list. These development stakeholders availed
time and shared strategies, lessons, experiences, insights, initiatives and even their
frustrations in their attempt to make a stab at poverty in Kenya. We value the
opportunity, the interaction, and unbiased dialogue by the three communities visited
for participatory institutional analysis (see Chapter 5). We thank the many
individuals who in one way or another made this study possible.
We thank the stakeholders who mobilized people and their affiliated grassroots
institutions for focused group discussions. We thank coordinators of the NGO
Council Networks in the North Rift, Western and Coast Regions, and the sector
Network (Pamfork). We also thank bilateral donors and Northern NGOs for
providing access to their projects at the grassroots, namely, the Aga Khan Foundation,
DfID, GTZ, World Neighbors, ACTIONAID-Kenya, AMREF, CARE-Kenya, Oxfam,
SNV Netherlands Development Organization and the World Bank.
In the private sector, we thank Iyego and Kiawanduma coffee cooperative societies,
the We Can Do It in Nairobi, and Futures Group.

ii

ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS

AAK
ACC&S
ACK
ADT
AGM
AIC
AIDS
AIPCA
AKF
ALRMP
AMREF
APDK
ASAL
CAS
CBHW
CBK
CBO
CBS
CDD
CHW
CIA
CSO
DC
DDC
DDO
DEB
DEC
DfId
DFRD
DICECE
DO
DSO
DSDO
ECD
FMA
FPAK
GOK
GSI
GTZ
HAPAC
HIV
HRD
IFAD
ILISHE
ITDG
KCDF

ACTIONAID-Kenya
African Christian Church and Schools
Anglican Church of Kenya
Akukuranut Development Trust (Teso)
Annual General Meeting
Africa Inland Church
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome
African Independent Pentecostal Church of Africa
Aga Khan Foundation
Arid Lands Resource Management Project
African Medical and Research Foundation
Association for the Physically Disabled of Kenya
Arid and Semi-Arid Lands
(World Bank) Country Assistance Strategy
Community Based Health Worker
Coffee Board of Kenya
Community Based Organization
Central Bureau of Statistics
Community Driven Development
Community Health Worker
Community Initiative Account
Civil Society Organization
District Commissioner
District Development Committee
District Development Officer
District Education Board
District Executive Committee
(British) Department for International Development
District Focus for Rural Development
District Centre for Early Childhood Education
District Officer
District Statistical Officer
District Social Development Officer
Early Childhood Development
Financial Management Agency
Family Planning Association of Kenya
Government of Kenya
Gender Sensitive Initiatives
Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Technische Zusammenarbeit
Cooperation)
HIV/AIDS Prevention and Care
Human Immunodeficiency Virus
Human Resource Development
International Fund for Agricultural Development
Ilimu Sheria (legal awareness)
Intermediate Technology Development Group
Kenya Community Development Foundation
iii

(German

Technical

KCPE
KCS
KDDP
KEFEADO
KPCU
KRSP
KShs
LATF
LLI
LYCODEP
M&E
MTEF
NGO
PAMFORK
PAMNUP
PEC
PIP
PM&E
PPA
PRA
PRSP
PTA
PUA
RPU
SARDEP
SCODP
YSWG

Kenya Certificate of Primary Education

Kituo Cha Sheria
Kilifi District Development Programme
Kenya Female Advisory Organization
Kenya Planters Cooperative Union
Kwale Rural Support Programme
Kenya Shillings
Local Authority Transfer Fund
Local Level Institution
Likoni Youth Counselling and Development Programme
Monitoring and Evaluation
Medium Term Expenditure Framework
Nongovernmental Organization
Participatory Methodologies Forum of Kenya
Partnership Approaches to Meeting the Needs of the Urban Poor
Poverty Eradication Commission
Public Investment Program
Participatory Monitoring & Evaluation
Participatory Poverty Assessment
Participatory Rural Appraisal
Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper
Parent-Teacher Association
Participatory Urban Appraisal
Rural Planning Unit
Semi Arid Rural Development Programme
Sustainable Community-Oriented Development Program
Yatta South Women Group

iv

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The research sought to take stock and increase knowledge of existing local level institutions (LLIs)
and the role they play in local development and accountability. The outcome of this study will be
used as a basis for a more in-depth study whose objectives would be to map out LLIs for building of
internal capacities for scaling-up, involve LLIs in creating accountability and transparency initiatives,
and use LLI mapping to guide pro-poor investment for community-driven development. Another
part of the study sought to review external and internal materials concerning participatory
monitoring and evaluation (PM&E), interview development stakeholders on initiatives taken, and
interact with applications of PM&E at the local level. The two studies were conducted jointly
considering that PM&E is a function of implementation. It was however agreed that two separate
reports would be produced. This report is the LLI volume of the report.
The team used a top-down approach and interviewed the government, bilateral and multilateral
donors, international and local NGOs, and finally grassroots CBOs and projects. The grassroots CBOs
and projects were mostly linked to external resources and were therefore basically initiatives of
outsiders. Although the grassroots institutions interviewed tended to have other primary activities
independent of the donor program, the process of selection did not cover any groups without a link
to external agencies. The team employed tools and instruments to extract information using key
informant interviews and focused group discussions.
After presentation of the draft report to different stakeholders, it was observed that the methodology
and process used had influenced the outcome. The consultants went back to the field to undertake
detailed participatory institutional analysis in three rural villages, namely, Uloma village in Siaya
district, Warugara village in Muranga district, and Iguhu village in Kakamega district (see Chapter
5). Despite the depth of investigation in the three case studies, the main conclusions did not
significantly differ from those derived earlier.
The study covered all the eight provinces and explored the historical context of community
development in Kenya dating back to colonial days. Contrasting with the Burkina Faso study, the
team was not immediately able to establish specific equivalents between the categories in the
Burkina Faso study with the Kenyan context. The Kenyan study classified development stakeholders
as follows: GOK/bilateral, international NGOs, NGO Council Networks (national and local NGOs),
CBOs, academic institutions, and private sector. Interviews were conducted along the vertical
relationships of the selected institutions right from headquarters offices in Nairobi to the grassroots.
The study showed that LLIs can be found in every part of Kenya, although there is a tendency for a
proliferation of some categories in some geographical areas. Notably, Central Province had fewer
externally linked LLIs than any other region visited due to virtual absence of NGOs in the area.
Broadly LLIs were found to be involved in various activities including capacity building, pooling
local resources, improving economic viability of members, providing credit, developing value
systems, building social capital, linking civil society to external resources, networking, conducting
research, documenting, and disseminating information.
It was observed that most LLIs had strong community participation, and participatory planning and
monitoring was more evident in LLIs which had applied participatory planning and awarenessraising through the use of PRAs. The more successful LLIs tended to be beneficiaries of outside
financial facilitators. Ideas originating with local persons blossomed when external financing came
in. The idea of federating mainly originated from outsiders. The work of LLIs is usually limited in
v

geographical and functional scope because of limited resources. Indigenous groups promoting local
values tended to be ethnically homogenous. Every LLI interviewed addresses an aspect of PRSP.
The organizations preferred by different communities depended on felt needs and included
government line ministries, the provincial administration at the local level, homogenous groups such
as women groups, CBOs addressing specific issues, religious organizations, and NGOs.
The study considered the internal structure that defines priorities, implementation processes,
accountability, and sanctions against laxity or fraud. The internal structures depended on the
functions of the organization, its vertical and horizontal linkages, and the nature of its legal
registration. Many structures were found ranging from very simple to extremely complex. Disparities
had a lot to do with whether or not the LLI is linked to external funding, and whether it had gone
through PRA capacity building. It was evident that some of the prerequisites to realizing transparent,
accountable and effective management committees are trust (of members on their leaders), training
(especially of committees) and empowerment (of members). These processes bring in elements of
participation and monitoring and evaluation through different activities such as regular meetings.
The challenges facing LLIs included balancing between identities, sustainability, expansion and
replication, effects of HIV/AIDS, and internal governance. Other issues were region-specific, with
each region affected by specific and unique issues. Gender issues affecting both men and women
were women representation, impact of HIV/AIDS, cultural practices, and equity. PRSP was analyzed
from the perspectives of level of participation in PRSP consultations, feedback, and what PRSP is
understood to mean at the local level.
The consultants conducted a supplementary study on participatory institutional analysis in three
villages. The study revealed existence of institutions which revolve around issues of identity,
spiritual matters, morality from religious and traditional perspectives, rites of passage, sector
development, protocol and governance, gender issues, and power relations. The vertical and
horizontal relationships of the grassroots institutions were also explored.
The study established that scaling up or drawing down would bear on the village elder, the church,
women groups, and lineage societies because these are the four most important institutions at the
village level. The villagers recognize the work of NGOs where they exist.

vi

CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
The study was commissioned by the World Bank at the request of the Government of Kenya (GOK).
The short-term objective of the study was to take stock and increase knowledge on existing local
level institutions and the roles that they play in local development and accountability. Based on the
outcome of this study, the World Bank intends to commission a more in-depth study as a long term
initiative whose objectives will be:

1.1

Map LLIs so that internal organization and capacity can be built upon and scaled-up;
Involve LLIs in creating accountability and transparency for PRSP initiatives; and
Use LLI mapping to guide pro-poor investment for community-driven development (CDD).
BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE FOR THE STUDY

The background and rationale of the study in Kenya is set against a backdrop of similar undertakings
elsewhere which have convinced the World Bank that internally driven development is key to longterm success. It becomes increasingly evident when recognized that focus on LLIs is necessary for
this success to take root, but that they have often been a blind spot for governments and
international development agencies. Local level institutions are referred to as those institutions
existing below local government, often linking several small communities together. These LLIs are
largely made up of a membership of local residents, in which people participate for a range of
reasons. The World Bank and GOK interest in LLIs derives from the belief that because they are
important in their own right as leaders in local life and development, they are also important for
effective and accountable national efforts to reduce poverty and enhance equitable development.
A recent World Bank report on local level institutions and poverty reduction1 found strong and
extraordinary evidence of certain categories of high-performing LLIs to reduce poverty and
internally manage development efforts in an accountable and transparent manner. The report
explains that, where such LLIs exist, these patterns of LLIs are reducing poverty even without
assistance despite their severe resource constraints. From the structure of these high-performing
local organizations, it is anticipated that they could exist in a number of African countries. These
organizations, it seems, share the characteristic of depending more on internal participation rather
than on any one countrys cultural assets. Kenya could be one of these countries.
Given these positive outcomes, the Kenya Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper and Country Assistance
Strategy (PRSP/CAS) team wished to initiate similar LLI assessments so that the PRSP and CAS could
move successfully towards supporting Kenyas LLIs and communities to meet the challenges of
poverty reduction and enhanced growth.
Initially, the World Bank had designed two separate studies, one on LLIs and the other on
Participatory Monitoring & Evaluation (PM&E). Since PM&E is a function of implementation, the
1

Paula Donnelly-Roark, Karim Ouedraogo, and Xiao Ye, Can Local Institutions Reduce Poverty? Rural
Decentralization in Burkina Faso, Policy Research Working Paper 2677, World Bank, September 2001. See
also, Mamadou Dia, Africas Management in the 1990s and Beyond: Reconciling Indigenous and Transplanted
Institutions, Directions in Development publications, World Bank, 1996
1

consultant team, in consultation with the World Bank and GOK, agreed that these two studies be
conducted as one, but with two separate reports.
Given this change in approach and process, it was further agreed that the Terms of Reference (TOR)
would be flexible enough to allow for maximum space to access ample information from which to
draw practical lessons. The approach in the field was therefore slightly different from what initially
appeared in the TOR. The consultant team traveled together and conducted most of the interviews
and other interactions together. There was also more regional scope covered than originally
intended.
This volume of the study contains the report on Local Level Institutions (LLIs). The Participatory
Monitoring and Evaluation Report is a separate volume2.
1.2

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The purpose of this action research is to understand the nature of local level institutions in different
areas of Kenya, their development over time, their activities, and the nature of their membership.
Given that the time for the study was too short to develop a detailed understanding of the
organizations, the current initiative was designed to at least say more about what the LLIs are, what
they do, and how they operate.
Based on the Burkina Faso experience, the Kenyan study was expected to include the following
categories and types of institutions: village level governance, accepted methods of community
resource mobilization, social and mutual aid societies, security arrangements, asset management,
conflict resolution councils, management committees for infrastructure and sector services, legal
adjudication committees, production cooperatives, tontines and saving federations, religious
associations, and lineage societies, among others. The consultant team was expected to establish
locally legitimate rules within specific geographical and cultural spaces as well as determine which
other institutions the LLIs have interactions with within the institutional systems.
The consultant team was to conduct participatory action-research assessments in villages across
Kenya to capture the widest diversity and variation possible. Results of these village initiatives, along
with interviews from each of the districts, would be used to better understand the nature and
diversity of existing local level institutions. Particular attention would be paid to the role of these
LLIs in development activities, which ones local people prefer and why, how they contribute to
traditional local accountability, and whether/how they have been able to translate these local actions
and responsibilities upwards.
This first phase of the study would focus on the qualitative aspects of LLIs. If this first stocktaking
reveals vibrant and differentiated LLIs, the study will be followed up at a later date with a second
study that will expand the number of villages, and also administer a quantitative household study in
the same villages where the qualitative and participatory assessments took place. The full-scale study
is expected to identify high performing categories of local level institutions.

Patrick Osodo, Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation for Poverty Reduction: Issues, options and
implications for PRSP use in Kenya, A Study report prepared for the Government of Kenya and the World
Bank, January 2002
2

1.3

TERMS OF REFERENCE

Select diverse provinces/districts of Kenya for participatory action research. Within these
provinces/districts, select communities for participatory action work. Selection of regions should be
based upon achieving the widest diversity possible. Selection of communities in each district should
be based on identifying one that is perceived by district officials to be internally well-organized and a
second that is less so.
Interview either Province or District agencies before going to communities. Select two communities
in the District for further participatory action work.
Undertake two-day participatory analysis with each community
Review results in terms of the following:
Types and categories of LLIs;
Organizations preferred by different groups in the community;
Organizational structures of the LLI and their geographical spread;
Preferred accountability mechanisms;
Internal investment structures; and
Internal structures for defining priorities and strategies.
Analyze review in terms of the following:
Identify key structures and/or mechanisms that contribute to accountability, priorities, and
actions carried through; and
Indicate similarities and differences among communities and regions on the points identified
above.
1.4

STUDY METHODOLOGY

The consultant team forwarded an interpretation of the TOR to the World Bank. Discussions were
held with the World Bank and the Kenya government in an effort to reach a common understanding
of the TOR. A teleconference between World Bank (Washington) and the consultants was held to
obtain views on interpretation of the TOR and experiences and lessons learnt from the Burkina Faso
study and other relevant studies.
The study considered geographical spread and diversity of Kenya, and the PRSP sectors and thematic
areas. The consultant team first interviewed national, provincial, and district agencies and then
followed a thread from the Central government, donors and NGOs. Information from these agencies
guided the team to the grassroots-level partners or beneficiaries they support. The process therefore
allowed a clear understanding of the vertical and horizontal linkages. The vertical and horizontal
linkages formed part of the structures of the primary LLIs.
Rather than selecting 8 communities in 4 provinces/districts as per the TOR, the consultant team
conducted over 50 interviews and covered all the eight provinces. The expanded scope was also
designed to provide sufficient information on participatory monitoring and evaluation undertaken by
the LLIs and the organizations they relate with. In the case of Wajir in North Eastern province, the
consultant team undertook in-depth interview with Oxfam in Nairobi.

1.5

TOOLS AND INSTRUMENTS

Literature review

The consultant team amassed literature especially from the institutions visited. Most of the literature
covered background documents of the different organizations, strategic plans, administrative
structures, newsletters and other project documents. The team also read and reviewed other
publications and research studies on development especially on community-based development and
the self-help movement in Kenya and elsewhere.

Meetings among consultants

The consultant team initially spent a great deal of time together discussing what the study entailed
and planning the modalities of work. Out of the meetings, the team was able to draw the following
observations:

Because PM&E is an essential element of governance within LLIs, the possibility of lumping
together the two studies was deemed practical.
The diverse functions covering the economic, social and political aspects would dictate the
selection of LLIs to ensure that the study is issue-inclusive e.g. the market, state and civil society
institutions.
It was important that PRSP sectors and thematic areas do not drop out.
That the study addresses the issue of how the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF)
and the entire budgetary process coordinate the bottoms.
The study should be sensitive to both rural and urban issues and the prevailing disparities and
contradictions of the Kenyan nation state.
In PM&E, the team discussed the need to understand the layers and flow of authority and
resources within the layers.
Personal one-to-one and open-ended dialogues

Most of the interviews were dialogues on the nature of the organizations; roles and responsibilities of
individuals; vertical and horizontal relationships; the vision, mission, objectives and activities of the
organizations; issues of management and sustainability; and engaging with the PRSP.

Focused group discussions

Where necessary, the team held some focused group discussions to follow up on issues for
elaboration and triangulation.

CHAPTER 2
TYPES AND CATEGORIES OF LOCAL LEVEL INSTITUTIONS
2.1

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT IN A HISTORICAL CONTEXT

According to Chitere (1994)3, community development work after the Second World War was
carried out by African Welfare Workers who were supervised by the provincial administration, and
the job title was changed to Community Development Assistant in 19504. In 1954, what had
previously been the Community Development Organisation operating within the office of the Chief
Native Commissioner became the Department of Community Development and Rehabilitation (of
Mau Mau detainees).
At the beginning, social welfare work was concentrated around social (community) centers to uplift
the economic and social wellbeing of communities through informal education, and social and
recreational facilities. Community development assistants (CDA) managed the centers. Other
activities included training leaders and craftsmen in various types of trades. The department also
encouraged self-help work among African women which culminated in the formation of Maendeleo
ya Wanawake (Womens Progress) organization in 1952. The governments Maendeleo ya
Wanawake established local clubs across Kenya in which African women were taught domestic
science and were used as a counter to Mau Mau. No woman could be a member of a Maendeleo Club
unless she had foresworn Mau Mau5.
The Department of Information supplemented the work of Maendeleo Clubs through work in the
troubled areas, particularly in respect of the surrender campaigns, and to the preparation of special
material for use in those areas in the Departments newspapers and broadcasts, by mobile
information vans working in the field, by sky-shouting aircraft and in the form of posters and
pamphlets distributed widely in the reserves, farming areas and forests. Other than the normal
publications of the Department, some 17 million leaflets and posters were produced as part of this
propaganda drive against the Mau Mau (Colony and Protectorate of Kenya, Department of
Information, Annual Report 1955, Government Printer, Nairobi, 1956).
In Kenya, community development was one of the measures introduced to help reduce tension
between Europeans and Africans. The tension arose from alienation of arable land for European
settlement, agricultural policies that forbade Africans from growing cash crops or keeping improved
breeds of livestock, introduction of identity card (kipande) that was used to control the employment
3

Orieko Chitere (ed.), Community Development: Its Conceptions and Practice with Emphasis on Africa,
Gideon S. Were Press, 1994
4
See also, Malcolm Wallis, The Community Development Assistant in Kenya: A Study of the Administration
of Personnel and Rural Development, Discussion Paper No. 231, Institute for Development Studies, University
of Nairobi, February 1976; and Tom Askwith, From Mau Mau to Harambee: Memoirs and Memoranda of
Colonial Kenya, African Studies Centre, University of Cambridge, September 1995
5
See, Cora Ann Presley, Kikuyu Women, the Mau Mau Rebellion, and Social Change in Kenya, Westview
Press, Boulder, Colorado, 1992; Joanna Lewis, Empire State-Building: War and Welfare in Kenya 1925-52, East
African Studies Series, James Currey Ltd, Oxford, 2000; Audrey Wipper, The Maendeleo Ya Wanawake
Organization: The Co-Optation of Leadership, African Studies Review, 18(3), December 1975; Daniel Branch,
The Enemy Within: Loyalists and the War against Mau Mau in Kenya, Journal of African History, 48(2), July
2007; and Kathleen Staudt, Women's Politics and Capitalist Transformation in Sub-Saharan Africa, Working
Paper No. 54, University of Texas at El Paso, April 1984
5

of native workers in European farms and to restrict internal migration, and racial discrimination in
all walks of life. As the acting Governor of Kenya in 1952 remarked:
I am of the opinion that community development work can make a very substantial
contribution not only toward the establishment of a fuller and better balanced way of life
among the African people as a whole but also toward creation of a sound political opinion.
This aspect is especially important at the present time when irresponsible leaders, both in
Kenya and overseas are doing their utmost to foster discontent under the guise of nationalism
with total disregard for truth and established fact. An energetic and realistic community
development policy can counter this state of affairs and to this end (we) are now expanding
the existing community development organization.
2.2

TYPES OF LLIs IDENTIFIED IN THE BURKINA FASO STUDY

In defining LLIs, the Burkina Faso study says, contextually, LLIs surround and connect
communities. It continues: local level institutions incorporate many different kinds of indigenous
organizations and functions. These include: village level governance, accepted methods of
community resource mobilization, social and mutual aid societies, security arrangements, asset
management, conflict resolution councils, management committees for infrastructure and sector
services, conflict and legal adjudication committees, livestock and agricultural production
cooperatives, tontines and savings federations, religious associations, music societies, and lineage
organizations, among others.
The Burkina Faso classification or typologies of LLIs include:

Value institutions: focus on activating and maintaining the stability of local governance, culture
and values of the society with emphasis on solidarity, equity and consensus; and include
chieftaincy groups, religious oriented or mutual aid institutions active in rural life.
Production institutions: provide the economic institutional linkage between the state and the
community. For example, farmer organizations are the access gate to agricultural extension
training and whatever material agricultural resources the state offers to producers.
Service-asset management institutions: include development committees to manage and maintain
infrastructural assets (e.g. water wells, schools and health centers); and indigenous associations
who collaboratively manage and utilize economic and natural resources (land, forest, water,
livestock, wildlife, and some village-production activities).

While Burkina Faso LLIs seemed to neatly fit in the three major typologies, namely, value,
production and service-asset management institutions, most of the Kenyan LLIs in the study had
multiple functions and were therefore cutting across the three typologies.
2.3

CLASSIFICATION OF ORGANIZATIONS INTERVIEWED

In the context of this study, the concept of LLIs is taken from the perspective of functions
undertaken by various institutions at the grassroots level in the area of community development.
LLIs in Kenya could be defined as community organizations that fall in two types: locally-based
organizations and outside agencies whose branches are working in the community. These are by no
means typologies in the same sense like those in the Burkina Faso study. Rather, these are based on
functions and vertical relationships. The diversity of LLIs covered was based on sectors and thematic
areas in the PRSP. To identify and reach local level institutions, it seemed practical to start at the

top e.g. government departments, bilateral donor agencies, national and regional offices of NGOs,
and headquarters of umbrella organizations.
The study has classified LLIs according to their vertical relationships in implementation of
community development activities. Broadly, the study came up with the following classifications:
GOK/bilateral, international NGOs, NGO Council, Networks and National/Local NGOs, CBOs,
academic institutions, and private sector local level institutions.
Since the study covered all the 8 provinces, it is likely to have covered most types of LLIs found in
the country and the organizations they relate with. Details of these institutions, their legal status, the
year they were started, and geographical spread are provided in Table 1 below.
Table 1: Classification of Organizations Interviewed
Classification
GOK/Bilateral
and
multilateral agencies

International
NGOs
and
projects
they
support

Name of Institution
World Bank
CBS
Rural Planning Unit
Social Policy Unit
DDO
DSDO
DC
PAMNUP
KDDP
SARDEP
SARDEP Projects
Emkong Water Project

Status
Multilateral initiative
GOK Department
GOK Department
GOK Department
GOK district level
GOK district level
GOK district level
Bilateral Initiative
Bilateral Initiative
Bilateral Initiative

1996
1994
1998

Geographical Spread
National
National
Nairobi
Nairobi
National
National
National
Coast, Mombasa
Coast, Kilifi District
North Rift, Keiyo

Community

1982

Keiyo & Marakwet

Midiliwo Zero Grazing

Community members

1992

Iten Town

Koikee
Group

Women Group

2000

Keiyo Lower Transect

Emkon Water Project

Community

1997

Africa Inland Church

(AIC) Cheptebo Rural Dev
Project
ASAL

Church Project

2000

Keiyo
below
escarpment
Keiyo in the lowlands

1982

Selected national

ACTIONAID-Kenya

GOK/World
Bank/Bilateral
Initiative
International NGO

LYCODEP
MCI
Youth Fish Group

CBO
CBO
CBO/Church project

2000

CARE-Kenya
Homa Bay District

International NGO
Project

Dak Achana

CBO

Oxfam Project
Wajir Pastoral Project
World Neighbors
Akukuranut
Umoja Women group
Aga Khan Foundation
KRSP

International NGO
Community Project
International NGO
Community Trust
Women group
International NGO
Community Project

Food

Security

Started

Selected national

1985
Early
1990s
After
1996
1984
1989
1997

Coast, Likoni
Coast, Mtongwe
Nyanza,
Kisumu
District
Selected National
Nyanza, Homa Bay
Nyanza, Lambwe Valley
Selected National
Wajir
Selected national
Western, Teso
Adungosi market, Teso
Selected National
Coast, Kwale district

Classification
NGO Council, NGOs
& Networks

CBO

Academic Institution
Private Sector

Name of Institution
NGO Council
Western region NGO
Network
Pamfork

Status
Council
NGO Network

Started
1993
Varied

Geographical Spread
National
Provincial cluster

Thematic network

1994

Others
GSI Central Management
Committee, Oyugis
Kituo Cha Sheria
Ilishe
KCDF
Yatta
South
Women
Group
Mwana Mwende Child
Development Trust
Kikopey PRA group

Networks
Community
management
NGO
Trust
Trust
CBO

Varied
1993
1973
1993
1996
1986

National/Nairobi
region
Sectoral/Diverse
Kasipul and Kabondo
divisions
Selected National
Coast, Mombasa
Selected National
Katangi, Machakos

NGO/CBO

1997

Machakos

CBO

1992

Pwani PRA Community

CBO

1990

Catholic
Diocese
of
Nakuru
Amani
Christian
Community Development
Project
Egerton University

CBO

1985

CBO

1986

Gilgil
sub-location,
Nakuru district
Njoro division, Nakuru
district
Kericho and Nakuru
dioceses
Nyanza, Kasipul and
Kabondo Divisions

Academic,
participatory
methodologies
International, private
Local, private
Nairobi neighborhood
associations
Production, processing
and marketing coffee

1990

Futures Group
FPAK
WE CAN DO IT
Coffee Cooperatives:
Kiawanduma
Iyego

2.4

1960
1998
1998
1959

Selected national
Nyanza Province
Selected national
Nairobi,
private
households
Muranga District
Gitugi
Kangema

FUNCTIONAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL SPREAD OF LOCAL INSTITUTIONS

Among the institutions interviewed (with the exception of government extension), only a few were
established before 1990. This may be explained by the fact that, in 1990, Parliament passed the NGO
Act. This was a culmination of concerted efforts by civil society to establish an umbrella organization
to facilitate the functioning of NGOs and other civil society organizations (CSOs).
The period after 1990 saw an explosion in activities of civil society and establishment of more CSOs.
Registered CSOs increased from 100 organizations in 1993, 425 in 1995, 1,344 by end of 1999, and
are currently close to 2,000. The Department of Social Services continues to register women groups
and welfare (self-help) groups. It is estimated that there are currently over 100,000 primary women
groups across the country.
These local level organizations have continued to create their own structures according to their
needs and activities. The National Council of NGOs, which is a national network of NGOs, boasts a
structure with an executive committee elected by the General Assembly, a regulatory committee, a
Board of Trustees and a secretariat. Because of the diversity of its membership, the members of the
Council cannot have a common organizational structure. Each of the members therefore operates
within its own structure as long as it observes the NGOs regulations and those of the NGO
Coordination Board (under the Office of the President).
8

Women groups and other welfare groups are regulated under the rules of the Governments
Department of Social Services; societies are registered under the Societies Act (cap 108 of the Laws of
Kenya); cooperatives come under the Cooperatives Societies Act; and trusts come under The Trustees
(Perpetual Succession) Act. The groups registered under the Department of Social Services are not
legal entities and cannot therefore sue or be sued.
LLIs can be found in every part of Kenya even though there is a tendency for proliferation of some
categories in some geographical areas. Central province had fewer LLIs than any other region visited.
The character of the LLIs in Central Province also tends to address marketing of agricultural produce
and economic empowerment of farmers, while in other provinces, especially Western and Nyanza,
they tend to address more of basic survival. LLIs in North-Eastern province revolve around livestock
and livestock marketing, while those in Coast province tend to deal with advocacy and rights issues
(especially more secure land tenure). Those in Rift Valley seemed to deal more with developmental
issues from the perspective of moving from basic survival to sustainable livelihoods.
Table 2 below shows the LLIs in relation to their vertical and horizontal affiliations covering their
functions/activities, who started them and why they were started, their beneficiaries, and the PRSP
sector or thematic area they address.
Table 2: Functional and Geographical Spread of the Local Institutions
Local Level
Institution/
Vertical
relationships
Sub-location
DDC
PAMNUP

Activities

Planning priorities
-Capacity building
-Sector management

GTZ at the local

level

Bilateral support to
GOK for capacity
building in
decentralized planning

VDC /KDDP

Capacity building
using PRA/PID for
the community and
service providers
-Donor to community
-Capacity building
-Planning,
implementation, M&E
-Project management
-Planning &
implementation
-Monitoring &
evaluation

SARDEP at the
local level

SARDEP Projects

Who Started & Why

Beneficiaries

GOK to address
community issues
DfID to meet needs of
urban poor

Community members

Multi-sectoral

Urban poor in
Mombasa

GOK & GTZ to

contribute to
participatory poverty
eradication by
promoting district level
development planning
-GTZ/GOK for water
and sanitation
-Addressing other
issues as well
GOK and Netherlands
Government to
enhance community
participation

Communities in Kilifi,
Trans Mara, Samburu,
Marsabit, Mwingi,
Lamu

-Human resource
development (HRD)
-Structures for
sustainability
Multi-sectoral
according to local
needs

SARDEP and
community to
implement community
projects for improved
livelihoods

People of Keiyo

PRSP Sector/
Thematic Area

Communities in Kilifi,

Multi-sectoral

People of Keiyo

-Water
-HRD
-Governance
-Environmental
management
-Water
-HRD
-Agriculture
-Environmental
management

ACTIONAIDKenya at the local

level

ACTIONAID
Projects

CARE-Kenya at
the local level

CARE-Kenya
Projects

Oxfam at the local

level

Oxfam Project
Wajir

Akukuranut

-Resource
mobilization
-Advocacy on policy,
and basic rights
-Networking
-Mobilization and
federation
-Advocacy on land,
access to resources
(including tourism,
fishing, titanium)
-Project management
-Capacity building for
skills and enterprise
building
-Health management
Using PRA in:
-Agriculture
(extension farming
methods, adaptive
research for seeds and
weeds)
-Water and sanitation
(safe drinking water,
toilets, and clean
homes)
-Health
-Capacity building for
Village Health
Promoters
-Promoting safe
drinking water
-Participatory adaptive
research in agriculture
-Livelihoods
-Urban densities
(education)
-National policy
-Advocacy
-Relief
-Pastoralism as a way
of life using PRA
-Formation of local
institutions
-Federation into
district structures
-Coalescing around
priorities e.g. in animal
health, water,
education
Capacity building in
agriculture and income
generating activities
and skills

ACTIONAID-Kenya
for poverty reduction

Selected poor
communities in Kenya

Multi-sectoral

Community, youth:
-Claim their rights
-Improve health of
children
-Improve community
living standards
-Reduce
youth
unemployment
-Improve morals
CARE-Kenya to
improve community
health and agricultural
skills

-Children, women and

other community
members in Likoni
and Mtongwe

Multi-sectoral:
-HRD
-Health
-Policy
-HIV/AIDS

Communities in Suba,
Rachuonyo, Homa
Bay

Multi-sectoral in:
-Agriculture
-Water
-Health
-HRD
-HIV/AIDS

CARE-Kenya to build
capacities for
management of
community health, and
new farming
techniques

Suba, Lambwe Valley

Multi-sectoral:
-Water
-Health
-HIV/AIDS issues
-Agriculture

In pastoral areas,
Oxfam intervened to
prove that there is
hope beyond the
tarmac

Communities in
Eastern and Greater
Horn of Africa

Oxfam & Wajir

Pastoral Development
Programme to address
pastoralism as a way of
life:
-Capacity building
-Advocacy
-Livestock production
-Livestock marketing
-Occasional food relief
Community member to
coordinate women
groups for food
security

Communities in Wajir

Multi-sectoral:
-Agriculture
-Education
-Water
-Livestock and
livestock marketing
Multi-sectoral:
-Agriculture
(livestock, livestock
marketing)
-Education
-Governance
-Physical
infrastructure (water)

10

-Youth in Kisumu
(Fish groups)

Community members
in Teso

Multi-sectoral:
-Agriculture
-Commerce
(marketing)
-HRD

KRSP

-Capacity building
using PRAs
-Establish village level
institutions for
livelihoods

Aga Khan Foundation

(AKF) to promote
participation to
support a livelihoods
programme

Communities in
Samburu and Kinango
divisions of Kwale
district

NGO Council

Membership forum
for NGOs.

-Kenya community
-NGOs

NGO Regional
Networks

Coordinate, facilitate,
regulate and monitor
NGO activities in its
region

NGO Thematic
Networks (e.g.
Pamfork and the
Kenya Human
Rights
Commission)

Coordinate thematic
activities of member
NGOs e.g. promotion
of the use of
participatory
methodologies

GSI Central
Management
Committee,
Oyugis

Oversee community
activities in:
-Capacity building for
sustainable agriculture
-Women
empowerment for
effective participation
in public life and
decision-making
-Internal sustainability
(conference facilities)
-Capacity building
-Technical
training/skills in
agriculture, livestock
-HIV/AIDS (widows,
orphans)
-Youth programmes
-Nursery school
Capacity building in:
-Advocacy for
governance &
economic issues
-Legal advisory
services for the poor

Member organizations
to harmonize strategies
for civil society
organizations, and
build capacity of
members for poverty
reduction and civil
rights
NGO Council to
facilitate:
-Access of NGO
activities to civil society
and other development
actors
-To improve dialogue
among the NGOs
NGO Council to
improve the quality of
services of its members
e.g. on participatory
methodologies, human
rights, gender,
disability, pastoralism,
and rights of the child
GSI and the
communities for
people-centred
development for
poverty reduction

Amani Christian
Community
Development
Project, Oyugis

Kituo Cha Sheria

(KCS)

Multi-sectoral:
-Governance
-HRD
-Physical
infrastructure (water)
-Agriculture (savings
& credit, farming
methods)
Multi-sectoral: in all
thematic areas

Civil society
organizations within
the region, and the
communities they
work with

Multi-sectoral:
thematic areas
relevant to the region

Relevant community
members and
institutions.

Multi-sectoral
according to the
relevant theme

Communities in
Kasipul and Kabondo
divisions as one entity

Multi-sectoral:
-Agriculture
-Health
-HIV/AIDS
-Infrastructure (water
, roads)
-Education

Elizabeth Feilden
(missionary) to alleviate
poverty through
training of farmers in
sustainable agriculture

Communities around
Oyugis in South
Nyanza

Multi-sectoral:
-Agriculture
-Environment
-Health
-HIV/AIDS
-HRD
-Other income
generation

Individuals within the

legal profession to fill
the need for legal
services and advice to
the poor

The poor, mainly as

disadvantaged groups,
who require legal
services/advocacy

Rights issues:
-Governance
-Economic rights
(access to land)
-Personal rights
where denied based
on, say, religion,
ethnicity

11

-Members of the 38
groups, mainly
women and youth
groups in Mombasa.
-Advocacy e.g. on
land rights
-Also covers parts of
Kilifi, Kwale and
Malindi
Qualifying institutions
within the country

Multi-sectoral:
-Gender
-Human rights e.g.
inheritance
-Governance
-Land

A Danish volunteer to
federate 31 women
groups to capture
export markets for
baskets
Margaret Kabiru and
Anne Njenga to
counsel teenage
mothers and improve
the quality of their lives
and of their children

Members of the 31
women groups in
Yatta South and their
families

Academic staff of the

university

-Training in Kenya,
Uganda, UK and US
-Practical application
of methodologies in
selected areas in
Kenya

Commerce: export
earnings through
production and
marketing of
handicrafts
Multi-sectoral:
-Child-rights
-Small scale
businesses
-Preschool education
-Health
-HIV/AIDS
Multi-sectoral:
-HRD
-Governance
-Agriculture
-Gender
-Environmental
conservation

Egerton University
PRA department and
the community as a
result of the PRA
exercise

Pwani location, Njoro

division

Multi-sectoral

Egerton University
PRA department and
the community as a
result of the PRA
exercise

Nagumu,
Kamathatha, NguNyumu and Murera
zones of Gilgil sublocation, Nakuru
district

Multi-sectoral

Ilishe

Capacity building in:

-Raising awareness on
economic and other
rights
-Advocacy skills

38 community groups,
with support of
individuals from KCS,
for advocacy on land
and other rights issues

KCDF

-Mobilize, manage and

allocate financial
resources to partner
institutions
-Build capacities and
structures for good
governance of partner
institutions
-Build assets through
endowments
-Promoting the
centrality of social
capital in local
institutions
-Produce and market
Akamba baskets
-Capacity building of
community members
to meet basic needs
-Counseling teenage
mothers
-Training CHWs
-Economic
empowerment of
teenage mothers

-By Ford Foundation,

Aga Khan Foundation,
and individuals who
had worked with
NGOs to mobilize
assets and make grants
at community level

-Capacity building and

training in PRA
techniques
-Practical application
of PRA
methodologies in
communities
-Publishing case
studies and
methodologies
-Integrated
community-based
activities covering
water, agriculture,
health, education,
security, youth and
women development,
and tourism and
wildlife
-Water
-Health
-Wildlife menace
-Education
-Security
-Transportation

Yatta South
Women Group

Mwana Mwende
Child
Development
Trust

Egerton
University PRA
Department

Pwani PRA
community

Kikopey PRA
Group

12

Youth especially
teenage mothers in
the project
catchments in
Machakos

Multi-sectoral
(depending on
activities of the
partner institution)

-Capacity building in
agriculture, agricultural
extension
-Mobilize resources
and savings for a
community revolving
fund
-Cushion small
farmers from effects
of market
liberalization
-Reproductive health

Catholic Dioceses of
Nakuru and Kericho to
facilitate sustainable
agriculture in the two
dioceses

Farmers in the 7
zones of the two
dioceses: Naivasha,
Molo, Nakuru,
Baringo, Koibatek,
Kericho, and Bomet

Multi-sectoral:
-Agriculture
-Commerce (savings
and credit, etc)

Two Kenyan doctors

on reproductive health
and planned
parenthood

Selected areas in the

country through
regional coordinating
offices

WE CAN DO IT
(Nairobi
neighborhood
associations)

Mobilize sustained
support for delivery of
services from the City
Council, and advocacy
for rights of the city
residents

A city resident who

solicited views and
support of like-minded
residents

All the people who

live and/or work in
Nairobi

Kiawanduma
Coffee
Cooperative
Society

-Coffee production
and processing at the
local level
-Transportation and
handling relations with
processing and
marketing institutions
-Advocacy for more
control of marketing
by small-scale farmers
-Coffee production
and processing at the
local level
-Transportation and
handling relations with
processing and
marketing institutions
-Advocacy for more
control of marketing
by small-scale farmers

The coffee farmers in

the area because of
perceived
mismanagement by the
district-wide
cooperative and the
national-level
processing and
marketing institutions

Coffee farmers in the

area

-Health and health

policy (community
education, condom
promotion and
distribution, and sex
behavioral change)
Multi-sectoral:
focusing on
governance
(management of city
resources, delivery of
services, the
participation of the
residents in city
management,
security)
Agriculture, as cash
crop (foreign
exchange earner)

The coffee farmers in

the area because of
perceived
mismanagement by the
district-wide
cooperative and the
national-level
processing and
marketing institutions

Farmers of 12 coffee
factories in Kangema

Catholic Diocese
of Nakuru

FPAK

Iyego Coffee
Cooperative
Society

2.5

Agriculture, as cash
crop (foreign
exchange earner)

BROAD ACTIVITIES UNDERTAKEN BY LOCAL INSTITUTIONS

The majority of the LLIs tend to start with one activity to address a certain felt need. With time,
organizations begin to branch off into or get involved in other activities because of needs of members
or demands from other quarters. Sometimes the demand may be external to the LLI e.g. a donor may
require a community-wide program so that the institution can qualify for funding. Broadly, LLIs are
involved in different activities although they rarely abandon their core activities. The functions of
LLIs fall in the following major categories:

13

Capacity building
This includes training lower level institutions, individuals and communities in areas of management,
and different types of skills that contribute to improving various dimensions of their livelihoods.
Awareness-creation is a form of capacity building to bring to the attention of specific individuals and
groups about, say, the spread and impact of HIV/AIDS. Empowerment is intended to raise the level
of consciousness of a particular group or the general public on pertinent common issues. Advocacy is
intended to bring issues concerning a community or groups to the attention of relevant authorities
who may or may not be the cause of the community concern. Some LLIs train and undertake
advocacy work especially in those areas where people are ignorant of their rights, are held hostage to
retrogressive laws or cultural practices, or may not afford costs of litigation or other direct or indirect
costs of redress. These may include land rights, human rights, rights of children, women, persons
with disabilities, or whole communities such as the pastoral and some cash crop farming
communities.
Source of resources for community development
In most communities, there are many women groups which have merry-go-rounds as one of the
strategies of resource mobilization and grassroots mutual support. The Kenyan concept of harambee
for individual and community activities could also fall under this category. More recently, the
concept of community foundations has begun to take root in Kenya, for perpetual benefit of either an
identified area/group or for Kenya in general.
During times of crisis (e.g. prolonged drought, floods, and displacement of people occasioned by
hostile political activities), LLIs often come in handy to provide first-aid to the crisis by providing
relief food and other basic services.
Improving economic viability of their members
For some institutions, the main focus is on developing sustainable livelihoods for their members at
the household level. Even in cases where primary groups are members of a bigger institution
handling a wider agenda (e.g. land rights at the Coast), they exist as independent entities focusing
mainly on economic viability of their individual members.
Provision of credit
The service is provided mostly to those individuals or groups who are unable to meet credit
conditions of mainstream banking e.g. women groups and youth groups. Such LLIs may also provide
training, and monitor progress and impact of such credit.
Development of value systems
This includes governance in the use of public resources and setting of standards for management of
community resources. Ideally, a government should be able to deliver public services without need
for oversight role by the beneficiaries. But with corruption and erosion of values, other local level
institutions have been put in place to police themselves, the government, and other development
agents in their area. The NGO community has a regulatory committee while other organizations
have set up complex structures in an attempt to establish and uphold good governance.

14

Building social capital

This mainly involves training of committee members of organizations at the local level to be
accountable, transparent, and allow participation of members in their activities. This also involves
sustained democratic processes of regenerating leaders of community activities, and empowering
beneficiaries to demand good governance.
The building of social capital is becoming increasingly central to the work of LLIs and a precondition
for receiving development aid. The building of social capital is key to sustainable development as it
emphasizes the need for accountability and regeneration of accountable leadership. If and when this
concept is accepted as the way Kenyans do business, donors and other international agencies will
have local organizations as alternative administrators of development funds. Currently, such funds
are channeled through private consultancy firms due to credibility gap of local institutions, and
traditional approaches among donors that focuses on projects rather than building capacities of local
institutions.
Linking civil society to external resources
The external sources include religious organizations, international NGOs, bilateral agencies,
individuals, and the corporate sector.
Networking, collaboration and creating linkages
The NGO Council, its networks and thematic groups provide an important element of networking
and collaboration, while lower local level institutions engage in exchange visits for learning and
exchange of ideas.
Research, documentation, publishing, and dissemination of information
These include academic institutions although documentation and exchange of experiences was rather
weak among the NGOs. Information generated by Government was reported as not reaching a wide
range of users. In addition, development literature in Kenya seems to come from outside, although
the information was generated or extracted from communities in Kenya.
2.6

SIMILARITIES AMONG LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS

The study established that the following similarities existed among local organizations in different
communities and regions:
Use of PRAs
Most cases which involve strong community participation and participatory monitoring and
evaluation seem to have succeeded because the organization or local level institution had undergone
a PRA process for participatory planning and awareness-raising. At the Coast, village development
committees in the KDDP initiative had undergone Participatory Integrated Development (PID)
process while KRSP had gone through PRA processes. In the Rift Valley, Egerton University used
PRA in Pwani and Gilgil principally to raise awareness on the need for organizing the target
communities among locally generated needs. SARDEP used similar approaches using child nutrition
for social mapping to bring mothers of malnourished children together under the Koikee Women
15

Group. GSI Central Management Committee was an outcome of the Participatory Evaluation Process
(PEP), while CARE-Kenya conducted PRAs before Dak Achana Water Project was formed.
Link To Outside Financial Facilitator
Most successful LLIs were dependent on outsider financiers. Such financiers may initially have come
in to support the original idea, which would otherwise have either died or metamorphosed in a
different way. Akukuranut received financial support from World Neighbors and other donors
before it became a trust. LLIs in Keiyo in the North Rift depend heavily on SARDEP. Financial
support for KDDP village development committees comes from GTZ, while activities of those under
KRSP owe their continued existence to the Aga Khan Foundation.
Idea May Originate With Local Person, Financing Usually External
Where successful LLIs received external financial support, there was tendency to overshadow the
local person(s) who originated the idea, or to tag on a general community development aspect to a
member-based institution. Akukuranut is a classic example of an idea originated by a local person but
later on attracted external financial support. A few organizations were reported as having tagged
along general community development activities that were not generated through needs assessment
of members e.g. Yatta South Women Group (water and other community-wide activities) and Ilishe
(early childhood development project).
Federating Seems To Be Foreign Even Though It Strengthens
There were few indigenous LLIs that had federated compared to those started by someone
external to the community. The 31 women groups that form Yatta South Women Group came
together when a Danish woman volunteer noticed the potential for a federation. Koikee Women
Group was brought together by SARDEP, while advocacy groups for land at the Coast were brought
together as an outcome of Ilishe initiatives.
Scope Is Usually Limited To Local Area
Most LLIs are limited in their geographical scope and mostly serve the interests of the local area. The
spatial scope of a truly indigenous LLI seemed to depend on the localized concept of space that
defines neighbors. In the four districts that constitute the Kamba country, the concept of space
allows a person residing 30 km away to be considered a neighbor, while the corresponding distance
in the Kikuyu country may be as low as 3 km. Such an LLI must address local issues that may not
apply to other people beyond their boundaries. Apart from Ilishe which is expanding its
geographical scope, most LLIs remained fairly local e.g. Pwani and Gilgil in Rift Valley and Amani in
Nyanza are preoccupied with local development and advocacy issues close to home. The scope could
also be limited by homogeneity of needs e.g. coffee farmers in a defined geographical area or social
affiliation among members of Fish Groups in Kisumu most of who belong to one religious faith.
Type of Membership
Generally, indigenous groups promoting local values tended to be ethnically homogenous. These
values include rites of passage (e.g. circumcision, marriage and funerals), while issue-based groups
(e.g. land rights, coffee marketing) tended to draw membership from the catchments area. For

16

example, within slums in Nairobi, funeral groups will be ethnic-based while local groups dealing
with water and sanitation will follow specified geographical boundaries.
Old Knowledge Is Respected
In some communities, old knowledge and practice especially in conflict resolution, mitigation and
dispensing of justice is respected and may even transcend written laws. In Wajir, traditional methods
of conflict resolution are often used to rectify social anomalies and individual or group actions
against community interests.
LLIs Address Aspects/Sectors of PRSP
The LLIs address aspects of the PRSP sectors and thematic areas. In most cases, an LLI will have a
core thematic area (activity) but may bring on board other activities as long as they do not
undermine the core activity. In some instances, primary groups belonging to the same secondary
organization may have different core functions e.g. the groups that constitute the membership of
Ilishe. Some have long experiences in their core activities, which are independent of changing
national and international development paradigms.
2.7

ORGANIZATIONS PREFERRED BY DIFFERENT COMMUNITIES

At the community level, i.e. district level and below, the main local level institutions covered by the
study include indigenous and fairly homogeneous groups, CBOs, NGOs (both local and branches of
external NGOs), Government departments, and Government extension staff. The local level
institution preferred by a particular community is one that serves their specific needs. In the Kenya
case, different regions might have different needs depending on geographical characteristics,
resources available locally, ethnic modes of production, and social and political distance from the
corridors of power (especially for groups dealing with advocacy). The study established that local
level institutions preferred by most groups in the community include:
Government Line Ministries
Line ministry extension staffs are relevant because they meet the practical, common needs of the
community e.g. agricultural extension staff and water technicians. Unfortunately, government
extension officers in some sectors have been retrenched. Some LLIs often seek the private services of
former government extension staff.
The Provincial Administration
Kenya has a hierarchically nested administrative structure, from province, district, division, location,
to sub-location. The provincial administration is organized along this administrative structure. They
provide security and social harmony through common identity at the local level (e.g. sub-location in
the case of a sub-chief). They exist under a specific enabling legislation (The Chiefs Authority Act,
cap 128 of the Laws of Kenya), are the link between communities and the central Government, and
are the vehicle through which the government derives and exercises authority at the local level.
Community members in most places complained of their high handedness, abuse of office, and
inability to handle issues that are not directly related with administration and regulation (e.g.
developmental issues at the local level). The provincial administration was also said to serve the
17

government of the day instead of serving the community. Communities with different political
ideologies from that of the government tended to have poorer relations with the provincial
administration.
Homogeneous groups
Women groups and other private interest groups (e.g. coffee farmers) were said to be pillars of
development in the community as they support and sustain the economic viability of families, and
operate as social infrastructure for serving other needs of the community. Women groups, for
example, mobilize resources to address development issues starting from the household to the district
level. Where women groups tended to be popular with the local people, such groups gained a
visibility which sometimes drew the attraction of outsiders like donors and international NGOs,
which in turn used them as vehicles for implementation of activities of the external development
agencies. Although politicians and the provincial administration are among the people who applaud
the contribution of women groups, they also attempt to manipulate them for personal or political
gain (e.g. during parliamentary and civic elections).
Community-Based Organizations
CBOs are preferred by their immediate beneficiaries. Other people in the community may not even
have heard about them. They are often limited in their spatial scope of operation, benefit a limited
number of people, and may only serve a particular sex or age group e.g. distribution and use of
condoms for male youth.
Religious organizations
These are community organizations started and/or managed by religious organizations and often
address both the material and spiritual needs of the people. Most of them go beyond their faith in
targeting the community members to work with.
Nongovernmental Organizations
NGOs are preferred by all those who benefit from them. The Government prefers them only if they
do not engage in issues of political reform such as human rights and demands for good governance,
land issues, and insecurity. To most politicians, NGOs should not exist. In a recent contribution to
the constitutional review process, a minister expressed what some high level politicians think about
NGOs: If there is one bad thing which we have done in Kenya, it is to promote these artificial bodies
called NGOs, which serve as business enterprises for some people (Daily Nation, 21 July 2001). At
the same forum, another minister described NGOs as being driven by financial interests.
Contributing to the same debate, a senior politician said, NGOs should not meddle with the
countrys constitutional review process.
In some districts, government leadership did not trust NGOs. Some officials of the provincial
administration described NGOs as not transparent, hiding something, too limited in their scope,
dealing only in things they like best (e.g. credit), not being community-based, and even exploiting
wananchi (the common public). Yet NGOs are quite beloved in crisis. With the same breath that
castigates NGOs, the government will call on NGOs to provide relief, to build a school or a hospital,
to deal with floods and drought, or to assist in enlightenment and counseling on HIV/AIDS.

18

CHAPTER 3
STRUCTURE OF SELECTED ORGANIZATIONS
3.1

SAMPLE OF KENYA LOCAL LEVEL INSTITUTIONS

The internal structure that defines priorities, implementation process, accountability, and sanctions
against laxity or fraud depends on the functions of the organization, its vertical and horizontal
linkages, and the nature of its legal registration. There were many types of structures that manage
community assets which were not visited but are started under relevant laws e.g. school and health
center management committees to manage public education institutions and cost recovery in health
centers, respectively.
Primary Groups
At the grassroots level, there are many indigenous primary groups (e.g. women groups) performing
independent activities for the benefit of their members. The activities are for mutual support of
members, or what is generally described as the moral economy of the peasant (based on fairness and
justice, and reciprocity or conditional cooperation as a solution to iterated prisoners dilemma
contests6). An existing primary group rarely changed its core function even after it gets involved with
activities of an external development agent (e.g. NGO or government). The activities included
merry-go-round (cash and/or in-kind) and assisting each other in times of distress (burial,
cultivation) or celebrations (marriage, circumcision). Even where primary groups of individual
members are brought together under an external project, they initiate activities independent of those
they conduct at the project level. This is mainly done to ensure economic viability of the households
of the individual members. The involvement of external development agents may improve or blur
their vision but they rarely lose sight of their primary objective.
Examples include unaffiliated women groups, Nairobi neighborhood associations, the 31 women
groups which form Yatta South Women Group, the groups which form Ilishe, LYCODEP groups,
women groups in Wajir town under the pastoral associations, groups under Dak Achana CAREKenya project, Emkong Water Project, Kiawanduma Coffee Cooperative, Amani (Oyugis), Pwani and
Gilgil PRA communities, Umoja Women Group under Akukuranut, and project management
committees under SARDEP that federate to form transect area committees.
In most organizations visited, the membership consisted of groups rather than individual members of
primary groups. The primary groups had their own independent activities. For example, the groups
6

See, Robert Axelrod, Effective Choice in the Prisoner's Dilemma, The Journal of Conflict Resolution, 24(1),
March 1980; Robert Axelrod and William D. Hamilton, The Evolution of Cooperation, Science, New Series,
211(4489), March 27, 1981; Robert Axelrod, The Evolution of Cooperation, Basic Books, New York, 1984; and
Akira Okada, The Possibility of Cooperation in an N-Person Prisoners Dilemma with Institutional
Arrangements, Public Choice, 77(3), November 1993. Axelrod (1984) explores forms of social structure based
on four factors: labels (a fixed characteristic of a player, such as sex or skin color, which can be observed by the
other player), reputation (information about the strategy that the first one has employed with other players),
regulation (relationship between a government and the governed through deterrence and voluntary
compliance), and territoriality (when players interact much more with their neighbors than with those who
are far away). From the perspective of game theory, grassroots local level institutions can be viewed as
institutional arrangements or enforcement agencies for formalizing cooperation in resolution of social and
economic dilemmas.
19

in Likoni under LYCODEP had activities independent of their umbrella organization. This was also
true of primary groups under Akukuranut and Ilishe. The activities of primary groups may be
different from those of the umbrella organization e.g. groups of preschool teachers and community
health workers under the umbrella of the Mwana Mwende Child Development Trust have their own
economic activities totally unrelated to early childhood education and child nutrition and health.
Most primary groups are registered with the Department of Social Services. The registration
certificate does not accord it legal status, and cannot therefore sue or be sued. Most of the activities
and relationships between members are therefore based on trust. The primary group may have a
bank account, although maintenance of bank accounts was described as expensive due to high
minimum savings bank balances and prohibitive bank charges.
Community-Based Organizations
Most community-based organizations and community-level federations receive some form of
external link regardless of whether the original idea was homegrown. The CBOs were a form of
social infrastructure started by external agents to manage community activities at the local level. The
external support may be in the form of capacity building, project funds on the basis of community
proposals, and creation of social capital at the local level. Leaders of primary groups normally elect
the leadership of such CBO through a delegates system. A notable exception was the Central
Management Committee under GSI where the leaders are elected directly by community members.
Village Development Committees (VDC) includes project initiatives of KDDP, KRSP and CAREKenya. VDCs are an outcome of a process of community empowerment through some form of
participatory methodology normally introduced by outside agents. After helping the community to
organize around a number of development themes, the community is assisted to organize itself into
structures that can plan, implement and control community projects. Resources for project
implementation are often in the form of grants brought in by the outside agent to the committee
periodically. Within the village, there are many other development initiatives and other village level
institutions and primary groups. Members of these primary groups may be members of the VDC.
VDCs under KRSP and CARE-Kenya had federated to sub-location and location levels.
Examples of community-based organizations and federations include:
Transect area committees under SARDEP which manage projects within their jurisdiction e.g.
Emkong Water Project, Midiliwo Zero Grazing Project and Koikee Food Security;
Village, sub-location and location development committees under Dak Achana project;
Pastoralist associations in Wajir;
Akukuranut Development Trust that oversees the activities of primary groups e.g. Umoja
Women Group;
Mwana Mwende Child Development Trust;
Ilishe;
Amani Christian Development Project in Oyugis;
Catholic dioceses of Kericho and Nakuru;
Projects of Egerton University PRA department located in Pwani (on the shores of Lake Nakuru)
and Gilgil;
Private sector organizations e.g. We Can Do It;
LYCODEP;
FPAK which consists of regional volunteers from division, district to national level with elections
through the delegates system;
20

GSI Central Management Committee;

Iyego Coffee Cooperative (comprising of 12 coffee factories);
Yatta South Women Group

A community level federation is an amalgam of groups that address similar issues and come together
to draw on numerical superiority. For example, in Yatta South Women Group (YSWG) or Iyego
Coffee Cooperative, members got together largely to enjoy economies of scale, while Ilishe and
LYCODEP pooled their strength as a lobby group. Community-level federations tend to draw
strength from the degree of participation of their constituent groups. For example, groups under
Ilishe need to participate in Ilishe activities, while factories under Iyego coffee cooperative and
groups under YSWG need to produce for the market if the federations are to remain viable.
The geographical scope of the CBO can be at the village level. However, several village development
committees can federate to sub-location, and perhaps to location level. At the location level, the
federation could have some links with the location development committee headed by the chief. The
CBO could be registered under the Department of Social Services (and would therefore not be a legal
person), under the Societies Act (cap 108 of the Laws of Kenya), or as a trust under The Trustees
(Perpetual Succession) Act (cap 164). In a few instances, CBOs were registered as NGOs. The nature
of the registration certificate depended on the perceived functions of the organization (e.g. Ilishe),
while others are chosen for convenience. For example, some choose to register with the Department
of Social Services due to the strict vetting process the government undertakes in registration of
societies under the Societies Act (under which registration of political parties also fall).
In most CBOs, priorities are defined by members through the trust of the leaders they elect in the
annual general meeting (AGM). In the case of those registered as trusts, the law requires that there
should be a board of trustees. Such a board normally consists of both members of the primary groups
(to focus on the vision), and professionals from diverse fields (to provide technical advice).
The extent to which the communities influence planning depends on the space the external funding
agency is ready to give. Some funding agencies may have conducted baseline surveys to determine
peoples priorities, and work within the general framework under which they accessed funds. Other
agencies may only be in capacity building and building of social capital within well-defined sectoral
interventions. However, community-based planning is beginning to take root, and most external
agents (including NGOs) are giving communities a free hand in determining priorities, and in
implementation and monitoring of activities at the community level.
Community Development Foundations
The consultant team interviewed only one community foundation, namely, the Kenya Community
Development Foundation (KCDF). KCDF is a grant-making organization that builds assets through
building endowment funds for use in building local governance structures. It undertakes
comprehensive capacity assessments on institutional, financial and governance structures and helps
to put these structures in place e.g. development of management boards, participatory monitoring
and evaluation, financial management, and project design.
Capacity building involves social capital in the sense of creating the culture of an organization that
mainstreams good governance in its routine operations. This includes evolution of policy,
accountability in the use of resources at their disposal, transition mechanisms for the leadership of an
organization, gender balance in terms of men and women (and the quality of that gender balance),
21

and modulating the softest and the loudest voices in an organization. KCDF promotes what it calls
behind the well: the way it was decided and built, the discussions that went on during the
construction, and whether or not it represents a growing indigenous capacity and ability to get what
the community needs from government and other agencies.
Although bilateral and multilateral donors are not convinced that there are local organizations that
can undertake building of social capital, KCDF is emerging as a potential role model as custodian of
peoples resources. Donors continue to rely on expensive private consulting firms as financial
management agencies (FMA) for administering community funds.
3.2

A SAMPLE OF KEY STRUCTURES

Most local organizations have a structure that defines the way they work and function, how they
relate to their membership and other stakeholders, how they maintain responsibility and
accountability, and how they manage and resolve conflict. After considering and studying the
different types of structures the different LLIs have, it was evident that these structures were as
varied as their activities, functions, and vertical and horizontal linkages. The consultant team was not
able to establish strong prototypes. However, within the variations the consultant team chose to
describe a selection of structures from among the different categories of LLIs. The selection does not
necessary imply representation within the category as the selection was based more on category,
geographical spread, activities, and level of relationship within the hierarchy of LLIs (national to
grassroots).
Classification
GOK/bilateral
International NGO & projects
NGO Council
NGO
CBO
Private sector
GOK/civil society at grassroots

Name
KDDP: village development committee
Oxfam: Wajir pastoral project
National Council of NGOs
Akukuranut, Umoja women group
CARE-Kenya Dak Achana
- Kiawanduma & Iyego
- We Can Do It
District to village Level

Region/Province
Coast
North Eastern
National
Western
Nyanza
- Central
- Nairobi
National

Kilifi District Development Program

Kilifi District Development Program (KDDP) was started in 1994 as a multi-sectoral, district-based
rural development program supported by the Governments of Kenya and Germany. The program
focuses on building capacities of communities and service providers in Kilifi district with the aim of
contributing to poverty reduction and testing a model of district level planning that involves active
participation of beneficiaries over the entire project cycle. The basis of development support is the
village as a traditional community. The villagers organize themselves into village development
committees (VDC) which federate to work with government structures. The composition of elected
members is gender and age inclusive to ensure equity. Currently, the program is working with 100
communities.
At the apex, the organizational structure has as Programme Support Unit (PSU). The PSU is attached
to the Office of the District Water Officer (Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources) and is
overseen by a Joint Monitoring Committee with representatives from the national level (ministry).
The German contribution to the program is managed by GFA Consulting Group, a German-based
consulting company subcontracted by GTZ.

22

The components of the programme include commerce and industry, health, education, natural
resource management, community development, infrastructure, and district planning. Implementing
agencies include: trade, industry, and applied technology; ministry of health and district health
management team; formal education and adult education; agriculture, livestock, veterinary, fisheries,
and forestry; social service, councils, and NGOs; water and roads; and district development
committee/district executive committee and the district development officer. The implementing
agencies support projects generated by community level institutions under the village development
committees.
Community-based development activities include those initiatives agreed on by the whole
community in the community action plan (CAP). The community may request for resources
provided the community has (a) formed a village development committee (VDC), (b) the VDC has
received sufficient training on participatory development planning, (c) opened a bank account and
collected/accumulated its own cash contribution of minimum 10% of total cash costs, and (d) is
willing to provide all labor, locally available materials and transport for implementing the planned
CAP projects.
The Wajir Pastoral Development Programme
The structures that manage the Wajir Pastoral project at the district level include district
development committee (DDC), district executive committee (DEC), pastoral steering committee
(PSC), and district pastoral association (DPA).
The PSC is chaired by the DDO with Nomadic Primary Health Care Programme (NPHC) coordinator
as its secretary. The PSC is a district level stakeholders forum on pastoral issues and a subcommittee
of the DDC. Its members are drawn from veterinary, health, agriculture, water and social services;
and coordinators from Oxfam, Arid Lands Resource Management Project (ALRMP) and NPHC. The
DEC coordinates the work of district departmental heads, while the DDC coordinates all
development activities in the district.
The DPA is a federal representative body of all the pastoral associations (PAs) in the district, and
comprises of elected officials of member PAs. The DPA is a subcommittee of the DDC and
participates in meetings of all key committees of the DDC. The DPA members hold office for three
years.
The DDC is a government structure and a supreme district-planning organ chaired by the District
Commissioner. Its membership includes the DC as chair, the DDO, district departmental heads,
district accountant, representatives of local authorities, parastatals operating in the district, members
of parliament, and co-opted heads of NGOs and religious groups. The DDC works through and with a
number of subcommittees of stakeholders.
The DEC is chaired by the DDC and is the chief technical committee of the DDC. It is composed of
all governmental heads in the district and works through sector-specific technical arms.
The Oxfam field office coordinator attends all key pastoral meetings organized by the DDC and
relevant committees at district level.

23

At the location level, there are 21 PAs which are representative bodies of all the base level userorganizations within the location. They are led by an elected management committee of 6 PA
officials plus another 6 elected at an AGM of PA members. The management committee is
responsible for the management of the association between general meetings, while sector-specific
subcommittees address specific sector issues e.g. water, health, and education.
At sub-location and community levels are the various communities and their membership
associations which include water users, veterinary drug users, women groups and parent-teacher
associations (PTA). They are the constitutionally founded base level representative organizations of
pastoral communities registered with the Department of Social Services. A committee elected by
association members (who range from about 100 to 1,000) runs each association.
National Council of Nongovernmental Organizations
The NGO Council was established under Section 23 of the NGO Coordination Act (1990) as a
collective forum for all the voluntary agencies registered under the Act. The mission of the NGO
Council states that, The NGO Council exists to prepare, strengthen and promote voluntary action in
pursuit of a more just and equitable society. It further states that it exists to provide overall
leadership to the NGO sector by championing the values of probity, transparency, accountability,
justice and good governance; enhancing the self regulation of its members; and by assisting NGOs to
realize their potential in providing services that improve the socioeconomic status of Kenyan society
in a sustainable, just and equitable manner.
The Councils strategic objectives include (a) promoting good governance in the NGO sector, (b)
enhancing membership support and capacity building, (c) promoting policy interests by NGOs at
national, regional and international levels, (d) promoting gender equity progressiveness in the NGO
sector, and (e) enhancing the institutional capacity of the Council.
To facilitate its functions, the Council has structures operating at two levels, namely, policy and
decision making (executive committee, regulatory committee and board of trustees) and secretariat.
The supreme organ of the Council is the membership of NGOs which congregates at the Annual
General Meeting (AGM). Among the business of the AGM are election of members to the Executive
Committee, the Regulatory Committee, the Board of Trustees, and Subcommittees. The Executive
Committee consists of 15 members. According to the Councils Rules and Regulations, members of
the Executive Committee must come from the NGO sector and can serve for only up to two
consecutive terms. Officials for the post of Chair, Vice-Chair, Treasurer and Vice-Treasurer and the
Chairs of the subcommittees of the Executive Committee are elected from the 15 members of the
Executive Committee. The Chief Executive Committee is responsible for directing all programme
activities of the Council and other matters as articulated by the General Assembly. In reality,
members of the Executive Committee are full time employees of member NGOs.
The chairperson of the Executive Committee is also the chair of the Regulatory Committee. One of
the members of the regulatory committee has to be a qualified lawyer, with at least ten years
experience as an advocate of the High Court of Kenya, and appointed by the Law Society of Kenya.
The Regulatory Committee promotes and maintains adherence to the NGO Code of Conduct and
Rules and Regulations. It is also charged with the responsibility of reviewing the Code periodically
and proposing amendments to the General Assembly. The Committee defines and reviews the

24

criteria for support by the Council of applications by its members regarding work permits, duties and
tariffs.
The Board of Trustees has five members elected out of a list of seven nominated by the Executive
Committee. There are two Subcommittees of the Council: the Networking Subcommittee and the
Finance and Administration Subcommittee. The Networking subcommittee is open to members
drawn from outside the Executive Committee through a process of cooptation. As much as is
possible, members of the Networking subcommittee include representatives from the Sectoral
Networks. The sectoral networks include Peace and Development Network (Peacenet), Legal and
Human Rights Network, Participatory Methodologies Forum of Kenya (Pamfork), Kenya Aids NGOs
Consortium (Kanco), Kenya Pastoralists Forum, Gender and Development Network, Kenya Alliance
for the Advancement of Childrens Rights, Coalition on Violence Against Women (Covaw), Social
and Development Network (Sodnet), Youth and Development Network, and Coalition Against
Landmines.
The Council is also working with NGOs in various provinces to form Regional Networks for effective
coordination and monitoring of NGO activities at local level.
The Councils Secretariat is responsible for the ongoing work of the Council and for implementing
programme initiatives decided on by the General Assembly. The Secretariat is headed by a Chief
Executive Officer, working with a team of six professional staff and six support personnel.
Akukuranut Development Trust
Akukuranut Development Trust (ADT) is an umbrella organization of groups (mostly women groups)
whose objective is enhancement of food security at the family level. The organization traces its
origin to the efforts of a young man from the area who was growing vegetables but volunteered
himself to assist other vegetable farmers to improve crop husbandry. The groups increased over time
to about 60 groups. The objective later expanded to encompass wider food security issues (and not
only vegetable farming). Key challenges for ADT include male idleness, drunkenness, female
illiteracy, and inferior position of women and the girl child. ADT described itself as a credible, little
organization.
Since ADT is a membership organization, the annual general meeting is the highest authority. The
members delegate authority to the Board of Trustees (BOT). A chairperson elected by members of
the Board heads the BOT. The BOT is answerable to all the members.
The manager is an employee who heads the management unit and is answerable to the BOT and is
also secretary to the BOT. There is a Finance and Administration unit headed by the Treasurer who
reports to the BOT. The Accounts Clerk writes and maintains accounts and reports to the manager.
The General Audit carries out internal audit of ADT books of accounts, and the sub-unit reports to
the Treasurer and the BOT.
Each of the seven ADTs programmes has a thematic subcommittee with specific responsibilities,
namely, banking section (savings and credit), asset development, agriculture, health, marketing and
publicity, training and mobilization, and special projects. They represent members, contribute ideas,
and make recommendations to the BOT. There are 13 fully registered groups, and 64 associate
member groups (for only savings and credit) which are not members of the trust.

25

Umoja Women Group is a member of Akukuranut and has five members. The group started off with
13 members. Some have fallen off for different reasons, and one member died. The group has been
involved in a variety of activities. These include beekeeping for every household in the group, and
merry-go-round for utensils, pigs and cash. They are also involved in the passing the gift heifer
project, in which a heifer is loaned to a member who passes it on to another member of the group
after it gives a calf. If the cow dies of East Coast fever, the member is deemed careless and is required
to repay the group.
The structure of the group includes a chair-lady, a secretary and treasurer. The group meets once a
month for their monthly merry-go-round. They leave some of the money contributed with the
member in whose house the meeting takes place while the balance is put in a savings account. The
group independently works with government extension officers.
Nyanza Household Livelihood Security Program (Dak Achana)
The project covers specific administrative locations in Lambwe (in Suba district), Nyarongi (Homa
Bay), and Kasipul (Rachuonyo). The interventions are mainly in agriculture (extension, adaptive
research, institutional capacity building) and water and sanitation (institutional capacity building,
water and sanitation infrastructure, health and hygiene education). In the local dialect, dak achana
means, good, organized living.
The operations at the community level are in the hands of the communities and community resource
persons e.g. village health promoters, adaptive research farmers, and pump caretakers. The
community elects the leaders of a village management committee (VMC), and they in turn elect the
executive officials. The VMCs in turn elect sub-location management committees, and sub-location
management committees federate to form a location management committee. The location
management committees are members of their respective location development committees chaired
by administrative chiefs. The communities are in the process of using the same system to federate up
to the district level. The projects monitoring and evaluation process is participatory, and starts at the
bottom climbing systematically along the federating process that defines the vertical organizational
structure.
The project cooperates with government structures and officials relevant to each level in the
organizational structure. At the village, sub-location, location and division levels, the project has
mainstreamed its activities with those of officials in public health, water, education (education
officers, school inspectors), social services, agriculture (extension), elected leaders (councilors) and
provincial administration (assistant chiefs, chiefs, division officers). At the district level, the project
works with government officials of the same departments, and also includes the District
Development Officer and the District Forest Officer. The district-level government staffs coordinate
their activities with those of lower level staff in such a way that the project activities are integrated
in the government planning and implementation process.
Kiawanduma and Iyego Coffee Cooperative Societies
The coffee industry is run on a strict top-down approach with the farmers being at the lowest level.
At the apex, the structure consists of the Coffee Board of Kenya, the parastatal responsible for
grading and marketing of coffee after receiving it from the Kenya Planters Cooperative Union
(KPCU). KPCU is responsible for processing coffee after it is received from the different farmers
cooperatives from the different farms and parts of the country.
26

The local coffee farmers form the membership of the local coffee cooperative society. The officials
are elected from among its membership at factory level. The different cooperatives elect their
members in the annual general meeting. The officials liaise with the Kenya Planters Cooperative
Union on behalf of their members.
Two scenarios in Muranga represent examples of the structures governing the coffee industry:
Kiawanduma Coffee Cooperative Society and Iyego Coffee Cooperative Society. Kiawanduma Coffee
Cooperative Society represents only one coffee factory. The Annual General Meeting of the Society
elects leaders to represent them both at the factory level as well as at the KPCU level. Iyego Coffee
Cooperative Society is an amalgam of twelve factories each running its affairs independently with its
member farmers. The cooperative liaises with KPCU and other higher organs in the coffee hierarchy
on behalf of the 12 constituent factories.
We Can Do It
We Can Do It is an initiative toward new directions in the governance of the City of Nairobi with
active participation of the residents through neighborhood associations. Primary and community
organizations or federations in the rural areas are forms of neighborhood associations, but the ethnic
and class differentiation in an urban setting complicates the concept of neighbor. The social distance
between neighbors in a strictly spatial sense was reported as differing from town to town. For
example, the experience of Kituo Cha Sheria in informal settlements in Mombasa and Nairobi has
shown that there is more social cohesion within neighborhoods in Mombasa compared with the
more atomized Nairobi community.
The structure that follows is a proposal developed by the Nairobi neighborhood associations under
the umbrella of We Can Do It for a more efficient structure in the governance and provision of
services to the city residents. The structure includes the different levels of operation with greater
involvement of the residents.
Level A consists of neighborhood associations which take into account streets, estates, courts in large
estates, business/commercial concerns, among others, and all the persons and resident businesses
therein. The association will be run on democratic ideals with popularly elected leadership taking
charge for a specified period with performance-related periodic endorsements during the term of
service. Each neighborhood will generate its own vision, mission and action plans for
implementation of local programs and projects. Issues for inclusion would include development and
maintenance of internal physical infrastructure, solid waste management, internal security, and
developmental issues including land use, management and control of public utility land within the
neighborhood, approval of business licenses including kiosks, and social welfare and youth
development.
Level B will consist of groupings of a number of neighborhood associations on a logical geographical
or administrative basis. The running of business at this level will rest upon a committee elected by
individual neighborhood associations. The main responsibilities at this level are networking
neighborhood associations, collaboration, and advocacy work to ensure that the city residents get
service.
Level C (zones or boroughs) is envisioned as equivalent of small townships with municipal authority
over their areas. The greater associations at Level B shall have elected representation at zone
27

(borough) level. The committee will be responsible for monitoring of programs, and collecting rates
and other levies on behalf of the governing council. The committee will work with the technical
departments of the Nairobi City Council.
Level D (the governing council) would the highest organ in the proposed system and will generally
oversee the running of the City. The members of this Council shall be the representatives elected
from the zones (boroughs). Members serving at this level must have been elected from the
neighborhood association level through the greater association and the zone. Level D will be charged
with overseer responsibility of strategic planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, and
resource mobilization and management.
District Development Planning
The government planning process follows the spatial organization of the administrative structure.
The district focus for rural development (DFRD) decentralized planning and implementation to the
district level. However, the planning process is entirely in the hands of the departmental heads of
various ministries at the district level. Some of those interviewed commented that the introduction
of the DFRD did not amount to devolution of power, but merely built national structures at the
district level.
The communities do not see a clear separation of development from government administrative and
regulatory roles. The district planning process is an internal affair within the district development
committee that does not involve beneficiaries. The only notable example is Kilifi district where the
activities of KDDP have attempted to introduce participatory approaches to district planning.
The civil society organizations operate at grassroots level, although some federate or scale up at the
location level. In the case of Dak Achana project in South Nyanza, the project location development
committee is a subcommittee of the location development committee headed by the area chief. Apart
from Wajir pastoral project which links up with government structures at the district level, the civil
society organizations interviewed linked with government structures or government personnel at the
location level where the government structure does not have authority to commit state funds. Funds
are only committed at the district level. The location development committees also have little
influence on the decisions made at the district level.
Local Authorities
The local authorities and the central government provide a dual administrative structure at the
district level. The local authorities come under the Ministry of Local Government. According to Part
VIII of the Local Government Act (cap 265 of the Laws of Kenya), the appointment of municipal
council officers is conducted by the Public Service Commission. The officers include town clerk,
treasurer, engineer and public health officer. The Public Service Commission may also appoint
deputies for those officers. The power of the minister and the Public Service Commission to appoint
municipal council officers has been the most contentious issue between the peoples representatives
(councilors) and the central government.
The operations of local authorities are governed by a system of committees. These committees do not
provide room for participation of residents in planning and implementation of activities. In
Mombasa, coordination of development is complicated by a dual administration between central
government and municipality since the boundaries of the municipality coincide with those of the
28

district. The administrative system in Mombasa has duplications of offices in both central
government and the municipal council e.g. health and education. PAMNUP is cooperating with the
Mombasa Municipal Council in making the system of managing local authorities more open to
residents. The dual administration at the local level (central government through the DDC and the
local authorities) is maintained by taxpayers.
The communities do not view local authorities as their partners in development since the councils
have been locked out of development funds for a long time. However, the central government has
started a process of transferring funds to be administered through the local authorities. The law on
local authority transfer fund (LATF) came to effect in June 1999, where the government committed
itself to distribute 5% of the national income tax to local authorities. However, mechanisms for
participatory generation of development plans (the Local Authority Service Delivery Action Plan
LASDAP) on the use of such funds have not been developed at the local levels.
According to various respondents, the Local Government Act (cap 265) excludes active participation
of citizens in the running of local authorities since most of the authority is vested in the minister.
The ongoing consultations on local government reform programme was seen as an opportunity to
give a fresh look at the jurisdictional disputes embedded in the dual administration, and deepening
the process of devolution, accountable governance, and quality of service delivery at the local level.
Some respondents thought that the ongoing local government reform commission, the constitutional
review process, and the PRSP were an integrated package for a new administrative and development
order.
3.3

INTERNAL ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISMS

Among the prerequisites for realizing transparent, accountable and effective management
committees are trust, training and empowerment7. The community has to trust that their leaders will
do the needful and do it when it needs doing. The leaders on the other hand have to be shown
(trained) on how to do it. But the community has to be empowered through deliberate and focused
capacity building to know and demand for their rights, access resources, as well as assess value for
investments thereto, and monitor and measure performance of committees. The third component is
pivotal to sustainable accountability and transparency within the system. The first two prerequisites
are normally adequately addressed by most community projects. However, the achievement of the
third component normally varies since the level of awareness differs between leaders and the
community members they serve as a result of concentrating training and other aspects of capacity
building on the leaders.
Most primary groups first comes together bound by some level of trust to address local needs. For
example, a women group at the village level does not include every woman in the neighborhood
because there are some minimum requirements, including trust. Such trust is cultivated through
continuous interaction. After a group is formed, cohesion within the group is largely determined by
trust of members for each other and their overall trust of their leaders.
When the group acquires a certain level of visibility, it may seek support from organizations that
provide capacity building. For example, primary groups under Ilishe, KDDP (including village
development committees), and partners of KCDF and ACTIONAID-Kenya have gone through
7

See, F.S. Barasa, The ACTIONAIDs Community Education Initiative (CEI): Report of the Snapshot Review,
British Department for International Development (DfID), May 2001
29

capacity building to acquire skills e.g. bookkeeping, aesthetic issues such as group management, and
training on appropriate organizational structures (roles and responsibilities of boards and
development committees).
When LLIs have gone through levels of training and building of social capital, such LLIs enjoyed a
higher level of internal cohesion and empowerment. Pastoral associations in Wajir are able to sit on
the DDC because they understand the issues and can question and present their case. This could be
contrasted with coffee farmers in Muranga who have never gone beyond the local factory and have
no idea where the Coffee Board of Kenya is located.
Most progressive LLIs continue to build the capacity of their members through staff training,
exchange visits, and other forms of capacity enhancement. LLIs also improve their physical
infrastructure depending on the quality of internal plans and level of financial resources (external or
internally-generated resources).
To ensure accountable and transparent running of LLIs, the majority had bank accounts with specific
signatory requirements known to members and included in the by-laws of the group. The majority
kept records of events through minutes and other periodic reports. They also had a supreme organ to
oversee the affairs of the institution e.g. central management committee. Such an organ was
responsible for setting policy, promoting public image, and holding custodial responsibility over the
assets and resources of the institution. The planning process included preparation of strategic plans,
and periodic review of performance through regular meetings. In a few instances there were impact
assessment reports and external evaluations, especially for activities supported by donors and NGOs.
3.4

PARTICIPATORY MONITORING AND EVALUATION

Types of Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation

Participatory monitoring and evaluation involves the process of generating community needs,
prioritizing, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation. There were two participatory
approaches to project entry that were identified. The first involves institutions or networks whose
main purpose is development and documentation of participatory techniques without necessarily
having a follow-on project. In the case of Egerton University PRA department, for example, a target
community became more organized, was able to plan and implement community activities, to pool
internal resources, to relate to the outside world in a beneficial and responsible way, and moved from
a culture of despair arising from marginalization and hopelessness.
The second type of participatory approach is where an external agent has decided, through literature
review or baseline surveys, to put tent in a particular community. The external agent may use
participatory approaches at project entry to the community, and during community-based planning,
implementation, monitoring and evaluation.
Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation in Practice
At the most elementary level, members of a local organization are able to receive feedback on the
progress of their organization at the annual general meeting. The AGM provided a forum for
discussion, although problems arose if the grapevine information system had communicated
messages different from those presented in the AGM. The AGM also provided members an
opportunity to hire and fire their leaders.
30

Regular monitoring of project activities was evident in a number of local organizations e.g. Pwani
and Gilgil PRA communities. In the case of Dak Achana project, the monitoring system starts with
the visits of community resource persons to participating homesteads, and then the group of
homesteads in a specified neighborhood meeting to discuss their progress. This is followed by
reviews at the village level, and scales up vertically to the sub-location and location levels.
ACTIONAID-Kenya has replaced the regular annual planning and reporting system with
accountability, learning and planning system (ALPS) which bases the reports on reflection processes
with the partner communities.
The level of project success was more evident where participatory monitoring at the community
level was the routine. There are some local institutions where community ownership of project
activities was compromised by their low degree of involvement in monitoring project activities.
Monitoring and evaluation within government through, say, national welfare surveys, was described
as generation of long-term benchmarks rather than a participatory monitoring and evaluation
process that can enhance efficiency and accountability.

31

CHAPTER 4
EMERGING ISSUES
4.1

CHALLENGES LLIs FACE

The LLIs discussed the challenges they face in the course of doing their work that included the
following:
Balancing Between Identities
Some LLIs explained their difficulty in balancing between their primary functions and other added
responsibilities as a result of branching into other avenues which were not part of the original idea.
This may have occurred due to changed demands of the members, change in the environment, or
external agent tagging on to the LLI to meet other agenda. In some cases, an external agent may want
to provide financial support to strengthen activities of the LLI either on request of the LLI,
identifying it through a baseline survey, or if referred by persons known to the LLI.
Within government, there is no clear separation between administration, development and politics.
The DDC and the provincial administration are government structures intended to deal with
development work, and yet the same structures are used for political activities by the government of
the day. This often confuses the communities.
At the local level, LLIs explained that there was lack of participation and commitment from some
community members and government at the local level. As a result of this attitude, some government
officials tend to treat misappropriation of loans and grants from donors as using donor money rather
than misusing Kenyan money. This leads to inefficient management of resources in their custody.
Phasing-Out and Sustainability Issues
Most LLIs started by an external facilitator were designed within defined life spans. It is often not
clear what would happen if the external facilitator leaves or stops supporting the LLI with finance
and other types of support. Unfortunately many LLIs and beneficiary communities with external
facilitators often identify the project or initiative as being the property of that external agent.
Experiences abound where many projects with role model LLIs have collapsed after the external
facilitator leaves. Many LLIs initiated by outsider facilitators seem to believe that they must
indefinitely continue to receive financial support from the outsiders.
Among those institutions interviewed, there were expressions of concern about the future of LLIs
and projects funded under GOK/bilateral arrangements. As they come to the end of the project
period, it was not clear what would happen to the federations created at the local level. However,
primary groups under the same projects are not often adversely affected. This is because such
primary groups have activities independent of those of the federations. Examples here include
women groups and other primary groups that have created village or sub-location level federations.
Expansion and Replication
LLIs are usually focused to serve a specific section of community, age group, issue or activity.
Consequently, their work is spatially limited to the local community. Where such an LLI had visible
32

impact, it was often the desire of adjacent communities, the local administration or the government
in general, that such LLI expands and replicates its work. Despite their resource constraints, such
LLIs are castigated by government as self-centered, not willing to expand, and sometimes accused of
having a hidden agenda.
The number of people who require the services of LLIs and their expectations sometimes overwhelm
the capacity of LLIs. Lack of access to legal services and sustainable health services, for example, is
directly linked to poverty. Because the poor cannot afford these services, there is need for NGOs,
CBOs and other LLIs to provide. But against limited resources, these agents may not be able to go
outside their boundaries.
Effects of HIV/AIDS
Many LLIs complained of loss of gains made due to the ravages of HIV/AIDS. Some communities said
they have to cope with new challenges resulting from the effects and impact of HIV/AIDS. LLIs
involved in production had lost capacity in skills, labor, experience, and new demands occasioned by
deaths (e.g. providing for the widowed and orphans). In the case of LLIs that bring together a
number of households, idle land and other resources also mean diminished production.
Cultural practices and community attitudes toward sex continue to escalate the spread of HIV/AIDS.
Such practices included polygamy and multiple partners, widow inheritance, perceived position of
girls and women as sex objects, and the view that sex was a game for men to engage in (for young
men to taste). Many communities were still in denial concerning existence of HIV/AIDS. Other
self-destructive attitudes included the view that: If AIDS doesnt kill me, I will still die from other
causes e.g. road accident. Ignorance about causes of AIDS contributed to beliefs that AIDS is caused
by witchcraft or the evil eye.
Theft by Custodians of Community Resources
The initiative of organizations such as KCDF to instill virtues of good governance in LLIs is well
founded. LLIs and communities that had vested trust in their staff and other custodians of
community resources had been disappointed. One LLI complained of blatant theft by a staff member
who had taken off with project equipment and materials using project transport. Poor governance of
community resources was also cited in the leadership of the coffee industry right from the factory to
the national level.
Corruption at the LLI level is a reflection of the state of affairs in the whole nation. The fact that the
community was unable to prosecute any community members whom they had elected from among
themselves to protect their interests and property shows that corruption is institutionalized across
the social spectrum. At the national level, corruption was responsible for collapse of state-owned
organizations such as the former Kenya Meat Commission and consequent loss of livestock
marketing opportunities for the pastoralists.
Kenyan society is characterized by civic inertia, waiting for someone to bring in development. This
weak civil society has over the years watched while corruption and other ills took root. The LLIs said
they will continue to preach the virtues of good governance at the local and national levels.

33

The Limited Scope of the Rights Agenda

The LLIs at the grassroots level cited support from NGOs and local organizations on their clamor for
rights e.g. access to secure land tenure at the coast. However, much of the rights agenda handles
group rights but does not sufficiently support individual rights e.g. support to a particular individual
or small group of persons who have been unfairly disinherited. The focus on group rights without
sufficient support to protection of individual rights where they have been infringed was cited as a
strong limitation in the advocacy campaign. The rights campaign among the coffee farmers focus on
privatization of coffee marketing as the farmers are burdened with statutory deductions from their
produce to support state-owned coffee marketing and research institutions. The communities are
wasting energy and resources advocating for a more efficient and transparent management of
government that would have been diverted to more productive uses.
Lack of Proper Infrastructure
Almost all the LLIs interviewed complained of poor infrastructure especially inadequate road
network and quality of roads as a drawback to their work. They were unable to reach markets and
could not be reached by potential investors. Lack of electricity meant lack of industry of any sort.
One LLI had spent large amounts of resources but had still been unable to generate enough water to
support activities of the LLI.
The Low Position of Women in the Community
Although the position of women in communities and indeed within LLIs seemed to remain low, the
role of women was presented positively. Most of the LLIs interviewed had equitable representation
and participation. The women-only initiatives presented an opposite picture in terms of gender
balance, but this was viewed against the specific objectives of the institution. The study did not come
across men-only LLIs.
Retrenchment of GOK Extension Staff Reduces Productive Capacity
The LLIs which were involved in production and who have been utilizing government extension
officers to improve their work were quick to point out that retrenchment of extension staff had
adversely affected their productivity.
Cattle Raids, Inter-Clan Conflict/War
Pastoral communities pointed out that pastoralism as a way of life was not understood by outsiders
including the government. They felt they were not accorded due support. It was for this reason that
the Oxfam Pastoralist Programme came into being to prove that there is life beyond the tarmac.
Livestock diseases and loss of markets pose a challenge due to depletion of herds. Strict quality
control, lack of means of production (drugs, water) and access to international markets also make it
difficult for these communities to translate their livestock into wellbeing. Cattle raids and inter-clan
conflicts and wars among these communities aggravate their situation.
Natural Disasters
The work of some LLIs had been affected by natural disasters. Prolonged droughts and floods were
said to sometimes invalidate any gains made.
34

Pricing in the International Markets

Coffee farmers, livestock farmers and other producers lack representation at forums where prices of
their products and commodities were discussed. Coffee in particular was discussed with passion. The
Coffee Board of Kenya (which determines the quality of coffee), the KPCU (which processes the
coffee) and factory (which processes and transports the coffee to KPCU) were said not to have the
interest of the farmer at heart. And yet coffee still ranks among the major foreign exchange earners
for the country!
NGOs, GOK and Donor Money
There were some complaints about the reasons for which NGOs (both international and local), GOK
and other institutions solicit donor money. It was said that some of these agents source donor funds
for personal gain or for political reasons using some LLIs and civil society as intended beneficiaries.
Sometimes, some of the money did not reach the intended beneficiaries. The GOK and NGOs were
also said to negotiate with donors and other agents on issues that will affect the community
(especially money) without necessarily involving the community.
Both government officials and NGOs said there was lack of transparency between GOK and NGOs.
The government believes that NGOs and LLIs own inexhaustible amounts of money solicited from
donors on behalf of the community. On the other hand, most LLIs and NGOs were struggling to
survive. Each of the institutions interviewed including those supported by international NGOs and
GOK/bilateral projects pointed out their concern for sustainability beyond the project life span.
Government officials especially at the district level claimed that the government was not informed of
what NGOs and some LLIs are doing. The NGOs were viewed as having something to hide. On the
other hand, NGOs claimed that they submit periodic information in the form of annual reports, plans
and evaluations to the government at the district level. They often invite the government to
participate in development activities. The local administration through the chief and assistant chief
are often called upon to mobilize the community or to pass information to the community.
Politics and Influence
Women groups especially were said to be a focus for politicians and local leaders as a source of funds
and labor for harambee. Other LLIs were also a punching bag for politicians when things went
wrong. NGOs were often blamed for advocating civil unrest as well as being hailed for good work.
Local politics could make or break the work of LLIs.
Diversity
The Kenyan spectrum is diverse and boasts a collage of ethnic groups, religious practices, sociopolitical and economic divide, and the urban-rural disparities. The NGO Council described the
district as having no shape, a province is even worse. Because of this diversity, LLIs and other
development agents found it difficult to design interventions. In a Nairobi slum, one may find
different ethnic groups, religious faiths and political affiliations, but must drink from the same water
source. When designing a programme, their divergent views and opinions may have to be considered
and taken on board.

35

The district being a bigger unit may pose different issues of concern. The whole district may be
occupied by a major ethnic group, but be faced with problems that will affect the whole nation. An
LLI serving the community around Sondu Miriu may advocate on the environmental impact of a
hydroelectric project, and yet its concerns about impact on the local communities may be similar or
different from those of people in Nairobi or Mombasa.
4.2

REGION-SPECIFIC ISSUES

Although LLIs were facing similar constraints to effective implementation of development activities,
there were some indications of region-specific issues:
Coast Region
Apart from the village development committees formed under the GOK/bilateral KDDP and the
KRSP (supported by the Aga Khan Foundation), the LLIs at the Coast were dealing in issues of
advocacy around rights, especially land tenure. Ilishe, primary groups under the umbrella of Ilishe,
and LYCODEP were concerned with issues of women personal rights and rights to inherit, rights of
youth to access decent sources of income, and child rights. Other local partners of ACTIONAIDKenya and PAMNUP were concerned with human settlements and benefits accruing to extraction of
their natural resources e.g. the titanium debate.
Nairobi Region
In Nairobi, the study mainly covered umbrella offices of national institutions including the NGO
Council, Kituo Cha Sheria, Pamfork, KCDF, World Neighbors, Oxfam, Aga Khan Foundation, the
central government and bilateral agencies. The only organization dealing with Nairobi region was
We Can Do It, an umbrella of Nairobi neighborhood associations. Among their beneficiaries at the
local level were grassroots initiatives in Korogocho informal settlement where Kituo Cha Sheria has
had activities in legal awareness training, while partner neighborhood associations benefit from We
can Do It initiative. Due to the diversity of needs in Nairobi and the limited scope of groups
interviewed, the study mainly covered policy issues at the level of central government and donor
perspectives.
Western Region
The western region covered Western and Nyanza provinces. Almost all the groups visited were
dealing with aspects of basic survival. Akukuranut in Teso, and Amani and GSI in Oyugis were
dealing with an integrated package of needs around food and water. FPAK was concerned with
reproductive health as a basic need. The Fish Groups deal with spiritual matters as well as basic
requirements. Dak Achana in Homa Bay was in adaptive research for sustainable clean water and
farming methods. The central government in Rachuonyo district was concerned with awarenessraising on basic needs for household level livelihoods and environmental conservation.
Central Region
The central government in the province categorized the region as different from other areas: These
people do not want handouts. They want financial resources to improve their infrastructure and
returns from coffee. There was limited presence of intermediary organizations such as NGOs and
CBOs as Central province is generally perceived as developed and rich. For this reason, NGOs and
36

other development organizations have shied away from working in the province. Donors have also
not been eager to fund development agents to work in the province. As a result, there is limited
development activity on the ground.
The coffee sub-sector in the province has collapsed. The few NGOs registered as working in the
province were said to be operating from Nairobi with little to show on the ground. The prevalence of
poverty and HIV/AIDS in the province was reportedly high, and food relief has been administered in
some parts of the province. Most of the province has been cut off from mainstream development, as
it is believed that all is well in Central. Most of those from the province who have made it live in
Nairobi and commute home once in a while, by going and returning to Nairobi the same day.
North Eastern Region
When Oxfam started work with pastoral associations and other local development partners, it aimed
to show that there is hope beyond the tarmac. The ACTIONAID-led NGO initiative on Basic
Needs Are Basic Rights challenged the pastoral community to make a case for themselves. The
momentum generated has been sustained and pastoral issues emerged as a thematic area in the PRSP.
The issues rotate around sustaining pastoralism as a way of life, especially with respect to marketing
of livestock and livestock products.
Eastern Region
While Yatta South Women Group (YSWG) is at the level of maintaining their niche in the
international market for handicrafts, Mwana Mwende Child Development Trust is grappling with
basic issues of personal rights and basic needs of the girl child. There is little basic awareness to
directly confront negative attitudes towards the female gender. It was difficult for YSWG to balance
the roles of wider community development on one hand and managing production and marketing of
baskets on the other.
North and Central Rift Region
The groups visited in the North Rift varied in their level of development. Koikee Women Group was
at basic survival level while Midiliwo was processing milk with fairly modern equipment. Cheptebo
Rural Project of the Africa Inland Church (AIC) and the farmers under the Catholic Diocese of
Nakuru enjoyed the support of development arms of the churches. Gilgil and Pwani went through an
empowerment processes using PRA facilitated by Egerton University PRA department. The issues in
both North and Central Rift revolve around basic needs and scaling up for sustainability of
development activities. In the north Rift, civil society organizations were also concerned with rights
of girls, especially with respect to female genital mutilation.
4.3

GENDER PERSPECTIVES

Gender representation in management structures, sensitivity to gender issues in programme design,

and women participation in the day-to-day activities of LLIs was quite apparent. In a number of
organizations, gender equity in representation in village development committees (VDC) was a
requirement e.g. in KDDP and KRSP. The VDCs are mostly made up of primary groups that include
women-only groups. The study did not find men-only groups. There were groups, however, which
were dominated by men e.g. LYCODEP federation was made up of groups of young men. However,

37

to address the issue of inclusion of needs of young women, the federation started a group specifically
to address the issue of girls who were victims of early pregnancies.
Ilishe groups were said to enjoy gender equity. The management committee had nine women
representatives. At the Fish Group in Kisumu, the project design considered both young men and
women. GSI central management committee in Oyugis had a 50% gender equity representation. The
project coordinator at Akukuranut (a woman) worked with a team of men, while their primary
groups were mostly women groups.
While the picture on women representation looked good in most places, there were areas where
women did not feature at all in the management structures or the day-to-day running of the LLIs.
The coffee industry in Muranga had no women in the management committees. There was no
indication that there were women at KPCU or the Coffee Board of Kenya representing issues of
women in the industry. But the women work in the farms tending coffee and ensuring that it arrives
at the factory. The produce is recorded in the factory against registration numbers that mainly
consist of men.
Among the pastoralists, women issues were represented at the lower level through women-only
groups in Wajir town. Women representation diminishes at the higher level. Amani Christian
Development Project in Oyugis reported that the project has tried to encourage gender equity in
committees, but women are not normally elected to the management committees.
Although some LLIs were concerned about the girl child and womens involvement in production,
there were only a few deliberate attempts to deal with the aesthetic value of human dignity. For
example, while Mwana Mwende Child Development Trust addresses the impact of early pregnancy,
they were not successful in challenging community attitudes that place the girl-child in the category
of a play-thing that can be bought with chewing gum or for young inexperienced men to test their
virility.
Polygamy and widow inheritance was rarely questioned except for concern that the practice may
have a role in aggravating the spread of HIV/AIDS. Lack of womens representation in the coffee
sector and pastoralist groups only acknowledged their absence but did not adequately address
possible remedial actions.
Stakeholders in development hardly ever question why there are few men-only groups that can be
vehicles for development. For example, the groups that originally comprised LYCODEP came
together to deal with the crisis of young men being thrown to jail while others were dying as
stowaways at sea. Pastoralist associations came together arising from a crisis of livestock production
and marketing, but brought on board women groups.
The study interacted with both men and women managers of different institutions who had been
recruited for their capability rather than their gender. As one moved from primary groups to higher
levels (e.g. village development committees), the number of women in leadership tend to diminish.
At times, the old bug of equating gender to women seemed irritating: You can see I am the only
man here! While the community level was comfortable with answering questions about women
representation and participation, a male spouse or some other relative could interfere with a
womans participation in a primary group. Studies have shown that most women groups have a small
percentage of men, usually as employees, but who may be in charge of major decisions concerning
money.
38

The NGO Council faired well in gender equity while the central government had some women in
positions of leadership. Both women and men in these positions had relevant credentials and wealth
of experience, and were well versed with issues of operations of LLI. Donor agencies had poor
women representation, and the few did not hold critical positions of leadership. In the case of
Burkina Faso study, gender analysis was notable for its absence.
The issue of gender balance is normally analyzed from the point of gender representation, the quality
of the gender balance, the changes in the gender balance as one scales up, and gender sensitivity in
project design (e.g. choice of technologies). Gender representation was fairly good in terms of
numbers. The quality of the gender balance (the effectiveness of women in leadership) was difficult
to measure. However, it was evident that gender balance generally deteriorated at the higher levels.
Women were well represented in decision-making at the primary level. Where a woman was in
position of power, she was judged by her academic qualifications and experience rather than by her
gender.
4.4

PEOPLES VIEWS ON THE PRSP

Most of the LLIs had either heard about or had participated in the PRSP consultations at the district
level. There were, however, a few groups that had not heard about it. While PRSP as an abbreviation
was widely known, many of the LLIs did not know what the initials stood for.
Level of Participation
While those who had interacted with the PRSP said the idea of community consultations was
positive, there was a general feeling that the consultative process was inadequate. Some complained
of the limited amount of time allocated to the consultations. In most districts, the consultation was
only one day, hardly enough to exhaust the issues facing a whole district. Some LLIs were not sure
whether they had participated in the PRSP consultations and had therefore no idea of how they
would engage with the process. Some of those who had participated asked why the government
needed the PRSP process to legitimize its access to people, which should be a regular feature of
government operations with or without PRSP.
Feedback
Most of the organizations were waiting for feedback on PRSP, as a report and budget line for the
priorities they presented to the PRSP teams. Some of the LLIs complained that it is a tradition for
researchers to extract information but never give feedback in form of reports. They hope that PRSP
will be different.
What Really is PRSP?
There was concern from some quarters that the PRSP reads like a traditional development plan, and
lacks an adequate implementation framework. Most of the LLIs and communities had understood
PRSP to be a budget line rather than a process of participatory development. In one community
where donor funds were coming to a close, the community was not worried because PRSP funding
will take over.

39

Challenges Facing LLIs in Relation to PRSP

Some LLIs said that the communities expect to be trained on the contents of the PRSP so that they
can participate in its implementation and M&E. Some others found themselves in a difficult position
because PRSP has brought in an animal bigger than what their existing programmes can manage in
light of the fact that the PRSP process had created high expectations in the communities.
What are the First Things?
There was a general feeling that communities can actually be trusted with PRSP resources especially
money, but there is need to instill governance in management of resources. Some communities were
reported to have ability to manage small funds, e.g. KShs 3 million.
GOK at the District Level
The District Development Officers (DDO) had not received specific instructions on whether district
plans will base their priorities on the district PRSP reports, and the level of involvement of
community and civil society organizations in the actual preparation of the district plans. Within the
government system, the DDOs were involved in the PRSP consultation process, while their parent
department (the Rural Planning Unit) was not directly involved. There were therefore fears that the
PRSP process may not be internalized through the district planning process.
PRSP Secretariat is a Temporary Structure Funded only till 2002
Some LLIs said they understood the PRSP secretariat to be a temporary structure whose existence has
not been legitimized through amendment of the relevant laws. They cited the district development
committees which exist through administrative fiat but are yet to be formalized as legal structures for
planning and implementation at the district level.
The PRSP as a Process
PRSP was said to have created space for dialogue on many themes including pastoralism, gender and
disability. However, there was a feeling that PRSP was a top-down process demanded by donors.
They expressed the view that a genuinely homegrown process would have built on the participatory
poverty assessments (PPAs). Some LLIs felt that the entire district planning process is not
participatory but just transferred a national structure to the district level. PRSP was a more
democratic, open process that brings information to the national level. However, some people were
not convinced that the government was committed to participatory planning at the local level. One
of the constraints cited was the traditional culture of fear of the provincial administration and how
this was going to affect community participation in implementation and monitoring of PRSP
activities.
Relationship with Other Initiatives
Some organizations cited the previous poverty-focused government initiatives that did not yield the
expected results e.g. the social dimensions of development (SDD) and the various initiatives at
rationalization of public expenditure e.g. Public Investment Program (PIP) and MTEF. Other
concerns included the harmonization of the activities of the PRSP with MTEF and Poverty
Eradication Commission (PEC). There was also concern that the Government itself may not have
40

internalized the PRSP. Some felt that to make PRSP a true participatory process, there is need to
train community based organizations on its contents so as to enable them to participate effectively in
its implementation and monitoring of activities at the local level.
Scaling Up by Including Grassroots Participation
Most LLIs and organizations interviewed expressed the need to scale up their activities through
involvement of communities and grassroots institutions in consultations on planning,
implementation, monitoring and evaluation.

41

CHAPTER 5
PARTICIPATORY INSTITUTIONAL ANALYSIS IN THREE VILLAGES

5.1

Uloma Village, Ukwala Division of Siaya District

Warugara Village, Mathioya Division of Muranga District

Iguhu Location, Ikolomani Division of Kakamega District

PURPOSE OF THE INSTITUTIONAL ANALYSIS

To identify, shortlist and learn about perceived and actual roles and activities of the various
institutions found in the selected villages.
To understand how the community views these institutions and how they rank them according
to perceptions of their importance and contribution to their development.
To assess the relationships among the various identified institutions using participatory tools to
show their institutional importance and interactions.
To extract key lessons and perspectives that might arise from the three case studies to represent
village-level distinct issues, lessons and experiences that could be considered for up-scaling,
and/or institutionalizing for effective rural development.
5.2

METHODOLOGY AND PROCEDURE

The basic methodology adopted was participatory institutional analysis. Each of the three consultants
chose a rural village and its constituent homesteads for the investigation.
In Uloma Village, Siaya District, a short meeting with homestead members identified key actors and
opinion leaders in the village and drew a birds eye view of the types and nature of local level
organizing. The initial information was then used to develop a plan of action, which involved
individual and focused group discussions with village members. It was decided that the village elder
(who is the official elected representative of the village) and one respected village member be used to
mobilize representatives of the various local level institutions and ordinary village members to
discussion meetings.
Two meetings were held, one involving the village elder and representatives of the various local level
organizations and institutions, and another open one involving the same group and respective group
and ordinary community members. The open meeting attended by about 30 community members
was used to discuss general development issues in the village and to shortlist and discuss the roles and
activities undertaken by the various local level organizations and institutions. The second meeting
attended by 15 institutional representatives was more focused and sought to distill emerging issues
from the first meeting and to rank the various institutions based on their perceived contributions and
importance to the community. The participants in this meeting were involved in a ranking exercise
using a Venn (chapati) diagram and pair-wise ranking.
In Warugara Village, Muranga District, the consultant identified a recently retired civil servant to be
the research assistant and arrange meetings with community members in his own village. Due to the
tight work schedules of community members in the village, meetings were held with individuals and

42

small groups of people. Various community leaders and ordinary community members were asked
the same questions in separate meetings in an effort to reduce bias in the information provided.
In Iguhu location, Kakamega District, the consultant requested a local NGO in the community to
mobilize village elders as an entry point into the village. The first meeting with elders used
participatory tools, explored village issues through sessions on personal introduction, leveling
expectations, and statement of objective for the gathering. The forum then progressed into defining
the word institution and exploration of the village institutions, their role and activities, their
ranking in terms of accountability and efficiency, impact, and how they can be improved. The most
important institutions in the village were ranked as village elders, women groups, sector
development committees, and the church. This session ended with a plan of action for in-depth
discussions at the household level. In-depth discussions took place in three locations and covered the
structure of the institution of village elder, women groups, and one healthcare service provider.
Village-level relationships were also covered. Potential of scaling up focused on improving priority
institutions.
The consultant team shared the three area-based case studies and considered emerging issues, lessons,
experiences, and diversity.
5.3

ULOMA VILLAGE, SIAYA DISTRICT

Uloma Village is one of several villages that make up the Simur sub-location, Simur Location, Ukwala
Division of Siaya District, Nyanza Province. The entire sub-location has a population of about 500
households according to the 1999 Population and Housing Census. The area produces maize, beans,
cassava, sweet potatoes, bananas, cowpeas, indigenous vegetables (akeyo, osuga) and keeps goats and
zebu cattle.
Two meetings with different members of the community revealed and described the following local
level institutions:

Uloma Village-Kobiero sub-clan (Puny Clan): the clan is a traditional, indigenous institution
considered as the most important institution and the basis of local organizing and social life. The clan
is the basic ancestral identity and ones reference of existence.

Women groups: there are several women groups in the community coalescing around solidarity to
pool labor as an input of production in agriculture, and engage in income generation and other
aspects of food security e.g. merry-go round, grain bulking/ banking, food processing, and revolving
funds. Most of these groups were initially formed as entry points for special projects brought into the
community from outside, but which collapsed for different reasons. Challenged by the impact of
HIV/AIDS and effects of poverty, these groups are reinventing themselves to respond to poverty
using their own meager resources to fulfill the need for solidarity and to address livelihoods
challenges.

Sector project committees: there are several local level sector institutions addressing issues of water,
education, health, agriculture, local administration and energy. Major sector institutions included the
following:
The Yesire water project committee and Gula water project committee are two projects said to be
community-initiated which had poor entry processes and consequently lost recognition and
ownership by the community.
43

 Education: Lifunga Nursery and Primary School and Undhine Primary School are run by the
Ministry of Education as a service to the community.
Healthcare service delivery includes primary healthcare provided by the Governments Ukwala
Health Centre. The community explained that cost sharing has reduced access to health services
due to poverty. HIV/AIDS is a growing threat while wife inheritance and poverty are the key
spread and debility factors, respectively.
Agriculture and livestock development involves provision of extension services to the
community, but inadequate resources limit outreach.
Local administration: including mlango (village elder), assistant chief and the chief form the
local government representation and entry point for village-level development activities which
include convening public meetings, community mobilization for development, and issuing of
identity cards. Although the government permeates every facet of peoples lives through this
structure, it was ranked lower in terms of actual usefulness in peoples lives. This relationship is
characterized by distrust of these leaders by the community.
Ministry of Energy is currently making an attempt to mobilize financial resources from the
community for a rural electrification programme. Due to high levels of poverty, the initiative has
slowed down.
On the pair-wise matrix, the Catholic Church ranked at the top of preferred institutions. Together
with other Christian groupings, the church runs several projects including capacity building
activities for peoples participation in politics and leadership, HIV/AIDS, taking care of needy people
(including persons with disabilities and street children), provision of farm inputs, and basic health
services. The St. Monica Widows Movement is a noteworthy church-based local level institution for
the fight against wife inheritance and a host of other community social welfare activities.
Several initiatives by NGOs included provision of agricultural extension and advisory services by the
Sustainable Community-Oriented Development Program (SCODP), and attempts at integrated
development by CARE-Kenya.
5.4

WARUGARA VILLAGE, MURANGA DISTRICT

Warugara Village is in Kora sub-location, Kiru location in Mathioya Division, Muranga District. The
village borders North Mathioya and Thuruthuru Rivers. The village has an estimated 180 farm units,
which translates to a slightly higher number of households. The village derives its name from rugara,
a big Kikuyu traditional woven basket sometimes used to carry chicken. Among the three villages in
the sub-location (Warugara, Kora and Mananga), people of Warugara said that their village is known
for generosity even to visitors, while Kora (nicknamed koragira njogu runs away from elephants)
are secretive, and Mananga (meaning have destroyed) has the highest crime rate.
Bonding through the churches
The people of Warugara are mostly Christians of different churches including the Anglican Church
of Kenya (ACK) which had gained a stronghold in Warugara. Each village has only one mainstream
Christian church as a result of a missionary agreement during the colonial period to avoid spatial
competition so as to ensure that mainstream Christian churches did not have churches in the same
village. Due to post-independence freedom of worship, there is less restriction. The other main
churches with followers in the village are the African Independent Pentecostal Church of Africa
(AIPCA), African Christian Church and Schools (ACC&S), the Catholic Church and small
Pentecostal churches.
44

The role of the church is to preach and provide social support to its members especially the very
needy, within laid out values, although the churches seem to differ in their approach and practice.
Elected committees are in charge of church decisions in the ACK, Catholic and AIPCA. Among other
structures in the ACK are neighborhood groups (called ituura in singular, the equivalent of mwaki
among the Catholics) serving church members in a neighborhood. Gender plays a great role in the
church in terms of power and control. Although there is freedom of worship, the churches
discourage competition of faiths for fear of possible division within families.
Lineage Relations
Among all the institutions that define social relations, lineage was reported as the most important.
The three main clans (mihiriga) were Anjiru, Acera and Ambui. The lower lineage subsets of the
three clans are mbari (sub-clan), nyumba (literally people of the same house), and then individual
households8. The identity through riika (age set) ensures harmony within an age set and respect
between the young and the old, as engraved in the popular saying that nyumba na riika itiumagwo
(one cannot contract out of his lineage or age group).
About 40 years ago most community activities were organized at the clan level. But probably due to
population growth, the circle is getting smaller, sometimes to only the grandfather level at Christmas
celebrations. Rites of passage, especially marriage and burial, are organized at the lineage society
level. Family needs with heavy financial requirements such as meeting hefty hospital bills are more
demanding occasions which necessitate co-opting other relations and friends.
A management committee elected annually by a show of hands is responsible for the running of clan
affairs based on clan values. Participants at the meeting felt that in the whole of central Kenya,
neighborhood support and family bonding is strongest in Muranga compared to Kiambu or Nyeri9.
Sources of livelihoods
These include coffee, dairy farming and maize.
Coffee: Issues surrounding coffee include reduced production levels due to unfavorable prices,
high cost of inputs, bureaucracy in payment, too many middlemen, and mismanagement and
8

A description of the socioeconomic and political life of Kikuyu can be found in: W. Scoresby Routledge and
Katherine Routledge, With a Prehistoric People: The Akikuyu of British East Africa, Edward Arnold, London,
1910; Costanzo Cagnolo, The Akikuyu: Their customs, traditions and folklore, Istituto Missioni Consolata,
Torino, Italy, 1933; Harold E. Lambert, Kikuyu Social and Political Institutions, Oxford University Press, 1956;
Robert H. Bates, The Agrarian Origins of Mau Mau: A structural account, Agricultural History, 61(1), Winter
1987; and R.F. Morton, The Structure of East African Age-Set Systems, Pula: Botswana Journal of African
Studies, 1(2), 1979
9
The main subgroups of the Kikuyu tribe are Gaki (Nyeri), Ndia and Gicugu (Kirinyaga), Metumi (Muranga)
and Kabete/Kiambu. Arkell-Hardwick (1903) mentioned the village of Manga, the chief of the Maranga,
whose people had an abundance of food for sale, which was a reference to an area in Muranga near Mbiri
(where Mr. Hall had established a station). See, Arkell-Hardwick, An Ivory Trader in North Kenia: The record

of an expedition through Kikuyu to Galla-Land in East Equatorial Africa with an account of the Rendili and
Burkeneji Tribes, Longmans, Green, and Co., London, 1903. There are competing theories as to the origin of
the name Kiambu, including (a) place of drizzles, (b) a prominent clan known as mbari ya mbuu who used to
live near the present day Kiambu town, and (c) place of screams (mbu). The theory based on weather is
supported by the location of Kiambu town in Kiambaa (place of fog and mist).
45

corruption in the coffee cooperative societies. Other issues include liberalization, farmer apathy,
and neglect of the coffee sub-sector by the Government.
Dairy farming: The community cattle dip is outside the village and unutilized because of
mismanagement of revenue by the provincial administration. Farmers have resorted to spraying
their livestock at their own individual level and cost. The livestock farmer makes an average
monthly income of KShs 2,500 per cow from sale of milk, in addition to home consumption of
milk.
Maize: Mainly hybrid is grown in two seasons exclusively for home consumption. Potatoes
supplement food consumption needs of the family.

Infrastructure
Warugara cannot be accessed using motor vehicles because the bridge on the Mathioya River broke
down several years ago. There is however a bridge under construction approaching from the
Thuruthuru River. Lack of motorized transport creates a problem for the community because they
are unable to transport things such as building materials, coffee and farm inputs.
The Role of the Provincial Administration
There is a village elder who was imposed upon the village and is therefore not recognized by the
people as their village leader. The assistant chief was described as a peacekeeper, facilitates social
development, and is head of government in the sub-location. He has set up a vigilante youth group.
He facilitates land demarcation, setting of boundaries and sharing of land among siblings. He
participates in harambee and at burials. The chief of the area was new.
There are no NGOs in the area.
Community assets

Warugara Primary School is run by a committee made up of 5 District Education Board (DEB)
members and 8 selected by the parents to represent each class (one parent for each class). The
DEB representatives are local elites and are supposed to change after every 8 years, but they have
not changed since 1988. The school is well managed as shown by its excellent performance in the
Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE).

The Nursery School is run and administered by the teacher who collects revenue from the
parents.

Women Groups: There is one registered women group called Kiru Gwaka Women Group with
209 members from Kora and Kaiiro sub-locations. The group has resources including a business
building that they completed in 1988. They last held elections in 1988, but they have continued
to participate and hold harambees especially with politicians. The women groups do not have
laid-down accounting structures although there were no complaints of mismanagement. There
were also several unregistered women groups including lineage groups, which provide social
support to their members who are married in the same family or lineage. Bonding is based on
blood, marriage and place of birth (for women).

46

5.5

IGUHU LOCATION, KAKAMEGA DISTRICT

Iguhu Location is in Idakho South, Ikolomani Division of Kakamega District. The location comprises
of twenty-six (26) villages each headed by a village elder. The area has three assistant chiefs who
report to the chief (the administrative head of the location).
Of the twenty-six village elders invited, only nine (9) attended the forum. The session on leveling
expectations revealed that village elders were not known to respond to invitations unless the
assistant chief personally sent the invitation. All of them except one said they had come to find out
why they had been called. On the development agenda, the village elders were not known to think
beyond their immediate village concerns. Their development agenda includes mobilizing villagers to
clean their drinking water sources, maintaining village access roads, and being available at village
level forums such as land demarcation, school meetings and other development initiatives (such as
women group activities). At the top of the agenda of a village elder was settlement of disputes both
domestic and those originating from external sources. A great deal of time of the village elder is spent
on attending rites of passage e.g. negotiating dowry, being present at village marriage functions, and
facilitating funeral arrangements for the members of the village.
Definition of institution
The village elders defined an institution as a place where people learn something. It also includes a
group of people living together, or fellowshipping together for common objectives e.g. the family,
sub-parish or religious groups, self-help groups (including women and youth groups), village elders
(as part of the institution of government), and development committees (such as PTAs, health
committees, water committees and tea committees).
Functions of local level institutions
The functions of these institutions included facilitating village activities as a way of life such as
working to earn a living, raising children, participating in different village social functions such as
leaders meetings, the religious calendar, weddings and marriage ceremonies, participating in
mourning and burying their dead, participating in sector development activities such as road
maintenance and cleaning of water sources, and ensuring protection of personal rights of the
villagers. Major preoccupation of the village people revolves around basic subsistence and rites of
passage.
Ranking the importance of local level institutions
The village considers religion as a very important component of daily life. Between religion and the
Government, the village sometimes ranks them as equal but with slight variations depending on the
specific issue being addressed. Yet at the same time, this village is not quite sure who the government
is. On reflection based on their development record, they decided to further analyze their priority
institutions. At this point the government dropped out because the villagers realized they were doing
their own development, unless they define the government as they themselves. A deeper analysis
ranked the institution of village elder as the most important followed by women groups,
development committees, and then self-help groups. Groups addressing specific issues such as
services provided by traditional birth attendants were in a category of their own.

47

Leadership relations and accountability mechanisms

Protocol and village governance revolves around the village elder who reports to the assistant chief.
In some cases, there may be a senior elder who acts as the eye of the assistant chief and takes
information to and fro. At the village level, the assistant chief is the most senior administrator who in
turn takes the community issues to the chief. The village elder is expected to do whatever the
assistant chief may assign him and what the village wants. The village elder is supported by a youthwinger who runs errands for him.
Village elders have no job description or terms of reference. They can be appointed by the chief as an
imposition on the village, or selected by the village through a show of hands or the queuing system at
a major village gathering. The 26 village elders of Iguhu are all men. They can keep their position as
long as they want. The community and sometimes the chief are at liberty to get rid of a village elder
if he violates one of the village values. Such dismissal is done in public. The work of the village elder
is voluntary and may from time to time yield some fruits in the form of a chicken, or some meager
financial token as part of some settlement imposed on an offender. This has caused some village
elders to become corrupt. Village elders are a de-motivated group of village leaders, but who are said
to be the cornerstone of village protocol and governance.
The role of the other important local level institutions

The family was regarded as a very important institution whose objective is to sustain the family
lineage. The family contributes to the development of the village.
Religious groups (including Friends African Mission, Catholics and African Independent
churches) play a major role in maintaining morality among members of the village as well as
sponsoring major development activities such as education, health and water.
Women groups interviewed included Shangolole Women Group. They sustain community
welfare and contribute to the economic empowerment of the individual women, their families
and the village at large. Both the leadership and the villagers recognized the work of women
groups.
Self-help groups are a new phenomenon and fairly few in number. They are yet to make an
impact. They have, however, been seen as having a potential for occupying idle time of the
youth.
Development committees are the single most important group that oversees the sectoral affairs of
development in the village. They include health, roads, water, and education committees.
Recently, vigilante groups have been formed to ensure security in the village.
Special interest groups e.g. Shiseno Community Health Group (including TBAs, CBHW and
homecare for people living with HIV/AIDS) are filling up the gap left by government healthcare
delivery system.

How the work of priority local level institutions can be improved

The village elders reckon that their work can be improved if they were treated as part of the central
government and have an employment letter. They also suggested that selection of village elders
should always be done by members of the village. Their work can also be improved if they could
undergo some basic training in management and leadership.
The other priority suggested was awareness raising and capacity building through some external
facilitation to cross-fertilize their efforts in order to bring some change into the community. They
48

observed that there were some NGOs working in parts of these villages. The work of these NGOs
needs to reach every member of their villages for them to feel the impact.
Otherwise, the work of the local level institutions would continue like it always did over the years,
helping villagers just to survive.
5.6

LESSONS LEARNT FROM PARTICIPATORY INSTITUTIONAL ANALYSIS

From the in-depth study of Kenya local level institutions, the following key things emerged:
At the village level, there are institutions which revolve around issues of identity, spiritual
matters, and morality from the traditional and religious perspectives, rites of passage, sector
development issues, protocol and governance issues, and gender issues and power relations
(though silent).
Lineage, blood relations and marriage form a strong base for bonding for both men and women.
The institution of the village elder plays an important role in the village in spite of the aura of
distrust that ails the local administration.
Women groups and the church form the most important structures by providing socio-political
and socioeconomic support for village development dynamics.
Most of the local level institutions function without written accountability mechanisms.
Most local level institutions have existed against a fragile backdrop of apathy and rudimentary
basic survival.
The capacity for local level institutions to scale up or draw-down for effective rural development
have been affected by the ripple effect occasioned by collapse of central government
development machinery.
Individual initiatives by NGOs have yielded some fruit but failed to create community-wide
impact due to limited resources, perception, community expectations, and political manipulation,
among other reasons.
Suggestions from villagers in the three communities indicate that people are suffering from civic
inertia and apathy. The communities were weak in terms of advocacy, and expressed helplessness in
their ability to negotiate their own future. Ravages of HIV/AIDS, diminishing land resource, and
food deficits are major debility factors. Since the central government stopped to exist in terms of
service delivery, the people in these villages have done well through mutual support at their own
level in order to exist till tomorrow.
The question of scaling up or drawing down should come to bear on the shoulders of the village
elder, the church, women groups and the lineage societies. Massive structured capacity building
which takes into account the values of the different groups can cross-fertilize their local initiatives to
bolster appreciation of self and translate available resources into wellbeing.

49

ANNEX 1: TERMS OF REFERENCE

A.
Select diverse provinces/districts of Kenya for participatory action research. Within
these provinces/districts, select communities for participatory action work. Selection of regions
should be based upon achieving the widest diversity possible. Selection of communities should be
based on identifying one that is perceived by district officials to be internally well-organized and a
second that is less so.

B.
Interview either Province or District agencies before going to communities. Select
two communities in the district for further participatory action work.

C.

Undertake two-day participatory analysis with each community

D.

Review results in terms of following:

1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)

E.

Types and categories of LLIs;

Organizations preferred by different groups in the community;
Organizational structures of the LLI and their geographical spread;
Preferred accountability mechanisms;
Internal investment structures;
Internal structures for defining priorities and strategies.

Study Methodology

Analyze the review in terms of the following:

1) Identify key structures and or mechanisms that contribute to the following:
accountability, priorities; and actions carried through; and
2) Indicate similarities and differences among communities and regions on the points
identified above.

50

ANNEX 2: INSTITUTIONS AND PERSONS INTERVIEWED

NO.

REGION
NAIROBI

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16

CONTACT PERSON

INSTITUTION

IDENTITY

David Nalo
Nyambura Githagui
Mohammed Mursal
Aues Scek
Kennedy Alumasa
Christine Kilalo
Monica Mutuku
Gregory Kunusia
Martin Oloo
Haroun Ndubi
Deborah Ongewe
L.O. Obidha
Grace Atieno
George Wainaina
Edwin Wanyonyi
Brenda Rakama

Central Bureau of Statistics

World Bank
Oxfam
GTZ
Pamfork
World Neighbors
KCDF
KCDF
Aga Khan Foundation
Kituo Cha Sheria
NGO Council
Social Policy Unit
Rural Planning Unit
Nairobi Neighborhood
Nairobi Neighborhood
Futures Group

GOK
Donor
NGO
Donor
Network
NGO
Association
Association
NGO
NGO
Council
GOK
GOK
Association
Association
Private

Pamela Midiwo
Elphas Ojiambo
Abdalla Mwazecha
Julius Lewa
Peter Okinda
Kenda Mwenja
Wamachi
J.M. Musau

ACTIONAID
ACTIONAID
LYCODEP
Ilishe
KRSP
KDDP
KDDP
PAMNUP

NGO
NGO
Federation
Trust
NGO
NGO
NGO
NGO

David Amdany
Langat
Ruth Mitei
Jonathan Kimuge
Ambrose
William Keya
Njeri Muhia

District Commissioner, Keiyo District

SARDEP
SARDEP
North Rift Network
TAC: SARDEP
AIC Cheptebo
Catholic Diocese of Nakuru
Egerton University

GOK
GOK?
GOK?
Network
CBO
Church
Church
University

Betty Okello
Hesbon Ouma
Consolata Etyang
Mokaya
Richard Obudho
Joan Oduor
Elizabeth Feilden
Neville Agolo
Catherine Gatama
David Kangethe
Paul Kagutu

Western Network
Kefeado
Akukuranut
District Development Officer
Fish Group
Family Planning Association of Kenya
Amani Development Centre
Amani Development Centre
District Commissioner
CARE-Kenya, Homa Bay
Dak Achana

Network
NGO
Trust
GOK
CBO
NGO
NGO
NGO
GOK
NGO
CBO

COAST
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
RIFT VALLEY
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
WESTERN/
NYANZA
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43

51

44
45

John Odhiambo
John Odawo

Gender Sensitive Initiatives

Gender Sensitive Initiatives

NGO
NGO

Kajumbi Obondo
Esther Muiruri
Evanson Wahihia
Annington Mwangi

District Commissioner, Muranga

Cooperative Officer
Kiawanduma Coffee Cooperative
Iyego Coffee Cooperative

GOK
GOK
Cooperative
Cooperative

Margaret Kabiru
Anne Njenga
Phoebe Makasi
Beatrice Muema

Mwana Mwende Groups

Mwana Mwende Groups
Yatta South Women Group
Yatta South Women Group

CBO
CBO
CBO
CBO

CENTRAL
46
47
48
49
EASTERN
50
51
52
53

52

ANNEX 3: SAMPLE OF INTERVIEWS CONDUCTED BY THE RESEARCH TEAM

Nyambura Githagui, World Bank
The consultant team met with Nyambura Githagui to shed some light on the operations of the World
Bank in Kenya and how these relate with the proposed study on LLIs and PM&E. The issues arising
out of the meeting include:
There is need for the World Bank Economic and Sector Work to reflect on GOK priorities,
especially where the GOK was going to house the PM&E in the implementation of the PRSP.
The Monitoring and Evaluation component in the PRSP document has a top-down character.
There was need to marry the bottoms. The consultant team would need to discuss this further
with GOK. There may also be need to incorporate the provincial planning units in the study.
The LLI debate was a recent one within the Bank spearheaded within the scope of social capital.
Similar studies have been conducted in Burkina Faso, Bolivia and Indonesia10.
Community Driven Development (CDD) is not a formal activity within the Bank except in the
area of management of social funds. The World Bank and governments are normally sensitive
about direct CDD because it bypasses governments.
In Kenya, the World Bank Early Childhood Development (ECD) contracted NGOs on two pilot
activities (health and nutrition, and community grants). Some of them work with DICECE
programme officers in the government structure while others work directly with communitylevel institutions e.g. Madrassa.
The reason for the new focus is nonperformance of governments in poverty eradication. So far,
Kenya has had limited experimentation with social funds. The closest analogue of social funds
using CDD in the Kenya case is the HIV/AIDS project, which will operate at the national,
provincial, district and constituency levels through a Community Initiative Account (CIA)
receiving funds directly at community level. The institutional structure is already in place.
An example of a project that is decentralized to the local level is the Arid and Semi-Arid Lands
(ASAL) project financed partly by the World Bank. The structure of the project has a thin
national secretariat (in the Office of the President) which facilitates flow of funds to the districts,
and a district coordinating committee chaired by the District Commissioner (DC). The project is
being implemented in ten districts where each district makes its district work plan under the
office of the District Coordinator and works with government departments (e.g. veterinary) and
use of pastoralist associations as entry points and implementing agents at community level. The
project involves veterinary pharmacies, boreholes and livestock sale yards (e.g. in Suguta Marmar
on the boundary of Laikipia and Samburu districts).
Teleconference with Paula Donnely-Roark, Social Scientist, World Bank, Washington DC
In Paulas view, the study should focus on activities, not outcomes. The key words should be internal
accountability, transparency and ability to scale up. The consultants interpretation of the TOR was
very comprehensive, but had, however, hit more buttons than could be accommodated in the study.
She emphasized that the aim of the Kenyan study was more to put a toe in the water to test whether
or not one should swim depending on the temperature. The Burkina Faso study had been conducted
over several years by a number of researchers administering both qualitative and quantitative
questionnaires.
10

See, Christiaan Grootaert, Does Social Capital Help the Poor? A synthesis of findings from the local level
institutions studies in Bolivia, Burkina Faso and Indonesia, Local Level Institutions Working Paper No. 10,
World Bank, June 2001
53

The study in Kenya needs to establish whether or not there are structures at the local level and to
understand how these structures are run internally. In addition, it is important to understand how
they relate with outsiders, what responsibilities can be appended to them, and how external agencies
can collaborate with them so as to create an internalization focus for participation and inclusion.
Looking at the Kenyan horizon, disparity in the types and functions of LLIs would pose a challenge
to the consultant team. Although the Kenyan people have recently started to find convergence points
at market places and graves, there exist great disparities between the haves residing in posh areas
(e.g. Karen and Muthaiga) and the have-nots dwelling in adjacent slums. The existing gender gaps
between men and women almost put Kenyan men and women in separate bedrooms starting with
Parliamentary representation, to employment, and to the household. At the local level women are
seen but not heard. How does a consultant reconcile such disparities for purposes of highlighting
high performing LLIs? Even the Burkina Faso study seemed to have suffered in the area of gender
inclusiveness.
In the Kenyan context, it was also explained that Government is often seen as provider and people as
passive recipients. Instead of advocating for their rights, Kenyans continue to create parallel
structures to solve problems.
There is the question of development jargon, strategic plans, benchmarks, sustainability, etc. In the
case of LLIs, is it sustainability to apathy or obscurity?
Grassroots democracy may be a reflection of national democratic governance, accountability and
decision-making, and the power to hire and fire. While it is important to look at the bottom, it is
equally important to go all the way to the highest level to see how the Auditor Generals report on
government finances and expenditure relates to the grassroots. Monitoring and evaluation needs to
be built in as part of the implementation process. Experience in Kenya with PRA methodologies has
shown that even the attempt to be all-inclusive still echoes the voices and thoughts of old men.
Consequently, social organization may be determined by factors quite different from what is
perceived or recorded by researchers.
Based on the findings of the Burkina Faso study, Paula explained that the series of studies are about
community-based and community-driven development. A village project may not involve the whole
village, but could cover several geographical communities. She said that the World Bank does
confuse between local level initiatives with local level government. Rather the focus should be on
those institutions lower than local level government, perhaps the equivalent of a sub-location in the
Kenyan context where you find a community pulling together around a common interest.
Some of the LLIs in the Burkina Faso study did not perform well on measurements. There were
contradictions e.g. although they may decrease inequality, competition would mess up cohesion
among villages. However, internal participation seemed to make a big difference. Whether or not
participation influenced effectiveness and inequality did not come out clearly. It could be a
hypothesis that the Kenyan study could answer. Groups in Burkina Faso were generally organized
around different priorities.
The Kenyan study was expected to prepare a story on potential capacity of LLIs. Some of the
considerations would be looking at the level of success if the government is not accountable or does

54

not provide certain levels of information. There is need for constructive engagement to give
communities room to negotiate their own future.
In Burkina Faso, there seemed to be no correlation between income and apathy, even though apathy
was high. The communities did, however, endure with minimal resources and were really deprived.
There is a real gap in how projects involve local people and vice versa. Individuals committed
themselves as members but thereafter did nothing. The equivalent in the Kenyan context could be
volunteerism because it also increases the level of apathy and poses a threat to sustainability.
David Nalo, Central Bureau of Statistics
David Nalo explained that the Government had found it necessary to request for undertaking of this
study. The GOK was therefore supportive of the study. From the GOK perspective, the study was
crucial because the GOK need to be aware and put in place mechanisms for implementation of the
PRSP, with focus on:
The initial step in M&E is how the budget responds to the PRSP. This was seen as a process that
tracks resources down from national, district to community levels.
Drawing attention of communities of how their needs are reflected in the budgetary process.
In actual M&E, there is need to establish that experience and institutions exist that reflects the
implementation process e.g. whether resources were used to sink boreholes in Kitui.
The capacity to respond or confirm that implementation has taken place.
The priorities in this study and in M&E as a component of PRSP are therefore in the budgetary
process and performance vis--vis targets. It is important to provide meaningful indicators, especially
where the indicators may be moving in different directions e.g. increased provision of books and
other study materials may be accompanied by poor/declining pass rates.
It was also felt that it is crucial to see how civil society organizations tag themselves to the national
vertical administrative structure. There was need to spell out specific M&E activities at the
community level as well.
An analysis of LLIs by themes was seen as important to be able to consider some specific issues such
as marketing boards vis--vis the cooperative movement. It was felt that Kenyans should start seeing
things in the wider context e.g. change in development philosophy on implementation, ownership,
and monitoring. To begin to consider the wider context e.g. at the national level, it is perhaps
important to know how the Auditor Generals reports are acted upon, the annual general meetings
(AGM) in local and national institutions, and annual reports of government and private and public
corporations.
The consultant team felt that it was important that Kenyans should begin to think beyond PRSP as a
budget line and realize the need to change our way of doing business to bring meaningful change in
this country. Given current practice, channeling development through the provincial administration
may be putting the process to severe test. It is widely known that the District Development Officer
(DDO) and District Statistical Officer (DSO) may not necessarily work together even though they are
in the same district and probably within the same office block. The need to institutionalize district
consultative forums to facilitate exchange of ideas could not be overemphasized.
It is important to understand the work of NGOs, and formulation of strategies on how their work can
be scaled up in implementation and M&E of projects at the district and community levels.
55

From the Government perspective, the scope of the study should cover PRSP thematic and priority
areas over a fairly wide geographical spread.
Oxfam, Wajir Project
Oxfam in the Greater Horn of Africa has several components in its program including (a) livelihoods
especially in agriculture and semi-arid (pastoral) areas, (b) urban densities mainly accessibility of
slum children to education and rehabilitation of street children, and (c) national policy and advocacy
work. In pastoral areas (e.g. Wajir and Turkana), the program also includes relief work. The program
works through local partners rather than Oxfam representative offices.
In Wajir, the program started in 1984 but took 10 years to address pastoral issues effectively when it
launched a serious program to show that there is hope beyond the tarmac (meaning beyond Isiolo).
The program assisted in formation of local institutions (pastoral associations) that have federated to
the district level, empowerment of local communities, and influencing government structures to
participate in addressing local priorities using participatory approaches. The pastoral federation and
lower level pastoral associations have inbuilt structures with capacities for monitoring and
evaluation.
The community challenges include water for domestic and livestock use, lack of access to potential
export markets for livestock and livestock products (e.g. the European Union and the Emirates),
animal diseases, poor infrastructure, and appreciation by other Kenyans of pastoralism as a way of
life. Oxfam participated in the pastoralist thematic group under the PRSP.
GTZ Treasury Office
GTZ is a bilateral donor assisting the government to promote community participation in district
planning in selected districts (Samburu, Mwingi, Marsabit, Trans Mara, Lamu and Kilifi). In Kilifi,
GTZ supports Government efforts through the Kilifi District Development Program (KDDP). Among
the lessons learnt from the initiatives is that scaling up that includes community participation brings
success and local ownership of development activities.
Some of the constraints to development include attitudes toward external support as using donor
money rather than misusing peoples money, suspicious relationships between the Government and
NGOs, and negative attitudes of politicians on community participation. The PRSP process is still
perceived as top-down, with limited involvement of the local people. The major limitation of
bilateral activities is that only communities or the Government can scale up, and not the external
agency.
Participatory Methodologies Forum of Kenya
Participatory Methodologies Forum of Kenya (Pamfork) is a thematic network of the NGO Council,
which was started in 1994 to promote or mainstream participatory approaches to development
through capacity building. Pamfork has undertaken capacity building for members in the areas of
participatory monitoring and evaluation, advocacy for participatory development, and
documentation of methodologies, among other initiatives.

56

Local membership includes NGOs using and promoting participatory approaches, academic and
research institutions, government departments, and individuals. It also has links with the Institute of
Development Studies (IDS), UK, and is a member of an international network on participatory
learning for action. Pamfork is governed by regulations of the NGO Council through an elected
Board and a steering committee.
The challenges facing Pamfork include donor dependency that threatens sustainability, shifting
membership needs, and identity and image problem. Pamfork was co-consultant with the African
Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF) in participatory poverty assessments (PPAs) undertaken
in year 2001 in ten districts to deepen the PRSP process.
World Neighbors, Nairobi
World Neighbors is a northern NGO which sought independent registration in Kenya in 1983.
Individual donors and relief and charitable contributors from the USA mainly fund it. The
organization addresses integrated community needs in the larger community units, mainly sublocations. It has assisted in setting up village councils to bridge gaps of link-up with villages. Initially,
the program worked with traditional women groups, but identified that there was need to integrate
men in community development activities. Since contiguous communities may be struggling with
common problems, communities formed umbrella organizations at sub-location level which later
evolved into trusts in both Teso (Akukuranut Development Trust) and in Taita Taveta.
World Neighbors undertakes capacity building. Some of the challenges include instances of
institutionalized corruption down to CBO level, phase-out issues that can be affected by community
expectations of possible entry of another NGO to take over the activities, weak institutionalization of
PM&E processes, and peoples perception of the local provincial administration.
The local partners of World Neighbors participated in PRSP consultations at the district level, which
was viewed as too short.
Kenya Community Development Foundation
The Kenya Community Development Foundation (KCDF) is a grant-making organization that builds
assets through building endowment funds for use in building local governance structures. It
undertakes comprehensive capacity assessments on institutional, financial, and governance structures
and helps to put these structures in place e.g. development of management boards, participatory
monitoring and evaluation, financial management, and project design.
Capacity building involves social capital in the sense of creating the culture of an organization that
mainstreams good governance in its routine operations. This includes evolution of policy,
accountability in the use of resources at their disposal, transition mechanisms for the leadership of an
organization, gender balance in terms of men and women (and the quality of that gender balance),
and modulating the softest and the loudest voices in an organization.
KCDF as a local grant-making organization finds its credibility questioned alongside other local
organizations because of the way Kenyans do business. Due to such biases, KCDF is yet to pass the
acid test to qualify as custodian of large funds in trust for the Kenyan communities. Its focus on
perfecting internal governance structures of its partners also raises suspicion from partner CBOs
especially those with direct links to donors. Promotion of community empowerment also pits the
57

organization against local politicians. Phase-out and sustainability issues are also major challenges for
community-based organizations.
Although bilateral and multilateral donors are not convinced that there are local organizations that
can undertake building of social capital, KCDF is emerging as a potential role model as custodian of
peoples resources. Donors continue to rely on expensive private consulting firms as financial
management agencies (FMA) for administering community funds.
The Aga Khan Foundation, Nairobi
The Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) is an international donor working with various communities in
Kenya. On the ground, it involves building community institutions at the local level e.g. villages and
women groups to address their own problems as an interface with the people. AKF facilitates
clustering of village development organizations on specific issues such as land tenure by training the
LLIs in leadership and financial management. Interventions at this level have led to emergence of
federations at the local level.
At another level, AKF engages Government in participatory planning for poverty reduction e.g.
disaggregation of the national budget to the district level. AKF also conducts research and is
currently studying the non-profit sector in East Africa in collaboration with Uganda and Tanzania.
AKF works with the government either directly or through co-opting government extension officers
in its activities at the community level.
Although AKF uses participatory methodologies in designing and implementing community
initiatives, M&E is not structured in the way PM&E is understood, but instead uses PRA to identify,
map and prioritize community issues, including the magnitude of the problem (e.g. the number of
the poor and their socioeconomic characteristics). AKF feels that there is need for broader
participation in M&E beyond CBS, and a long term legal framework to avoid involvement of civil
society only in preparing the PRSP rather than in its implementation.
Kituo Cha Sheria
Kituo Cha Sheria (KCS) was started in 1973. Some members of the legal profession, among them Sir
Humphrey Slade (former Speaker of the National Assembly) started KCS. The institution was started
because there was need for legal services for those who could not afford. With time, the organization
realized that there is direct link between poverty and empowerment and the need for legal services.
Before long, demand for services from KCS far outstripped the ability of the organization to manage.
The use of trained paralegals did not ameliorate the problem due to their lack of focus on governance
issues and their tendency to identify themselves with KCS rather than the communities they were
serving. KCS has continued to build capacity for people in selected geographical areas on their rights
e.g. land issues at the Coast.
Kituo has a board that plans its program and staff who implement the program. Some of the
challenges Kituo faces include hostility from politicians, its identity and role, diversity in
communities it works with in terms of values and practices (hence lack of replicability of experiences
from, say, Mombasa to Korogocho slums in Nairobi), vulnerability at local levels due to interference
from politicians, and the way civil society does business. On the latter, KCS feels that the community
should propel the lites, and the civil society must work itself to irrelevance.
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There was a feeling that the preparation of the PRSP was not consultative enough in terms of the
type of communication and the manner it was conducted. In addition, the link between the PRSP
and MTEF is not quite clear, the process of consultation has not been internalized by the state itself,
there is a culture of fear of the provincial administration, and M&E is yet to be viewed as
institutionalized aspects of project implementation rather than an instrument for reporting to donors
and other agencies external to the communities.
National Council of Nongovernmental Organizations (NGO Council)
The NGO Council is an umbrella of all NGOs and has regional and thematic networks covering
almost the whole country. It was established by an Act of Parliament in 1990. The Council has an
Executive Committee elected by a General Assembly to serve for a two-year term, a Regulatory
Committee, a Board of Trustees, two sub-networks, and a Secretariat headed by the Chief Executive.
The Council regulates, harmonizes and monitors the work of member organizations.
Some of the challenges facing the Council are the diversity of its membership, the political
environment and hostility mostly from politicians and the Government, sustainability due to
dependency on donor funding, and the magnitude of the responsibilities it has to carry.
The Council participated in the PRSP through its membership and sits on the inner circle of the
PRSP Secretariat as a strategic partner in poverty reduction. One of the concerns the Council has
over PRSP is in the area of M&E because a district has no shape. A province is even worse. In
addition, the concept and practices of M&E have to be thought through, as the chiefs baraza, by its
own history, is not held for monitoring. Heterogeneity even at the district level will be a major
challenge. M&E does not also mean monitoring government but the activities of all stakeholders.
Social Policy Unit, Human Resources and Social Services Department, Ministry of Finance and
Planning
The main agenda of the Social Policy Unit is poverty analysis using data collected by the Central
Bureau of Statistics. The Unit has provided inputs into the PRSP and the Poverty Eradication
Commission (PEC), including empirical criteria for resource allocation. Reports on poverty prepared
by the Unit are disseminated to the districts.
Some of the concerns expressed were whether the PRSP will be disseminated to communities and
whether it was going to create an impact other than simply raising community expectations. The
other challenge is the harmonization of past and ongoing efforts of the PEC with those of the PRSP.
Rural Planning Unit, Ministry of Finance and Planning
Traditionally, the framework for rural planning has been from the top but with inputs from various
ministries as a government-driven process. The PRSP has now introduced the concept of community
consultation in setting priorities. The Unit was for some reasons bypassed in the preparation of the
public investment program (PIP), MTEF and PRSP, and the District Development Officers were
therefore directly involved at the district level without the active participation of their parent
department (Rural Planning Unit).

59

Although there is need for decentralized planning and budgetary processes, it would be prudent for
the PRSP secretariat to handle national matters, while the Rural Planning Unit handles matters at
the district level. Over the years, efforts have been made by the Unit to strengthen district planning
through various projects and participating institutions e.g. the Harvard Group, the EEC and IFAD.
However, all these projects have closed.
The Unit faces challenge of lack of adequate resources including finances and personnel. This has
created gaps e.g. the infrastructure inventory is comatose. The district focus process goes only up to
district level. As a result, people do not identify with government plans. In addition, headquarters of
government ministries do not send district ceilings, and a district budget proposal is often a gamble.
ACTIONAID Kenya, Coast Region
The mission of ACTIONAID-Kenya (AAK) is poverty reduction through understanding the
community and working through them to change their livelihoods. The main activities are capacity
building, policy, and advocacy with partner institutions.
After normal protocol with community leaders at project entry, ACTIONAID-Kenya uses PRA/PUA
with communities to build capacity in leadership, bookkeeping, proposal writing, microenterprise
development, vocational training, counseling skills, community health, and community-based
planning. The preparation of annual reports has shifted from traditional documentation by AAK staff
to a process of reflection with participating communities.
Challenges facing development agents in the region are the contradiction between the wealth of the
region and poverty of its people e.g. on secure access to land. The Coast region, for example,
contributes an estimated 60% of tourist revenue, 20 nautical miles rich in fish, the port of Mombasa
as a gateway and lifeblood of the East African hinterland, and about 10% of the worlds known
deposits of titanium. There has also been deliberate and systematic collapse of the economic base e.g.
cashew nuts, bixa, and now tourism.
The communities that ACTIONAID works with participated in the district PRSP consultations, and
are awaiting feedback on funding and changes in the policy framework. There is no clarity that
district forums will get money for the priorities they identified. ACTIONAID-Kenya will need to
train partner CBOs on the contents of the PRSP to enable them to participate in its implementation,
monitoring and evaluation.
Likoni Youth Counseling and Development Programme
The history of Likoni Youth Counseling and Development Programme (LYCODEP) can be traced
back to 1992 with formation of one group. The group was concerned about continued lack of proper
understanding between youth and the government which led some youth to be thrown into jail for
drug abuse while others took off as stowaways on ships. In 1984, 11 stowaways were thrown into the
sea.
After witnessing stories of success, more groups were formed all over Likoni, including one for girls
who were victims of early pregnancy. These groups federated to Likoni Youth Counseling and
Development Programme as an umbrella organization. LYCODEP is mainly concerned with capacity
building for self reliance in (a) rights and advocacy to identify, demand, receive and utilize their

60

basic rights e.g. land, education, employment and health, (b) education especially access and
retention, and (c) enterprise development for poverty reduction.
Major challenges include government attitudes toward youth, politics, land tenure, HIV/AIDS, lack
of access to education, lack of equipment for fishing and agriculture, volunteerism, lack of viable
economic activities for the member groups and the interim LYCODEP leaders, and lack of
maintenance of cultural values among the youth. LYCODEP will be run by an executive committee
that will be elected by the Annual General Assembly. It is registered as a welfare group under the
Department of Social Services.
Ilimu na Sheria (Ilishe), Mombasa
Ilishe is an umbrella organization of 38 groups, mainly women and youth. Ilishe was started in
Mombasa in April 1993 with the help of Kituo Cha Sheria initially to deal with issues on land rights
in Likoni. As people became more aware of their rights, KCS was challenged to come up with a more
innovate programme to include management of group resources, i.e. capacity building in areas of
governance and management of groups.
In 1998, Ilishe gained an independent identity from KCS when it was registered as a trust. Ilishe
introduced land and shelter, savings and credit, and education and training in its program. The main
focus of the primary groups is economic viability of their members.
Ilishe has also received support for capacity building from KCDF, while AKF plans to implement its
Early Childhood Program in the area through Ilishe. The successes of Ilishe are rooted in their
commitment to fight for the rights of their members, retention of an independent identity from
those of its sponsors, membership of groups whose internal activities are independent of Ilishe, and
emphasis on participatory training of members rather than action through selected leaders. The
institution covers Mombasa and some parts of Kilifi, Malindi and Kwale districts. Their major
challenge is divergence of views with donors on how Ilishe should be run. Ilishe did not participate
in the PRSP consultations.
Kwale Rural Support Programme
The Kwale Rural Support Programme (KRSP) was born out of an AKFs primary healthcare program
(PHC), which later capitalized on the gains of PHC to support a livelihoods program (including water
and food security). KRSP was born in 1997 with the broad goal of equitable livelihoods among the
poor in Samburu division, Kwale district. The purpose of the program was establishment of viable
village level institutions for the livelihoods project. The components of the program include (a)
community organization, (b) productive physical infrastructure and support for production activities,
(c) community-level savings, (d) technical support to livelihoods initiatives, and (e) human resource
development by training of para-professionals in priority areas.
KRSP applies participatory methodologies with village development organizations (VDO) as entry
units. This level scales up into village development committees (VDC) at the sub-location level
which then come together into a supra organization. The role of KRSP is to facilitate sensitization on
power relations among various committees that report to the VDC (the highest level of these
community structures). The supra structures which reach only the sub-location level are not
answerable to the provincial administration. They, however, hold monthly meetings in which the
area chief is free to attend and follow up on issues that may seem important to the provincial
61

administration. Since the VDO structure seems to be filling up a void at the lower level of
government, it has stirred the government structure at the local level. The second phase of the
project will address policy and advocacy for effective representation in government organs.
Unfortunately government is retrenching its extension officers.
KRSP is involved in capacity building of the VDO members to take up the multiplicity of community
priorities that they face. The project is scheduled to have a lifespan of ten years. The issues KRSP is
grappling with include food poverty, a national culture of corruption, parallel government structures,
sustainability of the local level institutions, absence of government extension, female participation in
a patriarchal society, and water stress.
PRSP was treated as a private meeting. Some NGOs participated although they had not been invited.
Kilifi District Development Programme
The Kilifi District Development Programme (KDDP) was started in 1994 as a multi-sectoral, districtbased rural development program supported by the Governments of Kenya and Germany. The
program focuses on building capacities of communities and service providers in Kilifi district with
the aim of contributing to poverty reduction and testing a model of district-level planning that
involves active participation of beneficiaries over the entire project cycle.
The basis of development support is the village as a traditional community where people are known
and can be identified by the village name regardless of administrative boundaries. The villagers
organize themselves into village development committees (VDC) which federate to work with
government structures. The composition of elected members is gender and age-inclusive to ensure
equity. Currently, the program is working with 100 communities.
The program links with other development initiatives and donors e.g. PEC and the European Union.
Resource mobilization for implementing activities includes community contribution in the form of
finance, labor and materials.
The program is facing great challenges, including a top-down government structure, failure of
government to match GTZ contributions as per agreement, resistance from the provincial
administration and politicians, and inadequate community contributions. Decision-making is
community-level based, but peoples decisions on how the DDC should be run were turned down.
KDDP and its partners participated in the PRSP consultations. The district was divided into zones,
and each zone had working groups that prepared zonal reports that were presented for consideration
at the district forum. Although people voiced their concerns, decision-making is still centralized at
the national level. There was a feeling that the PRSP process was a donor-driven initiative. However,
the PRSP process was good and should be adopted for decentralization of national planning and
budgetary systems. It will have served its purpose if it changes the planning and budgetary processes,
otherwise it will not be different from the prevailing practice where government decentralized
nationally but built a national structure at the district level.
Partnership Approaches to Meeting the Needs of the Urban Poor (PAMNUP)
In 1996 the UK Department for International Development (DfID) decided to start an urban program
to meet the needs of the urban poor in the towns of Mombasa, Kisumu and Meru. Mombasa was
62

selected as a torchbearer to gain experience in partnership approaches to meeting the needs of the
urban poor. Jamvi la Wageni (Likoni) was selected as a pilot site.
The approach was institutional framework building within boundaries of the operations of the
municipal council, which is why the program operates from the Municipal Council offices. The
program created three organizational levels, namely:
(a)

A steering committee that included chief officers from all the departments of the Council,
some NGOs (including ACTIONAID-Kenya), the NGO forum, the DDO representing central
Government, the private sector, and two community representatives;

(b)

Coordination committee from the Municipal Council technical departments, NGOs and
community small traders; and

(c)

Settlement team comprising of four NGOs (FPAK, Muslim Education and Welfare
Association, APDK, Safe World and PAMNUP) to work with the community to evolve an
effective institutional framework that works with people within the 8 villages that make up
the settlement.

The program provides intensive capacity building on PUA for selected leaders. This is followed by
community action plans from the ground, which is then consolidated by various thematic areas e.g.
environmental sanitation, water, small-scale enterprises, education, and health. Prioritization of
community needs will be over in November 2001, which will be followed by decisions on whether
to change the approach and whether to move to the other four settlements in the project plan.
PAMNUP is undertaking a profile of ward-level services currently available from various providers
(e.g. municipal council, central government), which will be used in the preparation of a service
delivery plan. The implementation of a pro-poor service delivery plan might lead to shift of DfID
resources from the other four settlements to the municipal council.
Some of the key challenges for the program include a dual system of central and local governments
(as Mombasa is both a municipality and a district), the internal nature of local authority committees
that do not have space for outsiders, and lack of a service delivery plan for funds from the
municipals internal resources and transfers from the central government. The bigger challenge is
how to create space for meaningful dialogue, and decentralization of government to local authority
governance.
The PRSP came all of a sudden, bringing with it the challenge of having to consider Mombasa
district as a whole (the 55 informal settlements) which is way beyond the thinking of the program.
The ongoing local government reform commission should have been tied to the PRSP as a vehicle for
local community participation, transfer of resources from the central government to the local
authorities, service delivery at the lower levels, and more involvement of local authorities in service
delivery.
District Commissioner, Keiyo District
Keiyo district falls within three ecological zones: the highlands with pockets of poverty, escarpment,
and Kerio Valley which is the poorest due to climatic conditions. The use of PRAs has helped the
community to evaluate why they are poor even in areas endowed with good climatic conditions and
good soils. Peoples attitudes have also changed from dependency on government and external
63

agencies to more proactive initiatives in development. People are growing and marketing their crops,
and more generally taking control and ownership of community projects. They contribute to local
resource mobilization for local projects.
Challenges facing the community include isolated cases of drunkenness, poor self-image by some
people because of poverty (e.g. lack of livestock), and cattle rustling (which is going down due to
government and community efforts). Some NGOs in the area have reported much impact and
community participation, while others are involved in locally controversial issues e.g. female genital
mutilation as an aspect of human rights. The communities in Keiyo district had a wonderful time
listening to participants in PRSP at the local level.
Semi-Arid Lands Development Project
The Semi-Arid Lands Development Project (SARDEP) grew out of a Dutch-supported ASAL project
which did not register much impact on the ground. The management of the activities undertaken
under the ASAL project changed when SARDEP was created in 1998. The oversight role for the
project is provided by SNV Netherlands Development Organization in Nairobi rather than directly
from the Netherlands embassy. The objective of the program is sustained poverty reduction with
sustainable resource management and gender balance, and covers Keiyo district and parts of
Marakwet district.
SARDEP uses participatory methodologies based on demarcation of the project areas into sections
called transects, with each transect running from the highlands, through the escarpment to the
valley. Altogether there are 14 transects but with concentration of activities on 8 of them. The
selection of the coverage of a transect is based on (a) drainage, i.e. people sharing a water source that
drains towards Kerio Valley, and (b) common administrative boundaries. A transect is governed by a
Transect Area Committee (TAC). At the lower level are project groups (about 110 this year), each
with a Project Management Committee (PMC). A TAC is the immediate contact between
community groups and SARDEP.
Activities of SARDEP in community-based natural resource management include raising awareness,
resource mapping, information sharing, and land use planning. SARDEP funds community-managed
projects (based on proposals from potential beneficiaries) and supply-led activities in skills and
capacity building. Some of the CBOs that SARDEP supports include the Emkong Water Project,
Midiliwo Zero Grazing (on dairy farming, processing and marketing), Koikee Food Security Group,
Emkon Water Project, and the Africa Inland Church Cheptebo Rural Development Project. The
main challenges include encroachment on forests, environmental degradation due to migration,
insecurity, and sustainability (due to poverty).
Catholic Diocese of Nakuru
The Nakuru Diocesan agricultural program started in 1985 as a relief program in response to the 1984
drought, but later shifted to rehabilitation. Its 1993 evaluation report commended the success of the
project in both relief and rehabilitation, but recommended a shift more towards sustainable
development. The new program was started in 1995 with support mostly from Germany. The
programme has 7 field officers with the eighth acting as coordinator. At the community level, there
are 45 volunteer community animators selected by the community and trained by the program.
Volunteers receive a token monthly stipend for their services. The program also has other resources
(e.g. 3 vehicles and 45 bicycles) for facilitating the program work. Although the diocese split into two
64

dioceses (Kericho and Nakuru) covering Nakuru, Baringo, Koibatek, Kericho, Bomet and Buret
districts, the Agriculture and Rural Development Program (ARDP) covers the two dioceses.
The program also runs a savings and credit scheme - the Agriculture and Rural Development Savings
and Credit (ARDESC) - as an institution of farmers. The main objectives of ARDP are (a) to train,
educate and empower groups, (b) food security with a focus on crops and livestock, (c) provision of
credit for agricultural development, (d) promotion of the credit program (ARDESC), and (e)
environmental reconstruction. Capacity building focuses on human resource development, social
capital (for groups and networks), procuring and managing financial resources, and natural resource
management.
The program collaborates with government at scheme, district and provincial levels. The ARDP
program has a board of 13, equally distributed between farmers representatives, the two dioceses,
and other programs of the dioceses (including two professionals).
The communities working with the program have been asking the ARDP management about PRSP
and whether ARDP can be used as a local agent for poverty reduction. They have not adequately
answered the questions. They are waiting to see whether ARDP will qualify as an implementing and
monitoring unit to reach its constituent farmers.
Egerton University, PRA Department
The PRA department was instituted in 1990 and has been undertaking training in PRA
methodologies to training institutes, research institutions, ordinary community members, GOK/NGO
extension staff, and UN agency staff. The training attracts participants from other countries including
Uganda, UK and USA. It partners with Clark University in USA.
The department has published PRA training manuals, documents PRA methodologies, and
undertakes community appraisals of LLIs like Pwani (on the shores of Lake Nakuru) and Gilgil. It has
consequently linked these LLIs to organizations such as the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) and the
Catholic Diocese of Nakuru. It has assisted in the formation of other LLIs in Muranga and Maragwa
districts in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture.
Akukuranut Development Trust
Akukuranut Development Trust (ADT) is an umbrella organization of groups (mostly women groups)
whose objective is enhancement of food security at the family level. In Ateso, the language of the
Iteso people, akukuranut means effort or struggle for a better tomorrow. The organization traces its
origins to the efforts of a young man from the area who was growing vegetables but volunteered
himself to assist other vegetable farmers to improve crop husbandry. The Young Mens Christian
Association (YMCA) later assisted the young man (who is currently a member of staff of ADT) to
assist YMCA groups on the same. The groups increased over time to about 60 groups. The objective
later expanded to encompass wider food security issues (and not only vegetable farming).
The ministry of agriculture assisted the groups with training. They were registered as a welfare group
under the Department of Social Services, but extension staffs from the Department were interfering
with the smooth running of the organization. Consequently, they registered as a trust in 1999 with
logistical and financial support from World Neighbors. The organizational structure consists of (a)
members as supreme authority, (b) Board of trustees (with categories of founder members and co65

opted members), (c) seven thematic subcommittees, and (d) a lean management unit. There are 13
fully registered groups, and 64 associate member groups for only savings and credit (who are not
members of the trust).
The activities of the Akukuranut include a grain/cereal store, and sweet potato vine planting
materials. Member groups are involved in different activities e.g. merry-go-rounds, brick making,
beekeeping, dairy farming, pottery, fish farming and horticulture. The organization collaborates with
other institutions and government.
Key challenges for ADT include male idleness, drunkenness, female illiteracy, inferior position of
women and the girl child, and dependency on donors. ADT participated in PRSP consultations as
World Neighbors was in charge of the budget on behalf of the whole district. ADT was committed to
the PRSP process and delivered according to expectations, including properly accounting for the
money. ADT described itself as a credible, little organization.
District Development Officer, Kisumu
Kisumu District has many resources including fish from Lake Victoria, many NGOs, and a fairly
acceptable infrastructure (by Kenyan standards). The NGOs were, however, concentrated in a few
areas (mainly in Winam), while most were said to be contributing little to development of the area.
Some NGOs that claim to be operating in the district could not even be traced in spite of the fact that
they receive funding for local projects. The NGO Western Network was taking an inventory of the
NGOs and CBOs operating in the region to establish how they can be strengthened for the benefit of
the communities.
The District participated in the PRSP consultations. Mobilization was done at short notice and the
one-day allocated was not enough to exhaust the issues. It was observed that the district was already
behind schedule in preparation of the seven-year district plan. It is expected that the district plan
will directly respond to the issues raised in the district PRSP, although guidelines for the preparation
of the Plan had not been received from the Ministrys headquarters.
The preparation of the district plan will use a consultative process. Thematic groups have been
organized in line with PRSP priority sectors, and each thematic group will incorporate relevant
organizations of the civil society.
Kisumu Town Youth Fish Group
Kisumu Town Youth Fish Group was started in 1985 by Catholic missionaries to encourage youth
participation in the affairs of the church and in other social issues. It started with 8 groups in Kisumu
which have now grown to 25.
The activities are mostly social (e.g. sports and drama), educational (leadership, behavioral change
process, drug abuse and gender awareness) and spiritual activities (a doctrine course). The structure
of the organization consists of members who elect their representative to the parish, and the parish
elects representative to the Leaders Assembly (the decision-making body).
The major challenges include HIV/AIDS which has claimed a few of their colleagues, youth mobility
for work elsewhere, and lack of funds. They have participated in raising awareness on HIV/AIDS
mainly with support of ACTIONAID-Kenya. They participated in the PRSP consultation process.
66

PRSP is on how poverty can be reduced. The PRSP consultation process was more of training rather
than active participation, as questions were asked and two people responded.
Amani Christian Community Development Project
Amani Christian Community Development Project in Oyugis was started in 1985 by a missionary
(Elizabeth Feilden) to train farmers on bio-intensive agriculture and later on included HIV/AIDS and
income generation. The project has expanded into other activities including running a guesthouse
and conference center, a nursery school, technical training workshops, skills training for orphaned
boys and girls, demonstration plot for agriculture, and a youth programme called JAM FACTORY
(Jesus and Me, Faith As Children To Obtain Righteous Youth).
The project is currently working with 160 groups and has 25 members (including extension
workers). The organization falls under the Anglican Church of Kenya (ACK), but the project enjoys
autonomy from the Church. There is a board of trustees, a management committee, a coordinator,
manager and departmental heads. The organization connects with the community through the
management committee and departmental heads. The project tries to be gender-sensitive but does
not always succeed since the groups they work with will rarely elect a woman into a position of
leadership.
The major challenges facing the project include high expectations, lack of infrastructure (e.g.
electricity and water), impact of HIV/AIDS which has outstripped gains made in the area, cultural
practices and attitudes, corruption, political interference, the scope of work, and issues of
sustainability due to dependency on donors.
Amani participated in the PRSP consultations, but feels that one day was not enough. Amani could
have a role to play in the implementation of the PRSP as its recommendations tallied with the vision
of the institution.
District Commissioner, Rachuonyo District
Rachuonyo is a new District recently carved out of Homa Bay District. The district has poor
infrastructure e.g. water and electricity. The district is said to be politically calm and currently
concerned more on development, although culture adversely affects production. The district lacks
storage facilities for fish and parts of the district could thrive on irrigation. People do not give
sufficient attention to environmental issues e.g. tree planting.
The district is endowed with absentee university professors and other professionals from the area
who prefer to live in Nairobi. However, the professionals recently formed three associations from
each of the areas (Karachuonyo, Kasipul and Kabondo) to deal with issues of poverty and education
in the community.
There are many NGOs in the community but nobody knows what they are doing. Those who are
doing something have limited themselves to small geographical areas. The NGOs are encouraged to
promote a spirit of partnership and transparency.

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CARE-Kenya, Homa Bay

CARE-Kenya in Homa Bay district implemented agro-forestry and water and sanitation in different
locations. The program plans to work in a few geographical areas with more than one project (e.g.
agriculture, water and sanitation in the same location) to obtain synergy through partnerships with
the communities and other development agencies.
A rapid assessment undertaken in 1996 identified the priority problems to include food security,
water and sanitation, lack of farm inputs, and HIV/AIDS. On the basis of these findings, CAREKenya initiated the Dak Achana Project that only focused on agriculture and water and sanitation
due to limited funding. In agriculture, the program involves agricultural extension on modern
farming methods, adaptive research through women groups (e.g. testing seed varieties, pest
management, and pest management plants), and institutional capacity building. The use of adaptive
research by farmers and community involvement through farm visits and regular review meetings is
more effective than the traditional training and visit system as it assists in internalization of
research findings. In water and sanitation, the activities include safe drinking water, household
hygiene, and hygiene education.
At the community level, the structure has a village management committee, sub-location
management committee and location development committee (which is a subcommittee of the
location development committee headed by the area chief). Among the projects sites of CARE is
Lambwe Valley where PRAs have been conducted and the use of chlorinated water is being tested
and researched with the technical support of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The
community undertakes participatory monitoring and evaluation at all levels as part of the normal
project implementation process.
Gender Sensitive Initiatives, Central Management Committee, Oyugis
The vision of Gender Sensitive Initiatives (GSI) is sustainable communities of value with in-built
gender equity. In Oyugis, GSI conducted capacity building for people empowerment using
participatory evaluation process (PEP) starting from 1992. The community appointed representatives
to spearhead the development process based on their priority problems which included poverty,
famine, transport and communications (roads and others), water and health. There are altogether 144
committee members throughout Kasipul and Kabondo divisions. The Central Management
Committee (CMC), the structure responsible for planning and overseeing implementation, is drawn
from among the 144 members and has 48 members representing 12 locations (4x12). There is a
technical staff of 6 that helps the CMC to coordinate activities and sends monthly reports to the
Central Office in Nairobi.
The CMC and the technical staff have a strategic plan with activities drawn from the priorities
generated by the communities. Activities are mostly capacity building, production, advocacy and
policy. Participation and gender mainstreaming are the key tools in poverty analysis, planning,
implementation, monitoring and evaluation. The activities address multi-sectoral needs of the
community including womens participation in leadership.
Challenges for the CMC and GSI are mostly on the scope of the project, limited financial resources
due to donor dependency, and impact of HIV/AIDS. CMC participated in the PRSP consultations and
are waiting for feedback so as to assist in its implementation at the local level.

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Futures Group, Hapac Project

Futures Group is a consultancy firm contracted to channel funds from DfID to partners who include
NGOs and CBOS at the grassroots level. Futures Group screens proposals from partner CBOs mainly
in the area of HIV/AIDS and recommends them for funding. HIV/AIDS Prevention and Care
(HAPAC) concentrates on Nyanza and is currently working with 11 NGOs, Centre for British
teachers in Bondo, Kenya Association of Professional Counselors, and Catholic Relief Services in
Homa Bay, among others. Components of the HAPAC programme include education, care and
support, and behavioral change. The activities of the partner CBOs are monitored through the
Ministry of Healths provincial and district structures.
HIV/AIDS need to be controlled; otherwise HIV/AIDS is moving people to destitution while more
are being infected. HIV/AIDS has brought in many dimensions to the development process. It is
targeting the most productive members of the society and also affects caregivers of the ailing
relatives. It brings with it widowhood and orphans. It is important to consider wider development
issues including ways of generating income, raising peoples consciousness, and alleviating suffering
within families through food, school uniforms and other services.
Family Planning Association of Kenya, Kisumu
Some of the services provided include family planning methods, pap-smear, maternal child health
(MCH), management of STI/counselling services for STI/HIV, laboratory services, curative services,
pharmacy, male circumcision (but discourage female circumcision), post-abortal services, adolescent
sexual and reproductive health, and voluntary counselling in testing for HIV.
The national executive committee comprises of policy volunteers. The Kisumu office runs FPAK
activities in Nyanza and Western provinces, Turkana, Samburu, Trans-Mara and Eldoret. FPAK
activities in the region have had various sponsors who include Family Health International, UNFPA,
Futures group (the HAPAC project in Nyando and Bondo districts), the European Union, USAID,
and DfID. FPAK is a 40-year old organisation started by two Kenyan doctors (Samson Mwathi and
Meshack Ndisi) who had a vision for this nation11. The International Planned Parenthood Federation
(IPPF) has been the main sponsor.
The organisational structure comprises the volunteer structure (which has national chairman and
general secretary/treasurer), regions, districts and divisions. There is a committee at every level, and
elections start from the bottom upwards. At the grassroots level are volunteers at village level.
Division representatives elect chairmen of districts/secretariat through the delegates system.
FPAK supplements government efforts, and sometimes gets contraceptives and equipment from
government stores. FPAK works closely with the National Council for Population and Development
(NCPD). FPAK played a big role in the creation of NCPD.

11

Also mentioned in: Susan Cotts Watkins, Local and Foreign Models of Reproduction in Nyanza Province,
Kenya, Population and Development Review, 26(4), December 2000; and Susan Cotts Watkins and Dennis
Hodgson, From Mercantilists to Neo-Malthusians: The international population movement and the
transformation of population ideology in Kenya, September 1999
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Western Kenya NGO Network

The Western Kenya NGO Network is one of the regional networks of the NGO Council. The
network was started by 6 organizations in Kisumu (ACTIONAID-Kenya, CARE, ITDG, Africa Now,
Kefeado and Osienala) in 1998. The first workshop held the same year and funded by AAK discussed
organizational structure, management, and issues to be addressed in the region (Nyanza and Western
provinces). A preliminary mapping of NGOs and CBOs was undertaken.
The Network has established good working relations with government structures and sits in most
government development meetings. The network and its members participated in planning an
inclusive process for district PRSP, and the actual consultations at the district level. A civil society
representative from the PRSP Secretariat was called upon to explain the PRSP to the participants.
The PRSP process has created an entry point to lobby for governance and strengthening networking
in the region. Some of the challenges include (a) lack of finance and personnel (one person covers 25
districts), (b) weak civil society networks at the district level, (c) inadequate information on the
number and activities of NGOs and CBOs operating in the area, and (d) lack of a well-defined
relationship with the NGO Council vis--vis the NGOs supporting the network at the regional level.
Muranga District Commissioner, Kiawanduma Coffee Cooperative Society, Iyego Coffee Cooperative
Society
The story of coffee is a very sad one. Kenya coffee, one time the second foreign exchange earner after
tourism, still reigns supreme on shelves of coffee shops and coffee houses abroad. It is a perfect blend,
its aroma drifting in the kitchens of the rich in the world. Kenyan farmers do not drink coffee. What
they produce are coffee berries. When processed, coffee comes back to the Kenyan supermarket, and
the coffee farmer can hardly recognize it, leave alone afford it.
The giant Muranga Cooperative Union was the role model for cooperatives in Kenya. It dictated
development in Muranga. In 1988, the district produced a record 130 million kg of coffee. In 2001,
they produced 32 million kg. In the year 1997/98, Iyego Farmers Cooperative Society representing 12
factories recorded production of 3.3 million kg which fetched KShs 111.6 million. In the year
2000/2001, the production was 3.0 million kg, and the members received KShs 386,162.
The coffee farmers of Muranga and elsewhere have never been able to come to terms with what has
happened to the coffee industry. Most of them do not even understand what is going on. There are
too many things going on, there are too many invisible people who are too far away for the farmer to
comprehend. There is the local coffee factory, secondary cooperative of coffee factories (e.g. Iyego),
KPCU, Coffee Board of Kenya, Coffee Research Foundation, auctions, buyers, etc. Apart from the
factory management, the farmer does not interact with all these other structures. Yet, like the
biblical Samson turning the treadmill (Judges 16:21), the farmers continue to tend and deliver coffee
berries to the factory, just like they have always done.
At the local level, the farmer is saddled with inputs for tending coffee, whether or not he asked for
them. This may very well be adding to the already outstanding credit (most of which was
accumulated under the World Banks Small Coffee Improvement Project - SCIP II), for which he has
labored to repay without success. Struggling under the weight of berries on the back, the farmer or
wife of an absentee husband trudges the meandering and almost vertical hills to deliver coffee to the
factory where the berry is weighed by the factory hand and recorded against the owners reference
number. Due to illiteracy, farmers may be cheated by the weighing scales. This stage is the last the
70

farmer sees his coffee because some other people take over from there. From this point on, it may
take up to one year before receiving payment.
The factory processes the farmers coffee to deliver to KPCU in Nairobi or a private miller in Thika.
The farmer does not know the transactions between KPCU and the factory manager. The factory
manager is in turn not part of the transactions between KPCU and the Coffee Board of Kenya. The
interaction between the Coffee Board of Kenya and the international buyer at the auction is
something totally removed from the farmer. The farmer has no business with the pricing of coffee.
The farmer knows nothing about where inputs for tending coffee are acquired from except what is
imposed on him at the farm level. The farmer knows that he cannot uproot the coffee trees, even
when they reach the doorstep leaving no space for a kitchen garden. The farmer is ruled by
something called the Coffee Act (cap 333 of the Laws of Kenya) and the coffee berry itself. Coffee is
the coffee farmers burden.
The farmers complained of high costs of production, illiteracy, ignorance and other forms of
disempowerment, bouncing cheques, delayed payments, politicization of the management of coffee
marketing, corruption, stealing, poor investment decisions, slavery to an outdated Act of
Parliament12, burdensome taxes and levies for services not rendered, and total violation of farmers
rights. The story of coffee is ugly.
There are many disconnects within the management of the coffee industry, too many loopholes, and
too much deliberate dishonesty. Some of the challenges facing the industry and indeed Central
Province seem to link to attitudes. Coffee is mismanaged right from the farm level, where the
farmers are represented by their own immediate people whom they know by name and gates to the
homesteads. For a long time, power brokers at the higher stations of the coffee industry have been
people from within the province.
The community points out that most of the people from Muranga live in Nairobi and may travel
home once in a long time for one day, never spending time to acquaint themselves with issues in the
community. There is hardly any repatriation of earnings into the community like it happens with
other communities. Muranga women have long been recognized as able to organize local, non-kin
networks at the extra-household level based on spatial contiguity partly to counter male solidarity13;
while Susan Abbott described them as full time farmers and weekend wives since their husbands
work away from home and visit at irregular intervals14.
Other issues include the myth that Central Province is rich and developed. Natural disasters like the
El Nino rains wiped away what was left of the road infrastructure. High unemployment and lack of
industry, dependence on coffee and to some extent tea, and effects of HIV/AIDS, add to the factors
militating against development in the community. There are hardly any NGOs, CBOs or other LLIs
to boost development in the community, apart from the coffee factories.

12

The Coffee Act in 2006 removed the archaic rule in coffee production as a smallholder farmer is only
required to register with a cooperative society if he/she wanted to plant or uproot coffee (Legal Notice No. 100
of 2006).
13
Fiona Mackenzie, Local Organization: Confronting contradiction in a smallholding district of Kenya,
Cahiers de Gographie du Qubec, 31(83), September 1987
14
Susan Abbott, Full Time Farmers and Weekend Wives: An analysis of altering conjugal roles, Journal of
Marriage and the Family, 38(1), February 1976
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People from the district went to Nyeri to participate in the PRSP. The PRSP process ignored what
the Poverty Eradication Commission (PEC) had done and did not consider Muranga as a priority.
The one-day forum was a mockery to the people and a window dressing to justify expenditure. The
people are waiting for repair of the dilapidated infrastructure and European Unions Stabex funds to
revamp their local economy. They do not believe in handouts, but only infrastructure and an
enabling environment (e.g. liberalization of coffee marketing).
Mwana Mwende Child Development Trust
Mwana Mwende Child Development Trust started in 1997 in reaction to the findings of an action
research study on teenage motherhood that pointed to the need to counsel teenage mothers15. The
research observed tendencies of low self-esteem and dependency on parents, which led to a program
to improve the quality of their lives and those of their children. The program worked with the
ministries of health and education to train Community Health Workers (CHW) and preschool
teachers mainly on child health, nutrition, early childhood care and development, and early
stimulation. For purposes of sustainability, a male member of the community who was trained as a
community motivator in organic agriculture started with the groups of teenage mothers. The groups
have formed into village committees, which have in turn formed sub-location committees, which are
in turn expected to federate to a location committee. The groups are also trained on income
generating activities. Mwana Mwende is registered as an NGO.
The beneficiaries of the program reported on progress made since 1997. Mwana Mwende taught
people to return teenage mothers to school; not to feel it is the end of the world after teenage
pregnancy. They have learnt to be careful and use planning techniques until we get husbands.
They talked of pregnancy sometimes being out of bad luck. Rape cases are rare, but the few are
normally by close relatives (mainly cousins) and trusted caregivers e.g. their primary school
teachers. But other times, girls as young as 12 years are lured into this mchezo (game) by old men
including leaders like assistant chiefs who buy them chewing gum, and younger men who want to
taste. But you give birth alone, and rear children alone. The local provincial administration and
village elders do not handle complaints from teenage mothers on restitution by those responsible for
the pregnancies with any fairness.
The roles of the village committees are monitoring and to ensure sustainability on phase-out by
Mwana Mwende. A village committee is made up of elected community members, a pastor, village
elder, preschool parent, preschool teacher, and a primary school teacher. A sub-location committee
has three representatives from each constituent village committee (chair, secretary and treasurer)
plus a pastor and one village elder. Challenges facing these groups and the larger community include
the low positions of women and girls, tradition, community attitudes toward sex, treatment of the
girl-child, and the attitudes of leaders and parents.
Mwana Mwende, including the area location chief, did not participate in the district PRSP
consultations even though they are just down the road from the district headquarters.

15

See, Margaret Kabiru and Anne Njenga, Teenage Motherhood: Children raising children, A report of a
baseline and needs assessment survey carried out in Mumbuni and Mjini locations in Machakos district,
Mwana Mwende Project, Nairobi, 1997
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Yatta South Women Group

The wife of a Danish volunteer posted at the Katangi Youth Polytechnic started Yatta South Women
Group (YSWG) in 1986. The purpose was economic empowerment to meet the basic needs of the
1,400 basket-weaver members of 31 existing women groups through marketing of Akamba sisal
baskets. The membership has grown to 2,033.
The YSWG has a management committee that is elected by the annual general meeting of 2
representatives of each of the 31 groups to serve for a period of 3 years. The project has a manager in
charge of the basket business supported by a secretariat. There is a community development section
headed by a Danish volunteer.
Basket weaving and marketing is the breadline of YSWG. However, the institution experiences some
problems including:
(a)

(b)
(c)
(d)
(e)

The group internal constitution is difficult to implement. For example, if a member refuses to
weave baskets, there is nothing that can be done about that because earnings are based on the
number of quality baskets each member weaves;
Conflict between the operations of the business side and the community development
because it confuses leadership roles and responsibilities;
Balancing between demand for and supply of baskets in relation to other priorities in the
womens daily calendar, e.g. the planting season demands more time;
Political interference;
Contradictions of donor aid policies e.g. when we preach self-sufficiency and a donor comes
with handouts.

YSWG did not participate in the PRSP consultations. Their letter of invitation was still sitting at the
District Office long after the consultations took place.
We Care About Nairobi (We Can Do It)
WE CAN (Care About Nairobi) DO IT is an informal group of concerned residents registered under
the Societies Act. These residents of Nairobi got together to try and improve the City. Their goal is to
see a long-term sustainable system of governance and service delivery by the local authority.
The association proposes a reorganization of the city council to begin with a democratic structure at
the bottom (households) that scales up to estate, with several estates forming a division that federate
at the council level. Taskforces were formed to study city planning, security, infrastructure (e.g.
sewerage), and social welfare (education and health). The mayor of Nairobi has accepted that the
association will work together with the Nairobi City Council.
WE CAN DO IT is likely to face a myriad of challenges. The recent past history of Nairobi reeks of
corruption that this association is trying to confront. The diversity of Nairobi residents including a
transit population of business people also presents a diversity of needs and interests. Lack of political
will and commitment to change is another stumbling block. The great divide between the haves and
the have-nots is another challenge, to name just a few. The association also needs more exposure and
access to reliable sources of funds to meet its operating costs. The association did not participate in
the PRSP.

73