Gender, public participation boost Kenya's ranking, govt says

President Uhuru Kenyatta says devolved governments, the introduction of Huduma centres and programmes targeting women and the youth are the reasons behind Kenya’s improved standing on the Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG).

On Tuesday, State House spokesman Manoah Esipisu told the Nation the latest ranking reflects the efforts put in by the Jubilee government to bring services closer to the people and improve on civil liberties.

“It is clear that the Jubilee government initiatives supporting gender equity and inclusion of women, youth and people with disabilities has indeed increased the participation of human rights,” he said.

“The government’s focus in implementing the constitutional rights of all citizens including the right to participate in local government matters is yielding dividends.”

The IIAG is an annual assessment of performance for each of the 54 African countries and is conducted by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation.

This year’s report shows that Kenya is among 13 most improved countries on the continent labelled as “rising potential powerhouses”.

The foundation found this after looking at 93 indicators on governance, which fall into four categories: safety and rule of law, participation and human rights, sustainable economic opportunity and human development.

Kenya is shown to have improved steadily in overall governance, emerging second best behind Rwanda in East Africa but 14th in Africa.

IFMIS

At the launch of the report on Monday, Mr Jay Naidoo, a member of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation Board, told the Nation that the results mean governments must put in more efforts in all the categories if there is to be long-term improvement.

“What this data teaches us is that you can still have good governance even if you are emerging from a challenging period.

“But it also means that all the categories are intricately linked. You may perform well in one but for the long term, effort must be put in all of them to be sustainable,” Mr Naidoo who is also the

Mr Naidoo, of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, spoke to the Nation by phone from London.

Though the report points out that quality of education and national safety have declined, Kenya scored well in human rights, participation of the public in government programmes, provision of economic opportunities as well as in the rule of law.

In human rights, Kenya gained 10 points while in the provision of sustainable economic opportunity, Kenya rose to 10th continentally, making it among the best performers in this category.

Mr Esipisu pointed out that Huduma centres, the Integrated Financial Management System (Ifmis) and e-government services though faced with challenges have boosted accountability.

Devolution, he added, has had “a great impact by taking numerous public services to the county level, improving the business environment and infrastructure at the county level and improving rural access to financing”.

Kenya will also have to re-examine the health sector, which, alongside education and safety, had shown a slight decline, the report said.