A sideways look at civil society’s activities

Civil society demonstrate over MP demand for pay rise outside Parliament on June 11, 2013. PHOTO : Billy Mutai

What you need to know:

  • The noisy types who are always angling to be noticed by issuing press statements, going to court and chaining themselves to police stations or shooting themselves during demonstrations will be put out to pasture.
  • Spying for Barack Obama and his kangaroo International Criminal Court will end, and they will finally become the hate figures they deserve to be.
  • As it were, the Government is already swimming in revenue because money collected from value added tax on books and newspapers this year alone is sufficient to fund all patriotic NGOs for 10 years.

Begging from foreign nations and foundations must remain the preserve of government.

After all, the government has done such a good job of it that Sh1.4 trillion — twice the wealth Kenya produces every year — is already owed as sovereign debt. It did not do this by writing lengthy proposals and speaking with a foreign twang.

Proposed amendments to the Public Benefit Organisations Act, 2013, limiting the amount of foreign funding civil society can get to 15 per cent are long overdue. The unhealthy competition faced by government in collecting funds from external sources has frustrated the broader goal of repatriating capital stolen from Kenya through the slave trade and colonial exploitation.

After years of depending almost entirely on external funding, NGOs have not made a dent in the wealth created off the backs of black folk in the sugar cane and cotton plantations in the West. They must now cede this solemn and patriotic duty to the government.

Additionally, they must become more patriotic and begin to receive money from the government for all their activities. Civil society groups should not expect to continue receiving money for burning effigies, slaughtering pigs in public and causing a nuisance when there are executive jets to be fuelled, laptops to be bought and maternity fees to be paid.

It is right and proper that national conjugal activities to be supported by the generous donations of the friendly people of America, but democracy, good governance and human rights are too intimate to be funded by foreigners.

That is why, under the proposed new legal regime, the Cabinet Secretary for Finance will approve donations that exceed 15 per cent of an NGO’s budget — especially where circumstances are exceptional and further the goals of patriotism and #WeAreOne.

The 85 per cent of NGO funding would be kosher patriotic money from the Treasury smelling black, sounding all white, bleeding red and tasting green as in the national flag.

Venezuela cured a similar foolishness when it began to creep on its civil society by banning foreign funding. Russia, Ethiopia and the Gambia have made similar changes to their laws, and Kenya should be proud to join this progressive community of nations.

Should Kenya enact these amendments, as it will, the nasalised Press conferences aimed at impressing the English, Czech, Finnish, Dutch, Belgians, Nords and Swedes would be banished. Ended, too, would be the folly of looking to America for examples on governance and democracy.

Spying for Barack Obama and his kangaroo International Criminal Court will end, and they will finally become the hate figures they deserve to be.

The noisy types who are always angling to be noticed by issuing press statements, going to court and chaining themselves to police stations or shooting themselves during demonstrations will be put out to pasture.

The proposed law now requires all funding to be made though an umbrella organisation of all civil society groups. Having a common till for all foreign funding could promote orderly unofficial borrowing and encourage donors to develop confidence that their money will reach its intended recipients.

Local philanthropies and Government are looking for opportunities to reprint the Constitution, sponsor civic education programmes, finance anti-corruption campaigns, entrench women’s rights and support the trial of perpetrators of the post-2007 election violence.

As it were, the Government is already swimming in revenue because money collected from value added tax on books and newspapers this year alone is sufficient to fund all patriotic NGOs for 10 years. They would never want for anything in doing the work they love.

(Inspired by Bantu Mwaura’s poem, ‘Let Us Stop Begging)