Public Participation
Kakamega residents protested against making contributions to two Bills presented by the County Assembly due to short notice at the Kakamega Social Hall. The residents asked the County assembly to either push one bill to another day or facilitate them twice in order to make their contributions.
The County Assembly had selected three representatives from each ward across the 60 wards of Kakamega to give their views on the Kakamega County Infrastructure Development and Financing Bill 2024 and the Kakamega County Ward Allocation Bill 2024.
The session started at 9am with the Kakamega County Infrastructure Development and Financing Bill 2024 which took about 5 hours. Kakamega County Infrastructure Development and Financing Bill 2024 was introduced to the public by the Member of County Assembly for Idakho East Ward Cyrus Shienji, who is the chairperson of the Justice and Legal Affairs committee in the county assembly.
However, when the secretariat was ready to introduce the second Bill, the Kakamega County Ward Allocation Bill 2024, the public protested. They said they could not participate in two bills at once and only be facilitated the same way they are normally facilitated when they make their contributions on one Bill.
The Member of County Assembly for Shirere Ward David Ikunza, who is also the chairman of the Assembly Committee on Ward-Based Projects postponed the public participation forum for the Kakamega County Ward Allocation Bill 2024 to a later date. He said the Bill is crucial and the concerns raised by the public were genuine as their contributions are taken with seriousness.
The Network for Research and Governance(NRG) Lead person, Paul Odongo, who was in attendance said that public participation best practices requires that one Bill is subjected to the public at a time. He said members of the public were fatigued and could not be productive to participate in another session after a lengthy contribution to the Kakamega County Infrastructure Development and Financing Bill 2024.