International Governance Institute

- building integrity in acquiring and exercising public duty
Home     News and Report Centre     Conferences and Events     Officers and Trustees     Focal Integrity Teams     Contact Us     Site Map     Public Ethics     Public Education     Public Service     Electoral Systems      

IGI Annual General Meeting – Nairobi, December 2008

 

Introduction

The IGI AGM for 2008 took place at the Hotel Central Park in Nairobi on December 6th.  Following the welcome from the Secretary, Sakwa Buliba, proceedings opened with prayer and a short but encouraging talk on Ephesians 3:20-21 from one of the Trustees, John Muketha.  It is good to remember that God can “do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine”.  

 

Trustees' Report from UK

The IGI Chairman, Paul New brought greetings from the UK trustees and membership.  He reminded members of the enduring mission of IGI, in the face of continuing fraud, corruption and misuse of power, at all levels and all scales.  We are called to show Christ’s love to all people in demonstrating the Biblical vision of how things ought to be in human communities. 

 

Recent achievements from UK include revamping the website, gaining registration as a UK charity, publicising IGI to gain a wider support base in UK, helping to establish the new office in Nairobi, and starting to fund an exciting new project in the education sector in Cameroon.  One internal challenge is to improve communication between various countries such as Kenya and UK, so that we can help people in UK to understand the imperative to support the work of IGI.  Kenyan members need to keep feeding back to UK the results of misuse of power, and news of projects to be supported.

Secretary’s Report from Kenya

A report was presented by the Secretary, Mr Buliba, based in Nairobi.  He reiterated the relationship between the individual country groups (Focal Integrity Groups) and the central IGI, which is registered in UK.  He also explained the types of membership (voting, associate and institutional). The Trustees are keen to confirm many of the associate members as full voting members.  He emphasized that the work of IGI has a bottom-up strategy, whereby local communities are sensitised, educated and trained to audit public decisions and require explanations from state officials. Communities are IGI's key customers, as they are equipped to participate in making decisions that affect their lives.

 

Cameroon

A detailed report was presented from Cameroon, where FITCAM is led by Sam Fungwa and Stephen Asek.  The last year has seen the commencement of a project to explore issues of corruption in the education sector, develop a Governance Procedure Kit, organise training of educators, civil society representatives and officials, and delivir a public sensitisation programme through by radio.

Other countries

Developments in Zimbabwe (including election monitoring), Swaziland, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia, Ghana and DRC were also reported.  It is for the individual country groups (FITs) to develop projects.  Suitable projects may be eligible for some support from UK.

 

Formal business

The UK and Nairobi financial reports were presented and unanimously accepted by the meeting.  Paul New was also unanimously re-elected as a Trustee.

 

Kenya FIT Workshop

Since most members at the meeting were Kenyan residents, a workshop was then held to help develop strategies for implementing IGI Objects.  It was facilitated by Herbert Wamalwa.  Syndicate groups addressed the question:

 

What are Kenya’s five greatest issues or problems relating to public integrity and accountability?

 

The issues agreed were:

 

  • Negative ethnicity/ Nepotism
  • Bribery
  • Weak regulatory systems
  • Ignorance
  • Misuse of public funds/ Theft

 

These problems were seen as due to poor public access to official information, apathy, fear of authority, lack of political will and officials being able to offend with impunity (e.g. weak regulatory systems).  Many citizens still do not see government funds as “public” money for which officials have accountability to the people themselves.

 

Recommendations for activities that could be initiated by the Kenya FIT to help deal with some of these issues included:

·         Public information programmes to help local communities understand the functions and responsibilities of officials

·         Civic awareness campaigns on freedom, service delivery, etc.

·         Education programmes in citizens’ rights, particularly for the rural population (72% of Kenyans)

 

It was agreed that there should be regular meetings of Kenya FIT to discuss these issues and develop a programme of practical implementation, including a session devoted to creating an action plan.