Kenya: Draft law limits foreign funding for NGOs

The Government is set on a collision course with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the country over a proposed new law regulating the flow of foreign funds.

The Miscellaneous Amendment Bill 2013, published on October 30, which itself comes hot on the heels of a backlash over the controversial Kenya Information

and Communication Bill (2013) seeks to cap the amount of foreign funds NGOs can get to 15 per cent of their budget.

It will also have far-reaching implications on State corporations particularly the National Youth Council, a body corporate whose top organ is composed of members elected directly by the youth.

In the new Bill which NGOs are likely to interpret as aimed at clamping down on their activities, NGOs will only get more than the 15 per cent of their budget from foreign countries if they demonstrate extraordinary circumstance why they require the funds.

If it sails through the National Assembly and gets assented to by President Uhuru Kenyatta, this could severely affect NGOs and the civil societies most of which depend 100 per cent of their budgets from foreign funding.

Even then, the extra funds will be channeled through a federation.

The controversial sections are contained in the Statute Law(Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill, 2013 as amendments to The Public Benefits Organizations Act, 2013 (No. 18 of 2013).

Section Section 27 A(2) states: “A public benefit organisation shall not receive more than 15 per cent of its total funding from external donors.”

On the other hand, section 27A. (1) states: “Any funding of a public benefit organization shall be made through the federation and not by an individual members’ organization.”

Yesterday, NGO representatives accused Devolution Cabinet Secretary Ann Waiguru of allegedly sneaking in the controversial clauses with the aim, of controlling the civil society and the youth council.

“Muzzling National Youth Council and tying the hands of NGOs is not in the interest of the Kenya and the youth in general. The NGO sector employs so many youth and closing their funding will result into loss of jobs as most will leave the country and set shop elsewhere,” said Billy Mijungu, of National Youth Council.

A member of the civil society who did not want to be named said generally the amendments to the initial law are good but the two new sections on foreign funding which have allegedly been sneaked in are meant to control the NGOs sector which in some quarters are deemed to be anti-establishment and this could spell their death.

“If it is passed in its present form, it would make it hard for NGOs in the country to operate as it would cripple their source of funding,” said the source, adding that; “Most of the donors would also certainly not be keen on supporting the local NGOs with the repressive law.”

The Public Benefit Organisations (PBO) Bill, 2012 which became law having been assented to by retired President Kibaki on January 14 last year was meant to bring order into the sector.

Submitted as a private members Bill by former nominated MP Sophia Abdi Noor with the support of the parliamentary committee on Labor and Social Services in the 10th Parliament, the law was ostensibly drafted to create a conducive environment for the growth and operations of NGOs and among other things stipulated that it would promote a re-birth of values within the sector by establishing an effective legal, regulatory and institutional framework for NGOs,” Noor had said last year when it was enacted into law.

The new amendements to the law were aimed at rectifying conflicting clauses in it but NGOs argued the law would sound a death knell to the country’s vibrant civil society.

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