NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 16 – Kenya’s first State of Openness Report will be developed through a partnership between the Commission on Administrative Justice (Office of the Ombudsman) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), in a move aimed at strengthening transparency and access to information across the public sector.
The initiative, unveiled during multi-stakeholder consultations at State House on Thursday, will establish a data-driven framework to assess how government institutions comply with the Access to Information Act and other open governance commitments.
Speaking during the event, UNODC Deputy Regional Representative for Eastern Africa Koen Marquering said the report would provide an objective basis for measuring transparency and accountability across public institutions.
“This work is a cornerstone of a more transparent and accountable public service,” Marquering said.
He said the framework would employ standardized data collection tools and cross-agency assessments to evaluate compliance by ministries, state agencies and county governments, helping identify gaps in the implementation of access-to-information obligations.
The initiative forms part of Kenya’s commitments under the Open Government Partnership (OGP), which seeks to strengthen transparency, accountability and citizen participation in governance.
It complements a government proposal to incorporate the Ombudsman’s transparency and access-to-information compliance indicators into the annual performance contracts of Cabinet Secretaries and Principal Secretaries.
Officials said the initiative will also support the development of digital transparency platforms, including the Publish What You Borrow portal and the Jihusishe citizen engagement application, which are intended to give the public easier access to information on government borrowing, public debt and budget implementation.
Civil society organisations, including Mzalendo Trust and ARTICLE 19 Eastern Africa, are participating in the consultations as part of the OGP’s co-creation process to help shape the report’s methodology and monitoring framework.
The findings of the State of Openness Report are expected to inform future government reforms aimed at improving compliance with the Access to Information Act and strengthening public accountability.
