This archive report was first published on 24 September 2019.
October 10th, 2017 - The Jubilee administration's relentless vendetta against civil society organizations has been ongoing since 2013, when President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto took office.
Under the leadership of NGO Coordination Board's CEO Fazul Mohamed, the government has deregistered several organizations, harassed others, and frozen their accounts.
The latest victim is the International Development Law Organization (IDLO), whose offices were recently shut down by the government.
While the reasons behind this policy are unclear, a historical and circumstantial background of those currently heading the government might provide some insight.
President Kenyatta and Deputy President Ruto narrowly escaped long sentences at the International Criminal Court for crimes they were suspected of committing during the 2007 elections.
Local and international non-governmental organizations played a key role in piecing together the evidence that led to their indictment.
Ordinarily, after the termination of the cases, the two leaders would have had an axe to grind with those organizations.
However, the Jubilee government has been notorious for taking false steps in governance, including corruption, open discrimination in public appointments, and abuse of power.
To remain unaccountable for these infelicities, the government has carried out systematic operations to silence the media, the church, and NGOs.
Since NGOs have greater stamina arising from external support, more force has been directed towards them.
In certain instances, like the case involving Muslim for Human Rights (Muhuri) and Haki Africa, terrorism has been used as an excuse to clamp down on organizations in bad books with the government.
While the Jubilee policy against civil society organizations may be politically expedient in the short term, it has serious long-term repercussions on democracy and national well-being.
Some of these organizations have been instrumental in providing interventions on various challenges touching on health, education, water, etc.
Their absence would mean that the government would have to be relied upon to intervene, which historically has been incapable of providing holistic and adequate interventions to social and economic challenges.
Most importantly, ours is a pluralistic system where various institutions, organizations, agencies are relied upon to provide services, goods, and interventions in a competitive environment devoid of state monopoly or domination.
Clamping down on civil society organizations is therefore nothing but overt attempts to return the country to a singular system.
Having formal channels to direct public opinion, which civil society is excellent in, is ultimately good for the government.
It is a preventive measure to many political pathologies like social unrest.
When people are let to freely vent out their displeasure with the state, the government gets an opportunity to make policy changes to address such displeasure.
However, when repression becomes the norm, people are left with no options but to overturn that government.
The leaders in the Jubilee government need to consider their approach and review their positions, otherwise they will be fermenting political and social instability.
