Community Resource Centre Set Up in Siaya County to Empower Local Communities

A Community Resource Centre has been set up in Siaya Town to empower local communities to engage effectively in day-to-day governance affairs. The Center is operational and is currently being used by many Siaya County residents to access information on various issues.

H.E. David Angell  Canadian High Commissioner to Kenya, speaks during the launch of Siaya Community Resource Centre  Development    

The Siaya Resource Center, which has been set up by the Institute for Law and Environmental Government (ILEG), was formally launched on February 20, 2015 at a colorful ceremony presided over by the Canadian Ambassador to Kenya Mr. David Angell.

ILEG Director Benson Ochieng says the organization is working with closely with the national and county government to improve laws and policies on natural resources governance. It is also training local communities to utilize the new Constitution to demand their right to participate in governance. 

“We are now focusing on access to land and natural resources, to stop governance excesses and ensure that communities benefit from their resources. That’s the reason we have been organizing seminars on human rights, access to resources and sustainable development,” he say.

Benson Ochieng, Executive Director of ILEG, making a presentation 

Ochieng says democracy works best when citizens know and participate in what their government is doing, and when they are able to interrogate and monitor leadership. ILEG has therefore set up Siaya Community Resource Centre to empower local communities to engage effectively in day-to-day governance affairs.

Presiding over the launch of the Center, Ambassador Angell said the Embassy was willing to work with the County Government to address a number of emerging issues in the country. He said Canadian companies are leaders in mining and forestry adding that a number of big Canadian mining multinationals were already operating in Siaya. 

Mr. Angell said cooperation could avail the necessary resources and technologies to harness the rich natural resource endowments of Siaya County. He said Kenya’s devolution remained a most ambitious project, but noted that a lot had already been achieved. He called for more media coverage of the achievements. 

He said even Canada, which had two generations’ worth of experience on devolution still faced challenges with regard to dealing with governance and benefit sharing adding that Kenya’s devolved system benefitted from Canada’s experience during the constitution-making. 

Canada, which is fairly vast, has only 8 provinces and 3 territories, compared to Kenya’s 47 counties. It is still struggling with issues of inclusion, even as three of its biggest territories are governed by women. 

The envoy said Kenyans had reason to be proud of what it has achieved with devolution to-date adding that the key to success in devolution was in ensuring mechanisms for involving citizens, including women and local communities, in governing the affairs of the state. 

He said Canada would be keen to work with Siaya County on ways to adopt technologies for harnessing resources and human capital for sustainable development. This could involve research and learning through centers of excellence, and working with organizations like ILEG to build local capacities, for example through the Siaya Community Resource Centre.

Siaya Governor Cornel Rasanga (third left) by H.E. David Angell,   Canadian High Commissioner to Kenya (center), Ford Foundation’s Regional Representative Maurice Makoloo (in yellow shirt) and ILEG’s Executive Director Benson Ochieng with others on 17 February 2015  after calling the Governor's Offcie in Siaya Town. 

Siaya Governor Cornel Rasanga while speaking at the launch said the county was endowed with vast valuable natural resources, especially gold but lacked the technology to map, explore and exploit the resources. He said artisanal miners work under poor conditions using rudimentary technologies which exposed many of them to many environmental and health hazards. 

Not long ago, some miners were buried alive in Kogelo, near the ancestral home of US President Barack Obama near Siaya Township. 

Governor Rasanga said the legal and policy framework was weak and uncertain and called on Canada to help avail technologies to map, explore and exploit the resources. In addition, he said Siaya was keen to improve its forest cover, and could learn a lot from what Canada had achieved as a leading lumbering nation. 

Maurice Makoloo, Regional Representative, Ford Foundation speaks at the Center launch

Saying his government was willing to engage and cooperate with different agencies to enhance learning for Siaya, the governor lauded ILEG’s experience in natural resources law and policy research saying this could be very helpful to the county in streamlining operations, especially governance of the natural resources sectors in Siaya.

Ford Foundation Regional Representative Maurice MakOloo said the Foundation was also supporting a number of development projects in the country and in the Lake Victoria Region. He said one such initiative was to develop a common economic blue print for the lake region counties in Nyanza andWestern Kenya.

He said the Foundation was also supporting ILEG to work with local communities as well as the County and national governments on governance of natural resources to empower communities to engage effectively in land and resource governance policy and law-making processes. He added that the Foundation was ready to help Siaya County to develop a communication strategy, as well as a framework for public participation.