Public Participation and Parliamentary Oversight – Legal Reforms and Policy Options

“Parliamentary oversight committees need to be strengthened in order to become an effective watchdog ensuring good governance for the improved welfare of Kenyans. The impact of the new constitutional provisions on parliamentary oversight committees is inadequately understood and existing systemic problems have a negative effect on how these committees can effectively discharge their oversight mandates. One of these systemic problems is the lack of public participation in the work of the said committees. “Public Participation and Parliamentary Oversight, Legal Reforms and Policy Options” is a policy brief that addresses the factors that negatively affect the capacities of committees to engage the public in their work as well as possible approaches to including participation therein. Accordingly, it proposes feasible reforms: legal, technical and institutional, that can be applied to ensure that effective public participation is entrenched in the work of parliamentary oversight committees.”