Civil Society Organizations in Kakamega are rushing against time to familiarize themselves with the Community Groups Registration Act 2022, which was signed into law by former President Uhuru Kenyatta on July 26th 2022.
Community Groups have until July 26 this year, which is four months’ time to comply with the new law.
It was introduced as a bill, Community Groups Registration Bill, 2021 in the Senate by Former Senate Majority Leader Samuel Poghisio, who was the Senator for West Pokot.
It is meant to regulate and manage Community groups including Chamas and Self Help groups.
The Civic Freedoms Forum is however building the capacity of CSOs through support from the Kenya Community Development Foundation (KCDF) to acquaint themselves with the law and to comply with the requirements before the deadline.
CFF sensitized the CSOs Network in Kakamega under the Community of Practice (COP) on the law urging other willing organizations to join hands to sensitize all the more than 40, 000 community groups across the country.
The Coordinator of Civic Freedoms Forum John Owegi said they will also incorporate some of Social Development Officers in the sensitization of the new law as only 54 out of approximately 500 SDOs have been sensitized so far yet they will be the ones enforcing compliance.
He said it is first time since independence that Kenya has come up with such a law to regulate the sector whose regulation and registration relied on the good will of the executive.
“The First attempt to come up with a policy legal framework for the sector was in 2015, when then nominated Senator Martha Wangari sponsored a Bill, Self Help Association Bill 2015, to regularize registration of self-help association,” he said.
Unfortunately, the Bill failed to pass through the first reading. Wangari is now the elected Member of Parliament for Gilgil constituency.
Former Senator Poghisio’s attempt was the second one which was successful and enacted into law.
Owegi says it is a good sign for Community Groups to be regulated and get support from the government.
“The Community Groups have up to July this year to comply with this new law and that is why we are here today to speed up the process of sensitization to allow the community groups especially the women groups, the Chamas, Youth Groups to understand the contents of the law, the repercussions of not complying with the law and how they can relate with both the county and the National Government officers that will be supporting the implementation of this law to just help in smooth implementation and smooth transition. This is the transition period until July,” he noted.
The coordinator of CSO’s Network Kakamega Nicholus Anyango said they will work with the government to sensitize communities about the new law.
He urged residents to come out to understand the law and register their groups to benefit from government funding, while appealing to the government to channel funds to groups that will be registered to improve livelihoods.
Terry Owino, the Coordinator of Men in Traditions Against Aids (MTAA) CBO in Kakamega said that the new law will stabilize Community Groups and enable them to improve lives through advocacy.
The Director of We-Reach Organization, a CBO based in Kakamega, Eric Bosire said that KCDF is keen on ensuring that members of the Community of Practice are trained to improve on advocacy and management of community groups to positively transform lives of members of communities.
By Moses Wekesa
