The Directorate of Governance and Ethics was established in January 2018 with the fundamental objective of ensuring the implementation of the values and principles of governance as enshrined in Article 10 of the Constitution of Kenya to maximize the realization of the objectives of devolved governance as envisaged in Article 174 of the COK 2010.
Having been established after the budgetary process of its year of inception, the directorate took that challenge as an opportunity to knock on the door of willing national and international organizations that have the wherewithal to help and partner on matters of governance. After the initial exchange of correspondence an open hand was extended by AfriCOG Africa Centre for Open Governance). In particular, a dedicated delegation from the Department of Governance visited their offices led by CEC Ahmed Shariff, the CCO Abdullahi Hassan Maalim, the Director of Governance Hashim Elmoge and the Assistant Director Ibrahim Hussein.
Our first request sought support to visit Makueni with the aim of nderstanding the exemplary model of public participation and devolution in Makueni County. The benchmarking tour opened our eyes to what commitment of staff enjoying political will and a willing public nurtured through continuous civic education can do to steer good governance.
In order to emulate Makueni, the directorate undertook measures to begin their journey of realizing good governance and enhanced service delivery. The visit culminated in a governance retreat held on July, 2018 at Masai Lodge in Kajiado County that was attended by ten members of staff from both arms of government, who were trained as champions of good governance for the County Government of Wajir.
During training, the team also came up with a prioritized action plan in regards to undertaking a governance gaps assessment of all county government departments, consequently coming up with mitigation measures for the identified gaps. In particular, the governance gaps assessment conferences which were held on September and November, 2018 had brought to the fore significant challenges that the county faces in terms of governance and the need to urgently address the same in order to begin the trajectory to achieve our county vision.
The by-product of that partnership process is contained in the Governance Action Plan that we are launching today which we must all implement if we are to achieve and realize good governance and development in our county. Unfortunately, despite continuous reminders and inviting a consultant twice, only six out of the ten government departments shared their implementation gaps.
The directorate also partnered with United Nation Development Programme who supported a bonding session for both arms of government that took place at Safari Park Hotel in Nairobi on August, 2018 whose objective was to build capacity to enhance collaboration for the purpose of realizing the vision of County Government of Wajir.