Kenya: Family planning champions trained by DSW petition Mombasa county assembly on botched budget meetings

Four youth family planning champions trained by DSW on budget advocacy for family planning joined other civil society actors and citizens in petitioning county government of Mombasa about a flawed budget meeting.

The petition, submitted to the Mombasa County Assembly Clerk, Tubmun Otieno, on the 27^th of June, 2016 called on the clerk and speaker of the county assembly to ensure the presence of members of county assembly’s budget and appropriations committee at the hearings.

On the 27^th of June 2016, the budget and appropriations committee of the county assembly of Mombasa was supposed to hold a public forum to verify that the budget estimates that the office of the governor had tabled in the county assembly reflected the needs of the citizens of Mombasa.

That hearing however, failed to take off, as representatives of civil society groups and citizens protested because only two out of eight members of the budget and appropriations committee were present. The protests became even louder as those attending realized that the documents that they were given were barely legible.

Since 2013 when devolution kicked in in Kenya, primary health service provision, which includes family planning, was devolved to county governments.

The budget making process in Kenya is important because it is through the budget making process that investment, from public coffers, for family planning is determined.

The 2010 constitution of Kenya gives citizens the opportunity to influence decision making and public spending through the budget making process. Citizens can influence decision making directly or through their elected representatives.

However, despite the provision for citizens to participate in decision making and budget making, the county assembly of Mombasa, did not engage citizens as it should have. This was the cause of the protests.

Budget advocacy using youth family planning champions is a strategy that DSW is employing in Kenya under the SHAPE (Securing Health through Advocacy and People’s Empowerment) project to contribute to increased and improved funding by county governments in 8 Kenyan counties.

The three-year SHAPE project aims to mobilize more and better funds from key European donors (Germany and The European Union) as well as from East African governments (Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda) to support family planning.

Jessie Mugambi is an Advocacy Officer for DSW’s Securing Health through Advocacy and People’s Empowerment project based in Kenya’s Coast region

(Story edited by Collins Baswony)