Year: 2016 Country: Kenya Requestor: A member of civil society organization, Young Leaders of Kenya (YOLEKA) Issue area: Health
The issue/Story: Since the financial year 2011/2012, the Kenyan Government committed Ksh. 240 Million for the purchase and distribution of sanitary towels to 443. 858 girls in primary and secondary schools12. The project was to be implemented in the subsequent years. However, there have been cases of misappropriation of funds allocated to schools to cater for the sanitary towels budget. In some cases, the sanitary towels were bought but ended up to be used elsewhere. In Nambale Constituency, in Busia County, a number of school going girls have not been receiving sanitary towels for a long time now. As they cannot afford to buy these towels, they have resorted, through the assistance of their mothers and grand-mothers, to using improvised sanitary towels made of dried cow dung tied in pieces of clothes. The civil society organization, Young Leaders of Kenya, has been working in the area for over two years now. Without the knowledge about the related national policy, this organization started a project to distribute sanitary towels to school going girls, especially those in Nambale Constituency. A representative of Youth Leaders of Kenya came to learn of the policy in a forum organized under the project by ARTICLE 19 Eastern Africa that she attended. In the training, the participants were sensitized on the mechanisms of Access to information and tasked to make information requests on pertinent issues of their choice. She specifically chose the issue of sanitary towels which she said she would follow.
The challenge: Even though she was willing to acquire more information on the distribution process of the sanitary towels, the representative of Young Leaders of Kenya did not proceed with the information request to relevant authorities. This is because she lacked capacity to file good information requests to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology as well as to the heads of schools in the region. Moreover, she did not know the exact office to address her concerns since some units within the education sector had been devolved while some remained with the national government.
The process: After a few weeks, ARTICLE 19 Eastern Africa, which had trained her, went to visit the organization in the area for a coaching and mentorship session. The leadership of Young Leaders of Kenya appreciates the coaching and mentorship session. The session helped them to understand how best to file a formal information request with the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology.
Impact: This request is yet to be responded to but steps have been taken by the county leadership in-charge of education to address the problem through the head teachers. The County Director of Education was not part of the training, but was informed of the situation by the leadership of Young Leaders of Kenya. He has directed all the headteachers to appoint specific female teachers in their schools to be in-charge of the distribution of the sanitary towels.
Recommendations/Lessons Learnt: It seems that ATI trainings reinforce the confidence of citizens to hold accountable their public institutions, request for information and or address their concern directly to relevant authorities. However, solely workshops on Access to Information are not sufficient for the participants to be comfortable in submitting information requests. There is a need to follow up with a period of mentorship that provides reference and guidance to the participants, especially in going through their first experience of requesting information.
