The forum, which is set to host participants from organizations such as Dandelion Kenya, Marie Stopes, Family Health Options Kenya, I Choose Life, RHFYE aims at enabling participants to take leadership on the ongoing legal and policy developments within the county and in particular, in the enactment of the Nakuru County Maternal Newborn Child Health Bill. Additionally, the forum hopes to raise CSO awareness on how to participate in legislative making processes at the county level; and strengthen their understanding of health as a devolved function.
Despite Nakuru being among the leading counties in maternal mortality, there is little civil society engagement in bill making processes and many CSOs are not familiar with concepts such as devolution and the place of CSOs in aggressively demanding for accountability. This has therefore posed a challenge and limited their engagement with the Health related bills in the county.
KELIN recognizes that effective civil society participation in decision making can play a critical role in the development and strengthening of a pluralistic, participatory and accountable democracy in Kenya. The choice of the participants as CSOs is in recognition that they are instrumental in promoting democratic practice and good governance by advocating for the interests and views of different groups in society, ideally resulting in regulations, laws and policy that are more sustainable and better tailored to citizens’ needs.
To contribute to the discussions on this forum follow KELIN on our social media platforms: Twitter: @KELINkenya
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/kelinkenya
For more information contact:
Tabitha Griffith Saoyo
Programme Manager for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights
Kenya Legal and Ethical Issues Network on HIV & AIDS (KELIN)
4th Floor, Somak Building, Mombasa Road
P.O Box 112-00200, KNH
Email: tsaoyo@kelinkenya.org
Tel: 254202515790; Cell +254 790 339963
