How Accessible is Parliament, Really?

Parliamentary accessibility is necessary for effective public participation in governance and is explicitly provided for the constitution. Article 118 that deals with public access and participation requires parliament to facilitate public participation and involvement in the legislative process and other business of Parliament and its committees. The Article also bars parliament from excluding the public or media from any sitting unless there are justifiable reasons for the exclusion. Article 201 requires that there be openness and accountability and public participation in financial matters and Article 35 requires the State to publicise any important information affecting the nation.
 
The law, though loosely worded, provides for access to parliament, but how accessible is parliament, really? A recent survey on parliamentary accessibility conducted by the organisation ARTICLE 19 gives pretty shocking statics on exactly how accessible, or rather inaccessible parliament, and parliamentarians really are. The survey found though 94.4% of people know their MP by name, only 34.4% consider their MP accessible, 63% had no contact with their MP and did not know that their MP was contactable! Only 26% had interacted with their MP officially, and a little more than 30% had interacted with their MP informally. The report also indicates that there is minimal stakeholder engagement and public participation in parliamentary affairs and governance with 67% of those surveyed never having participated in any parliamentary process, 87% finding it difficult to access parliament physically, and 79% finding it difficult to participate in the proceedings of parliament.
 
In theory, all you need is an ID and you will be allowed entrance to the public gallery of the House. The press has access to parliamentary proceedings. Transcripts of parliamentary proceedings and some important documents are available via parliament’s website. Then there is much lauded Kenyan Open Government Data Portal launched in July last year, whose goal it is to ‘make key government data available through a single online portal.’
 
However parliamentary accessibility is more than just provision of information and physical access to the house. Furthermore the available points of access to parliament are problematic, visiting parliament or watching parliamentary on TV are both passive with members of the public being unable to participate actively in the proceedings. The transcripts of parliamentary proceedings, and the information on the open data website seem to be available only in disparate, hard to read and otherwise inaccessible formats.
 
It is clear from the statistics in the report there are big gaps in direct access to the members of parliament, access to information about the members, including their full credentials, voting records of the members on various issues, and as their expenses at least as far as concerns the use of public funds. Given these gaps in parliamentary accessibility, is it any wonder there also exists a serious gap in representation of the people.
 
Based on the various events and activities of parliament it is evident there is great need for Kenyans to become more actively involved and to participate fully in legislative and parliamentary processes. There is no question that we should know now our members of parliament are representing us, and should be able to see how our tax shillings are being used. Making information available is only part of the equation to be useful information has to be useable, and there has to exist the space, and contact with parliamentary representatives in which to put the information to use.
 
What are your thoughts is Parliament really accessible?

Posted by Mzalendo Editor on July 26, 2012

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