Ombudsman Newsletter Issue 12 - January - March 2024

Abstract

In this Edition, the Commission, in partnership with the Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF), held a public inquiry in Wajir County on the barriers to the acquisition of legal identity documents including birth and death certificates, identification cards and passports by the residents of the county. The Commission also continued redress administrative wrongs in the public sector with one of the notable cases being the case of Mr. Parminas Oyori Monayo, a former employee of the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) who was reinstated to his job following the implementation of a formal determination of the Commission on Administrative Justice (Office of the Ombudsman) which recommended that the Board reinstates him to continue serving as its officer with no loss of benefit. The Commission found that the decision by the Board to retire the employee from service on account of age amounted to unlawful termination and that the Board did not have the power to retire the employee at the age of 60 years since he had not attained the mandatory retirement age for persons with disability. In this edition, the Commission also undertook a systemic investigation on remote accessibility of selected public institutions in various sectors. The investigation revealed that most public institutions have functional websites and have put in place sufficient infrastructure for remote accessibility. The investigation, however, established that the availability of remote accessibility infrastructure in most institutions was inadequate in facilitating effective complaints management as some telephone numbers were not working, unresponsiveness to email inquiries, and service charters with no clear response to inquiries and complaints management. The Commission also upscaled capacity building of public officers and public awareness and education for the public on its mandate and the complaints handling procedure to enable the public to be able to file complaints with the Commission both under the administrative justice and the access to information mandates. Thank you for your continued support, and we look forward to keeping you informed in future editions of the Ombudsman Newsletter.