Kenya Gov’t Threatens to Deregister over 7,000 Non-Compliant NGOs

The government has threatened to deregister over 7,000 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) over non-compliance.

Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i on Tuesday gave the 7,213 NGOs 90 days to file their annual reports with the NGO Coordination Board, failure to which they will be de-registered.

Matiang’i, who spoke during the official launch of the NGO Sector 2020/2021 Report, noted that 9,525 of the 11,890 registered NGOs are active, but only 3,000 have filed compliance reports.

The Cabinet Secretary termed NGOs as key partners in the Big 4 Agenda, civic awareness, and peacebuilding, and urged the NGO Coordination Board to grant a moratorium on reasonable terms to those who might seek it.

“We do not want to be unreasonable and hurt anyone. Those that do not turn up to seek a moratorium, those that turn up and disappear, or register but their records are not known should know that we have responsibility to the public,” Matiang’i stated.

“We do not want to discover that we registered an organization being misused by terror groups masquerading as civil society organizations.”

He further urged NGOs to set aside more funds for development projects, saying the bulk of their budgets is spent on salaries.

At the same time, Matiang’i warned the organizations against being used by politicians to perpetuate instability during the electioneering period.

“Guard your institutions against being used to engage in destructive acts to the security of our country. Do not be dragged along into partisan activities in the name of civic education and electoral participation,” he added.