NGO Council must rise above power struggles

Unending power struggles continue to haunt the Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO) Council if the drama witnessed last week is anything to go by.

Leadership at the council has over the past decade been characterised by coups and counter coups and boardroom squabbles and in the process neglecting its mandate and leaving a yawning leadership gap.

Since independence, NGOs have played a pivotal role in Kenya’s development agenda.  Through their interventions, they have ensured sustainable development in key areas such as health, education, agriculture, environmental conservation and human rights advocacy.

This underlines the crucial role NGOs play in complementing Government undertakings.

But while their work deserves credit, it is heartbreaking that myriad briefcase NGOs have mushroomed over the years, wantonly defrauding donors for mere self-aggrandisement, as opposed to serving the underprivileged people on whose name they solicit for funding.

Some NGOs have even been accused of funding terrorist groups, if not involvement in human and drug trafficking.

This underlines the need for painstaking scrutiny of the sector to ensure unscrupulous individuals do not capitalise on its charitable nature to fuel illegalities. And that is why the current state of affairs at the NGO Council of Kenya, the statutory body that is supposed to oversee self-regulation in the sector, is unacceptable.

The Government should put in place a foolproof regulation mechanism that would ensure only genuine NGOs flourish while the errant ones are rooted out.