Demystifying the Ombudsman

By Pravin Bowry

Since 2007 Kenyans have had an ombudsman but most citizens are unaware of his important role in dispute resolution.

Who then is an ombudsman? For an answer, I resorted to Black’s Law Dictionary, which defines the office as "An official appointed to receive, investigate and report on private citizens complaints about the government or a similar appointee in a non governmental organization (such as a company or university)"

An ombudsman is meant to serve as an alternative to the adversary system for resolving disputes, especially between citizens and government agencies.

He must be an independent and non-partisan officer of the legislature who supervises the administration and one who deals with specific complaints from the public against administrative injustice and maladministration.

Most ombudsmen have power to investigate, criticise and publicise, but not to reverse administration action. An ombudsman may not be appointed by a legislature, but may instead be appointed by or even work for a corporation such as a utility supplier or a newspaper, for an NGO, for a professional regulatory body or for local or municipal government.

Presently the Kenyan ombudsman deals with the limited role of matters concerned with governmental departments.

Mr James Simani, a lawyer, was and is the first Kenyan ombudsman appointed by the Minister for Justice, National Cohesion and Constitutional Affairs.

During the release of its quarterly report for the year 2009/2010, it was reported that 2372 complaints were received by the ombudsman compared to 2061 last year.

Nature of complaints

Most of the complaints are in the form of administrative problems. Kenyans are complaining about delayed and miscalculated pension claims, paid for but disconnected electricity supply, insurance claims and vehicle registration problems.

Others include allegations of unfair sackings and dismissals, irregular recruitment and remuneration as well as disagreements with lawyers over court awards.

Making a complaint to an ombudsman is free of charge.

The main functions of the Kenyan ombudsman on establishment were given, amongst others, as:

(i) To receive, register, sort, classify and document all complaints against public officers in ministries, parastatals/ State corporations, statutory bodies or any other public institution;

(ii) To inquire into allegations of misuse of office, corruption, unethical conduct, breach of integrity, maladministration, delay, injustice, discourtesy, inattention, incompetence, misbehaviour, inefficiency or ineptitude among others.

(iii) To help set up and build complaint handling capacity in the sectors of public service registering high incidences of complaints. This includes but it is not limited to the following areas; health, local authorities, police, lands, financial services among others.

In Canada the office of the ombudsman is present in all departments of the federal government, in many provincial and municipal governments as well as in crown corporations such as CBC and Canada Post. This trend may well be worth experimenting say in the local government section.

In the USA in 1979 the Taxpayer Ombudsman Officer, and later in 1996 the Office of the Taxpayer Advocate, was created within the Internal Revenue Service that acts as an ombudsman for the taxpayer and alleviated citizen’s complaints immensely.

Many private companies, universities, non-profit organisations and government agencies also have an ombudsman or an ombuds office to serve internal employees and managers and/or other constituencies.

Great office

There is no doubt that the ombudsman will in times to come be of great value to citizens.

The office needs to be incorporated in the constitution, and given more teeth and muscle through an Act of Parliament and its mandates increased.

Commensurate logistic and financial support must also be provided for by law.