President William Ruto on Thursday said there's a legislation process to create a framework for citizens to be meaningfully involved in public participation since it is an opportunity to figure out how to resolve problems together.
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00:00I have made a commitment, and you've heard the Speaker of the Senate say, we did agree
00:09that public participation is not a sterile provision of the Constitution.
00:16It must amount to something.
00:19And it is the reason why we've been grappling as a nation, how do we actualize public participation?
00:26We are now working on legislation, as you've heard.
00:31In a couple of months, we should now have a framework that contextualizes, creates a
00:38framework for citizens to meaningfully participate in enacting policy, enacting legislation,
00:48and every act of government that requires the public to participate in.
00:52That is number one.
00:54Number two, we have now worked at the Attorney General's office, and I want to ask the civil
01:03society who are present here to work with the Attorney General as we improve three pieces
01:09of legislation.
01:10Number one, improve legislation on Evidence Act, so that we can deal with matters of corruption
01:17in the shortest time possible.
01:20Improve legislation on e-procurement, and make government procurement open, including
01:28making sure that it is in the public domain which contracts have been awarded, for how
01:35much money, to which companies.
01:38And so that the public can judge for themselves whether they are getting value for money,
01:43or they are being taken for a ride.
01:46I have made that commitment, the work is in the Attorney General's office.
01:49I welcome Zalendo, I welcome all the other civil society groups to participate in bringing
01:55this legislation to the fore.
01:57And I'm very happy with this framework, because the civil society that is present here would
02:05have chosen to come here with fuvuzela and placards.
02:10But they have chosen...
02:11Sometimes they might still have to do that.
02:14But they've come here to say, okay, what are the challenges that we have?
02:18How do we meaningfully contribute, institutionalise the solutions, rather than pander on the problems,
02:28you know, or the challenges?
02:29How do we institutionalise solutions?
02:32How do we bring legislation?
02:35How do we create institutions?
02:37How do we put a policy framework in place?
02:43And you have said yourself, it's easy to pontificate about the challenges we have.
02:50It is difficult to frame the solutions.
02:54I am very happy with Open Government Partnership.
02:57It gives us an opportunity with the judiciary, with the legislature, with the executive,
03:02with civil society, with the private sector, to figure out how we solve problems together.
03:09And this is why I believe in this framework.