Public officials who fail to seek citizens’ views before making key government decisions could soon face jail terms and personal fines after a parliamentary committee endorsed tougher penalties aimed at enforcing public participation laws.
The National Assembly’s Justice and Legal Affairs Committee (JLAC) has approved amendments to the Public Participation Bill, 2025, which seek to ensure public officers are held personally responsible whenever constitutional requirements on public participation are ignored.
If passed into law, the Bill will provide Kenya with a legal framework that guides how government agencies should involve members of the public before passing laws, approving budgets and rolling out major public projects.
The committee, chaired by Tharaka MP Gitonga Murugara, says accountability should lie with the public officer responsible for the breach rather than the institution they serve.
“The responsible authority shall be personally liable for failing to adhere to the law,” JLAC said it is report on the proposed law.
The committee also wants penalties for violating public participation rules to target individual officers instead of government agencies.
“The fine for failure to adhere to the principles and guidelines should be enhanced and held against an individual, not just the institution,” the committee said in its report.
The recommendation follows concerns raised during public hearings that penalties imposed on public institutions fail to achieve their purpose because they are ultimately settled using public funds.
Participants during consultations in Kisumu and several other counties argued that officers who disregard constitutional obligations should carry the burden themselves instead of leaving taxpayers to pay for their mistakes.
Some stakeholders proposed raising the maximum fine to Sh10 million, arguing that the proposed Sh500,000 penalty would not be enough to discourage repeated violations.
Those who appeared before the committee in Nakuru proposed increasing the fine to Sh1 million, while others suggested a penalty of Sh5 million or one per cent of the value of the affected project, whichever amount is higher.
The committee agreed that tougher punishment is necessary to stop repeated violations of constitutional requirements and strengthen accountability within public institutions.
The Bill was jointly sponsored by Rarieda MP Otiende Amollo and Ainabkoi MP Samuel Chepkonga. It was introduced in the National Assembly for the First Reading in November last year.
The proposed law also seeks to give courts the authority to overturn decisions made through defective public participation processes or where no public participation took place.
The committee said any public participation exercise conducted in contravention of the law could be declared invalid by the courts.
If Parliament approves the proposals, members of the public will have the right to challenge laws, policies, budgets and government projects adopted without proper public participation.
The proposals have received support from civil society organisations, including the Katiba Institute, the Siaya County Civil Society Network and the Kisii CSOs Network, which backed stronger measures to ensure government institutions fully comply with public participation requirements.