Fafi MP Salah Yakub on Tuesday challenged NGOs operating in his constituency to up their game in terms of assisting the community saying that their activities must be well coordinated so that their impact can be felt.
Speaking after a meeting, the first of its kind in a decade and with brought together sub county commissioners from Bura East and Fafi, assistant county commissioners ,local administrators and NGOs working in Fafi, the MP regretted that several NGOs were only there on paper but could not be felt on the ground.
“First of all we are very thankful to the interventions carried out by most of the NGOs in terms of assisting our people. however the activities of most of the NGOs are not well coordinated in our area. Most of them are pocket NGOs and don’t even have offices around .we want to know what they are doing and how they are helping our people,”.
In Fafi, according to records from the Garissa NGO board office, there are 17 national and international NGOs working in the area. however not even one has an office in the area.
My area of concern is how can NGO claim to be operating in my area and yet they have no offices or staff. that is practically impossible. Mine is an appeal and a request to the national coordination board to stamp their authority to seriously audit the NGOs working in my area,” he said.
The MP said that while he understood that the NGOs board might not have the capacity and resources required to man and supervise NGOs in the country, he nonetheless challenged it to ‘pull up its socks’ noting that its laxity was giving the NGOs a field day.
“Mine is just to give a strong message to the national NGOs coordination board. I understand most of the NGOs are not audited, supervised and accounted for what they are doing. I want to see a situation where they are held accountable for that they are doing in terms of stuff, recruitment and finances from donors. if they cant do that they I think we should amend the act and give an authority to EACC to do that,”.
The MP further took issue with the NGOs concentrating in one sector at the expense of other important areas that he said equally required attention.
“I am concerned that all NGOs are focused on undertaking cash transfer services to needy people while neglecting other sectors which are equally vital to the community, such as provision of basic health care services and adequate clean water to the families”, he said.
Speaking at the forum Bura East deputy county commissioner Thomas Bett encouraged NGOs to follow the laid down procedures and operate in openness saying that the national government will continue working closely with the other relevant government agencies to make sure that their presence is felt on the ground.
“we want to request all the NGOs operating in this area to gear their programmes towards saving lives.as you know the area is facing serious drought and peoples livelihood are in danger. and so it is always wise that what the left hand is doing the right hand should knows as a form of coordination,” he said.
On his part Joseph Mutemi, Northeastern region officer in charge of NGOs coordination took issue with a number of NGOs operating in the region saying that majority of them were not operating in a transparent manner.
“it is unfortunate that we have hundreds of briefcase NGOs which are only there on paper but in the real sense they don’t exist on the ground. I want to challenge them to closely work with my office, local administrators and leadership so that we can all work towards uplifting the lives of our people,” he said.