Mzalendo Has its Eyes on The Kenyan Parliament
The Mzalendo website allows Kenyans to keep their parliament in check and scrutinize their dealings. Sounds like a fantasy you say? Then you have not come across the Mzalendo website. Today we speak to Mzalendo’s Executive Director, Jessica Musila.
- Tell us first of all, what Mzalendo is all about?
Mzalendo Trust is a non-partisan Parliamentary Monitoring initiative which keeps an eye on Parliament and makes information on Parliamentarians (Members of the National Assembly and Senators) and their activities easily accessible to the public.
On Mzalendo, the public can access their MPs’ contacts, biographical information, individual contributions to debate in plenary as captured in the official Hansard and their Constituency Development Fund (CDF) allocation and spending information. Information on Bills sponsored is also presented.
- What inspired you to start Mzalendo?
Mzalendo was started in 2005 as a blog to track activities of the Kenyan Parliament and also serve as a repository of Parliamentarians biographical information. Inspiration for the site came from a similar portal in the UK.
- Who does Mzalendo target and why?
Mzalendo seeks to inform Kenyans and the public at large about the role of Parliament and Parliamentarians as the people’s representatives. Kenyan MPs are paid from public taxes and it is important to ensure they are accountable by opening up their Parliamentary work to facilitate their constituents scrutiny. Constitutionally, Kenyans have a responsibility to participate in their governance and through the Mzalendo blogposts, social media and website we highlight public opportunities to engage Parliamentarians and give opinion to inform bills and committee deliberations.
- Tell us a bit about the public participation on Mzalendo’s website.
On Mzalendo, the public can access their MPs: contacts, biographical information, individual contributions to debate in plenary as captured in the official Hansard and their Constituency Development Fund (CDF) allocation and spending information. Information on Bills sponsored is also captured. We avail this information to the public to empower them to have candid conversation about the issues with their Parliamentarians.
The public has an opportunity to post comments on their Member of the National Assembly (MNA), Women representative’s and Senator’s profile. They can also send us feedback on anything posted on the site or share additional information they have about their leaders. The latter could be a contact detail or any other information missing on his profile.
- In the wake of the Garissa Attack recently, why is Mzalendo important today?
Through the blog, Mzalendo presents an unbiased viewpoint of matters that Parliamentarians are supposed to give their input to. This helps Kenyans focus on the issues in line with the Constitution and the law guiding particular issues e.g. security. At the same time, our blogs remind the public that the core task of a Parliamentarian is representation, legislation and oversight and their commentary outside Parliamentary premises is just politics and often empty rhetoric.
- What are some of the achievements you have achieved over the years?
We pride ourselves in always having current contacts of all the 349 Members of the National Assembly and 67 Senators. We also source and avail all critical Parliamentary reports and bills of great public interest on our site.
Annually Mzalendo compiles Parliamentarians performance score-card based on their Hansard contributions which we release at the beginning of every Parliamentary year.
In 2014, we also started running the first ever ‘People’s Shujaaz Awards’ to celebrate MPs who have championed issues of great public interest like education, water, food, budgetary oversight and devolution. The awards ceremony coincided with the Jamhuri Day celebrations and we plan to make this an annual event.
In 2013 General election, Mzalendo ended up being the alternate site to the Independent Electoral Boundaries Commission (IEBC) one, providing all candidates or aspirants information for free.
Our site has also become a trend-setter in sub-Saharan Africa and has been copied in 5 countries: Uganda, Nigeria, Ghana, Zimbabwe and South Africa.
- What is the future for Mzalendo?
We would like to deepen our Parliamentary engagement and also find partners to run similar initiatives to scrutinize County Assembly business.
