12
Jul
In the budget process, county governments in Kenya produce voluminous documents for consumption targeting various stakeholders. More often than not, the common citizen gets lost as too much focus is shifted to the power brokers and those considered wielding state influence. The need for a citizen’s budget at the county level is critical as the opinion shapers are the citizens.
A Citizen’s Budget is a non-technical presentation of the government budget, which is aimed at enabling the public to follow the government’s agenda as determined by the available public resources. It also provides an opportunity for citizens to monitor and evaluate implementation of these budgets thus providing a way of encouraging ordinary people to participate in governance. The Citizen’s Budget is designed to present key public finance information to a general audience in an accessible language and incorporate visual elements to help non-specialist readers to understand the information.
This is the path that Fahamu has undertaken, under the Participatory Budgeting project, to set precedence for county governments to provide the same in future budget processes.
The Citizen’s Budget is for Kenyans and we hope it will contribute to achieving the desired full citizen participation that is guaranteed by the constitution of Kenya.
CLICK HERE to learn more about the Participatory Budgeting Project.