Top List of Institutions Making Kenyans To Wait Longest For Service

Top List of Institutions Making Kenyans To Wait Longest For Service

A recent study from Kenya’s Ombudsman Office highlights severe delays in the delivery of government services.

The Status of Administrative Justice and Access to Information Report, released on Wednesday, May 22, shows that 17 public entities accounted for more than half of all complaints made between 2012 and 2023.

The most commonly complained-about institutions were the National Police Service, the Ministry of Lands and Physical Planning, the Ministry of Interior and National Security Coordination, and the Judiciary.

These findings highlight the widespread obstacles that Kenyans experience in obtaining timely and effective public services.

In its eleven years of operation, the Commission has overseen 42,678 cases, resolving 25,501 of them, for a resolution rate of 59.8 percent.

According to the report, the National Police Service received the most complaints (9.22%), followed by the Ministry of Lands (6.88%) and the Ministry of Interior (6.62%).

The Judiciary was the topic of 5.82 percent of the complaints, while the Ministry of Education, County Governments, the Office of the Attorney General, and the National Treasury received 3.82, 3.33, 2.46, and 2.30 percent, respectively.

Other institutions with more than 1% but less than 2% of complaints are the Teachers Service Commission, Ministry of Labour and Social Protection, Pensions Department, National Land Commission, Kenya Power, Department of Civil Registration, Ministry of Health, Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, and Department of Immigration.

According to the Ombudsman, delays, defined as a public institution’s failure to respond within a reasonable time in accordance with normal processes, are the most common type of maladministration, accounting for 22.60 percent of all complaints.

Unresponsive official conduct, defined as a public officer’s failure to reply to communication without good justification, comes in at 19%.

Other major issues raised include abuse of power, discriminatory treatment, and administrative injustice.

Manifest injustice accounted for 16.40% of the complaints, inefficiency for 12.50%, unfair treatment for 11.30%, misuse of power for 10.60%, oppressive official behaviour for 5.60%, and discourtesy for 2%.

According to the report, Kenyans are more likely to experience delays than discourtesy when seeking government services. This has serious consequences for the effectiveness and public perception of these institutions.

The National Police Service, which includes the Kenya Police Service, Administration Police Service, and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, has been a particular focus.

The police service, which has roughly 101,288 officers, is organized into various specialised sections that deal with a variety of concerns like traffic, tourism, trains, and critical infrastructure security.

Despite these divisions, the agency continues to face concerns about inefficiency and malfeasance.

The Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA), which was designed to monitor and investigate police wrongdoing, has seen a rise in complaints, from 594 in 2012 to 3,583 in 2021.

A considerable majority of these complaints, 36.1%, concerned charges of police abuse, 30.6% involved shootings that caused harm, and 22.2% involved fatalities.

Despite the IPOA’s efforts, many of these cases remain unresolved, demonstrating a recurring problem within the police force.

Top List of Institutions Making Kenyans To Wait Longest For Service