Who we are

THE INSTITUTE FOR SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY

We are a movement that seeks to promote citizen empowerment and government accountability in Kenya with the aim of helping Kenyans fulfill the promise of constitutional reform.

Our Vision

A country where empowered citizens claim their rights and hold duty-bearers accountable for effective service delivery.

Our Mission

To promote constitutionalism and citizens’ voice through social accountability and inclusion by duty bearers for improved governance and fulfilment of human rights.

TISA was founded in 2008, after nearly three years of work on the CDF Accountability Project (CAP) established in 2005 to promote CDF social audits during the early days of the National Alliance Rainbow Coalition, a vibrant democratic time, but also a heavily contested political time, which culminated in the post-election violence of 2007.

TISA expanded its scope as the new constitution in 2010 introduced devolution and county governments, taking over some of the functions of CDF. Over the years TISA has grown due to its character as a learning and convening organization. This has resulted in several innovations, including social audits on CDF, scorecards on various projects and, most recently, digital social accountability.

TISA defines social accountability as the process by which citizens hold duty-bearers responsible for their actions. This involves ensuring that individuals, agencies, and organizations, particularly those in the public sector, execute their powers under established values and principles of the constitution and known professional norms, whether mutually agreed upon or not. TISA operates to address the challenge of holding duty-bearers accountable during the five-year intervals between election cycles.

The period between election cycles sees heightened citizen participation in the governance process. However, apathy, especially in Kenyan communities, poses a significant challenge. Many citizens express a disconnect between their elected representatives, and the need to follow up on their actions actively. The concept of social accountability often fails to permeate the electorate, leading to distrust about the possibility of holding leaders accountable. Despite constitutional provisions for actions like recalling the president, citizens often perceive that the President is above the law due to a prevailing view of power dynamics.

For TISA, social accountability lies on the spectrum between Active Citizenship and Accountable Governance. Active Citizenship involves providing citizens with information, emphasizing access to information and building capacity for informed action. Conversely, Accountable Governance necessitates engaging with the government to address structural challenges affecting service delivery. TISA collaborates with various institutions, including Parliament, the Treasury, the Office of the Auditor General, The Controller of Budget, the Judiciary, and the Council of Governors, advocating for transparency, accountability and participation in governance. TISA adopts a dual approach, interacting with the government as critical actors while simultaneously working to empower citizens. The organization effectively determined strategies to deploy, whether through litigation, dialogue or cooperation, citizen action, research and analysis, media actions to achieve accountable governance based on the current context.

Core Values

➢ Credibility: TISA will seek to apply itself to development challenges in a manner that’s reliable, dependable and promotes integrity of both process and staff. TISA will serve as an honest interlocutor to represent and give voice to the needs of its stakeholders in a consistent and honest manner.

➢ Constitutionalism: TISA upholds the philosophy that government authority is derived from the people and should at all times be expressed in the body of the law to prevent arbitrary exercise of and abuse of power. TISA will strive to achieve a balance of power in political discourse as a basis for inclusive and accountable governance.

➢ Trust: TISA will conduct herself in a manner that builds trust through transparent, consistent, and reliable conduct, processes, and approaches.

➢ Teamwork: TISA will augment individual staff skills through teamwork, based on constructive dialogue and feedback at all times. While encouraging individual expression and uniqueness, TISA staff will be expected to cooperate and coordinate their efforts to enhance the utilization of scare resources towards the realization of project goals.

➢ People Centered: We recognize that all TISA Trustees, staff, and partners are legitimate stakeholders in our endeavors irrespective of social status, race, and gender. While demonstrating effective leadership, we shall adopt a horizontal engagement approach which is responsive to stakeholder needs and respectful of individual dignity.

➢ Social Entrepreneurs: We will be creative in our work and commit ourselves to seek out new development paradigms and solutions to Kenya’s social development challenges. We commit ourselves towards building our capacities and leveraging our assets to create positive change in society.

our partners

We constantly seek to partner with organisations and individuals who share in our common vision of eradicating barriers to public inclusion, accountability and transparency in government.