Refugee and Host Community engagement with county government on advocacy

Pamoja trust has facilitated conversations between refugee and host communities with Nairobi County Government in efforts to have refugee issues feature in government programs and policies and simultaneously respond to community needs. In the invited county spaces, refugee and host communities in the form of social movements have effectively engaged duty bearers in community project prioritization forums that led to formation of sub-county strategic plans. In the aftermath of the 2022 general elections, refugees and host communities through facilitation by Pamoja Trust took part in intensive rigorous processes to identify and prioritize key issues and projects in respective sub counties. This led to the formation of community strategic plans that portrayed citizens’ aspirations and simultaneously addressed refugee service provision in key sectors like health and education. The strategic plans were developed in the sub counties of Westland, Dagoreti Noth, Kibra, Mathare, Kamukunji, Embakasi Central and South, Kasarani and Roysambu. The process saw participation of more than 100 refugees in this policy development process that later found their way into the Nairobi County integrated Development Plan for 2022-2027. In the pretext of marginalized groups, the document addresses refugee needs and even goes ahead to designate critical offices to respond to refugee concerns in Nairobi.

In the public finance management sphere, through constant inclusion of refugees in PFM trainings in the nine target sub counties, refugees in Kangemi, Roysambu and Kasarani areas have joined local budget champions who critically analyze county budget documents and submit memorandums responding to county proposals. In Kangemi, the budget champion team comprising 9 refugees, and 8 hosts have further established a deliberate subgroup to scrutinize and track development allocations for projects in the sub county. In one instance, the team has written several letters to the directorate of public participation in Nairobi County calling out on the office to further devolve public participation forums by conducting them nearer to the people. In Kasarani, refugees have joined hands with host communities to track the governor’s promise of constructing a market. Refugees conducting businesses in the proposed site have already enlisted their names in the project beneficiary lists to ensure they equally get market stalls once the project comes to realization. The budget cycle process is vicious, while each stage has seen refugees in the mentioned sub counties take an active role in not only analyzing the county proposals but also taking active role in public participation forums. Recently the budget champions formed a county wide budget champions network comprising more than 150 individuals. In this network, the key positions of network secretary and coordinator have been given to aggressive and knowledgeable refugees in the public finance realm. 

After interventions by Pamoja Trust and the continuous involvement of refugees in public discourses, refugees have found their voices included in Nairobi County policy papers. One example is the NCCG Biashara stimulus paper that has enshrined refugees’ aspects in it after the group through invented spaces developed a memorandum to bargain for refugee inclusion in the stimulus program. Other policies like the sports policy have since seen refugee needs and special circumstances highlighted in the paper.