Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative & Katiba Institute Right to Information Learning Programme in India
Kenya enacted its Access to Information Act in August 2016. Although this law has become operational with immediate effect, Regulations for detailing the procedures for seeking and obtaining information and deciding information access disputes are still in the works. Meanwhile, several civil society actors have started testing the efficacy of the law by making requests for information of public interest and a handful of cases have reached courts for adjudication.
The Comonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) worked with Katiba Institute, Kenya to select participants in accordance with the overall objectives of the Right to Information Learning Programme (RTI-LP).
The specific objectives of the RTI-LP were as follows:
- to enable participants to better understand the significance of the right to information (RTI) in the context of democracy, rule of law, accountable and corruption-free governance, sustainable development and human rights;
- to arrange interactions for participants with RTI campaigners and practitioners in India to better understand campaign strategies for enacting and implementing the RTI Act in India;
- to familiarise participants with the measures taken to implement the Right to Information Act (RTI Act) in public authorities through interactions with key functionaries and site-visits;
- to apprise participants of the manner of use of RTI by citizens, civil society and the media in India; and
- to identify opportunities to widen the base of the RTI coalitions in the participants’ country and to identify collaborative activities.
Please find a report of that learning programme here for your further reading.