On May 9, 2024, the government finally operationalized the Public Benefit Organisations (PBO) Act of 2013 through Legal Notice No. 78. However, operation of the law has been hampered by lack of adequate funding to process and adopt the regulations attendant to successful implementation of the law.

“In exercise of the powers conferred by Section 1 of the Public Benefit Organisations Act, 2013, the Cabinet Secretary for Interior and National Administration stated the 14th of May 2024, as the date on which the Act shall come into operation”, then Cabinet Secretary for Interior, Kithure Kindiki stated in the Gazette Supplement.

Kindiki is now the Deputy President, paving the way for appointment of Kipchumba Murkomen as CS for Interior. Together with Raymond Omollo, the Interior Principal Secretary, the task to ensure the law is fully operationalised falls squarely on the duo; with the Regulatory Authority (PBORA) and its secretariat under the Director General; and the PBOs providing necessary support.

Commencement of the Act effectively repealed the Non-Governmental Organizations Coordination Act, will alter Kenya’s regulatory landscape in transformative ways. Its full implementation will mark a paradigm shift in registration, regulation, and engagement with sector actors.

The PBO Act is the new regulatory framework that provides for the establishment and operation of public benefit organizations, providing for their registration; and establishing an administrative and regulatory framework within which the organizations can conduct their affairs.

The law recognizes the important role that the PBOs  play in serving the public good—supporting development, social cohesion and tolerance; while also promoting democracy, respect for the rule of law, and providing accountability mechanisms that contribute to improved governance.

The law aims to among others, create a conducive environment for the growth of the sector; establish an administrative and regulatory framework within which public benefit organizations can conduct their affairs; and to encourage the organizations to set and maintain high standards of governance, transparency and accountability, and to review and improve those standards.

Other objects of the Act are to inspire a spirit of co-operation and shared responsibility within government, among donors, and other stakeholders in their dealings with the organizations.

But more fundamentally, the new law provides another layer of protection to internationally recognized freedoms of association, peaceful assembly and expression; a highly contested issue in Kenya’s constitutional and governance discourse if a recent warnings in which the regulator put 2,802 organizations on notice for deregistration for failing to file returns, coming as it did at the same time as Ford Foundation came under attack in the midst of anti-tax youth-led uprising in 2024.

Promotion of self-regulation will be key to successful implementation of the regulatory framework. Unlike the NGO Act that spawned non-compliance, PBOs are expected to fall in line with stringent ethical standards and aspirations. Self-regulating forums, and the National Federation of PBOs will play a pivotal role in ensuring that provisions of the law with respect to ethical standards of the law are adhered to.

Section 23 provides that PBOs may voluntarily join and maintain membership in a self-regulation forums.

While the NGO Act aimed at regulating and coordinating the activities of national and international NGOs, the PBO Act opens its door for CBOs as well, introducing a more nuanced approach to regulation in a manner that reflects the growth, diversity and complexity of civic actors in Kenya’s robust constitutional and governance architecture.

The PBO Act is set to become the main supervisory framework in Kenya’s diverse regulatory mechanism for Non-Profit Organizations (NPOs). Other regulators for the sector include the Societies Act, the Companies Act, and the more recently enacted Community Groups Registration Act. But the PBO, if properly implemented, has inherent incentives likely to pull many organizations under its armpit.

The writer is the Executive Director of the Kenya National Civil Society Centre, and Chairperson of the Horn of Africa Civil Society Forum.