Global PersPectives
the act offers workshops to educate NGOs on
government development policies. In turn,
NGOs are required to submit annual reports,
including audits on financing, human resources,
proj ects undertaken, and governance. And the
National Council of NGOs, whose members are
NGOs themselves, facilitates coordination and
advocacy among its thousands of members.
The liberal open environment in which the
NGOs have traditionally operated has been
stung by Kenyan government efforts to
enhance security by targeting NGOs. These
changes were precipitated by the 1998 twin
bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and
Tanzania and the 2013 attack by al- Shabaab on
the Westgate shopping center in Nairobi, an
attack that killed 67 people. One of the actions
taken in response, and justified in the name of
national security, was to close more than 500
NGOs, including more than 15 NGOs that
allegedly raised funds for terrorism. The NGO
Coordination Board has deregistered these
organ izations for noncompliance with the law,
accusing them of using their charitable status
as a front for raising cash for terrorism. Of the
organ izations closed for failing to provide
financial audits were orphanages, health
NGOs, and Christian organ izations.
Kenya is not the only East African country
that has initiated anti- NGO policies. In 2009,Their dramatic increase in numbers and
enhanced activities in virtually all sectors of
social, economic, and po liti cal life in Kenya
can be attributed to the shifts in international
donors’ economic development strategies. The
World Bank and UN development agencies,
as well as the northern bilateral donors like
the U.S. Agency for International Development
and Canada’s Canadian International Develop-
ment Agency, have increasingly turned to
NGOs to implement policies at the grassroots
level as the Kenyan state capacity to provide
ser vices and programs has diminished. It is
estimated that the NGO sector brings more
than $1.2 billion of external resources into
Kenya, implementing proj ects in education,
population and health, welfare, the environ-
ment, and, more recently, in gender empower-
ment. One of its own, Wangari Maathai, won
the Nobel Peace Prize for her founding of a
prominent NGO, Green Belt Movement, which
focuses on environmental sustainability.
Both the government and NGOs have or -
ganized to try to make the charitable sector
more responsible. Under the Non- Governmental
Organ izations Coordination Act of 1990, the
government has tried to make the work in this
sector more complimentary to its own, through
regulation, capacity building, and advisory
activities. For example, the board established by
NGOs have been a vibrant sector in Kenya, particularly since the explosion of the
numbers of NGOs during the 1990s. From more than 800 NGOs pres ent in the
mid-1990s, an estimated 4,200 existed a de cade later. Kenya is known for having a
liberal economic landscape, and NGOs, along with a strong and vibrant private sector,
play a critical role. Moreover, the presence of NGOs represents a long tradition of phi-
lanthropy and volunteerism in that country.