The Commission on Administrative Justice (CAJ), commonly known as the Office of the Ombudsman, has raised concern over persistent delays in resolving public complaints and challenges affecting access to government information.
The Commission will over the next three days engage leaders of 54 public institutions, including nine State Departments, to address the challenges and strengthen compliance with the Access to Information (ATI) Act, 2016.
The engagement will bring together agency leaders and key decision-makers to promote proactive disclosure of public information, improve institutional accountability and strengthen mechanisms for resolving complaints.
The Commission said the meetings will also seek to streamline referral pathways, clarify institutional mandates and establish effective feedback mechanisms to support faster resolution of complaints.
The measures are expected to help reduce case backlogs, improve the responsiveness of public institutions and strengthen public confidence in administrative justice mechanisms.
The Commission said a significant number of complaints against public institutions remain unresolved due to institutional delays, lack of response, weak feedback mechanisms and failure by some agencies to implement its recommendations.
Under its administrative justice mandate, the Commission received 813 complaints against public institutions between January and December 2025.
Of these, 228 complaints, representing 28 per cent, were resolved, while 579 complaints, or 72 per cent, remained pending at the end of the reporting period.
The complaints were heavily concentrated among nine institutions, which accounted for 630 complaints, representing 77 per cent of the total.
The Commission said improving complaint handling and service delivery in these institutions could have a significant impact on reducing the national backlog.
Pending rates among the nine institutions with the highest number of complaints ranged from 40 per cent at the Ministry of Interior to 89 per cent at Kenya Power.
Kenya Power, the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA), the Department of Immigration, the Social Health Authority (SHA) and the Pension Department recorded pending rates of more than 80 per cent.
The figures relate to complaints lodged in 2025 and do not include unresolved cases carried forward from previous years.
Delay was the leading complaint category, accounting for 42 per cent of complaints among the nine high-volume institutions.
The issue was particularly prominent in the Pension Department and Immigration, where delay-related complaints accounted for nearly 80 per cent of complaints.
Other major complaint categories included unresponsive official conduct at 10 per cent, unfair treatment at nine per cent and inefficiency at seven per cent.
The Commission also identified complaints involving abuse of power and unlawful official conduct, particularly at the Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Education.
It said the cases highlighted the need to strengthen accountability and compliance with administrative standards while improving service delivery.
However, some institutions recorded stronger complaint resolution rates despite receiving high numbers of complaints.
The Ministry of Interior, which received 114 complaints, resolved 60 per cent of its cases, the highest resolution rate among the nine institutions with the largest caseloads.
The Commission said this presents an opportunity to examine and share practices that could be adopted by other institutions facing high volumes of complaints.
The Commission has also reported a sharp increase in applications for review of access to information cases over the past decade.
Applications for review increased from 32 in the 2016/17 financial year to 654 in the 2025/26 financial year, representing more than a 20-fold increase.
Overall, the Commission received 2,260 applications for review during the 10-year period.
The Ombudsman said the increase reflects growing public awareness of the constitutional right to access information and the willingness of Kenyans to seek redress when the right is not respected.
However, the rising number of applications also points to persistent weaknesses in institutional compliance.
The Commission said many public institutions are yet to routinely publish information that should be readily available to the public under the ATI Act.
As a result, citizens are sometimes forced to make formal requests for information that should ordinarily be accessible without an application.
The Commission also raised concern over institutions that fail to respond to requests for information within statutory timelines.
Delayed, inadequate or non-existent responses remain among the key factors driving applications for review before the Commission.
Some public institutions also lack clearly designated and empowered Information Access Officers, internal ATI policies and procedures, effective request-tracking systems and adequate staff capacity to manage information requests.
The Commission said effective access to information also depends on reliable and well-managed records.
Incomplete digitisation and weak information management systems continue to affect the ability of institutions to retrieve and disclose public information promptly.
The Ombudsman further raised concern over delays or failure by some public institutions to correct, update or annotate inaccurate, incomplete or outdated personal information as required by law.
Public institutions are required to submit annual Access to Information reports to the Commission by June 30.
The reports help the Commission monitor compliance by providing information on requests received, processing timelines, refusals, fees and resources dedicated to access to information.
Despite guidance and reminders from the Commission, compliance with the reporting requirement remains a concern.
The Commission has urged public institutions to adopt a culture of proactive openness instead of waiting for citizens to make formal requests for information.
Institutions have been encouraged to designate and empower Information Access Officers, establish clear internal ATI policies and procedures, respond to requests within statutory timelines and strengthen records management.
They have also been urged to accelerate digitisation, train staff on access to information obligations, ensure personal information is accurate and up to date, submit statutory ATI reports on time and implement decisions and orders issued through the ATI review process.
The Commission said the long-term objective should not only be to increase its capacity to process review applications but also to reduce the number of disputes reaching the Ombudsman.
It said public institutions should develop systems and an institutional culture that enable them to provide accurate information promptly in the first instance.
A well-functioning access to information system should allow citizens to obtain information directly from public institutions without unnecessary delays or intervention by the Commission.
The Ombudsman said it will continue supporting and monitoring public institutions through compliance assessments, proactive disclosure audits, capacity building, stakeholder engagement and enforcement where necessary.
The Commission is also proposing stronger mechanisms for monitoring compliance, including ATI compliance scorecards, monitoring of Information Access Officers and assessment of records management and digitisation systems.
It also plans to increase the use of feedback from citizens, the media and civil society to assess institutional compliance.
The Commission said access to information is a constitutional right and a key pillar of transparent, accountable and participatory governance.
It said timely access to reliable information enables citizens to understand government decisions, participate in public affairs, monitor the use of public resources and hold public institutions accountable.
The Ombudsman has therefore urged public institutions to make openness, transparency and timely access to information a routine part of governance and public service delivery.
Email your news TIPS to Editor@Kahawatungu.com — this is our only official communication channel
