Political accountability means public officials, especially elected and appointed leaders, taking responsibility for their actions and decisions. It is a key part of democracy that ensures leaders are answerable for their conduct and the impact of their policies. This accountability promotes transparency, builds public trust, and allows citizens to assess their leaders’ performance and take part in governance.
Enhanced fairness and public accountability in political governance processes.
KHRC focuses on the state’s long history of failing to meet its human rights obligations. Governments have a duty to respect, protect, and fulfill human rights, including shielding individuals from harm caused by third parties like businesses and ensuring justice for violations.
Failure to uphold these responsibilities has led to widespread human rights abuses by state and non-state actors, often without consequences. In Kenya, TJRC and civil society reports have documented these violations in detail.
Building on KHRC’s strong track record of supporting communities and victims in holding the state accountable, we are tapping into the rising political power of the people, especially the youth movements that have gained momentum in Kenya and globally since 2024. Our strategy is backed by constitutional, legal, and treaty mechanisms that demand state accountability.
We are focusing on three key areas to promote political accountability in state institutions:
We want elections that truly reflect the sovereign will of the people. Elections shape the kind of leadership a country gets and how committed that leadership is to human rights and democracy. Over the next decade, KHRC is staying active in all parts of the electoral process — before, during, and after elections. We are holding elected and appointed leaders, as well as their corporate allies, accountable. Our efforts focus on voters, electoral bodies, and civil society groups in Kenya and the region. We are also responding to the human rights abuses that often occur during African elections.
We are ensuring justice for all, especially:
We are quickly responding to new governance and human rights issues as they come up to ensure timely support and intervention.
Economic and social justice is about principles that aim to ensure fair and equitable treatment and access to resources for all individuals and communities. This aims to achieve the realization of economic and social rights, which are enshrined in the Constitution, the regional and international treaties, and critical in the protection of people’s well-being and social development.
Therefore, the focus here is on the realization of health and educational rights. On needs basis, we are working on the strategic interventions on access to employment opportunities among other governance processes that affect access to economic, social and cultural rights.
Enhanced social and economic well-being and dignity of individuals and communities.
People whose ECOSOC rights have been denied, especially in education and health. In education, we are focusing on inclusion, progressive funding, and safe learning environments. In health, KHRC is looking at workers’ rights, how under- funding affects services, and how privatization limits access to affordable and quality healthcare, including sexual health and reproductive rights.
We are investing in transforming and fostering accountability in the education and health sectors, which are in dire situation, yet they remain some of the most critical social and economic rights. We are also addressing access to employment opportunities, a critical livelihood issue for many.
We are quickly addressing other new and emerging social and economic injustices.
Corporate accountability means that people affected by a company’s actions can hold it responsible for what it does. This also means that a company’s behavior can be influenced by pressure from outside—like communities, civil society, or the government. These groups can use different methods, including legal action, to ensure that companies follow social and ethical standards.
Enhanced corporates' respect for business and human rights obligations.
KHRC focuses on tackling human rights abuses caused by unfair and oppressive economic policies and actions by companies and governments. According to the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, states and companies must prevent and respond to human rights violations in business activities. Building on our strong history in this area, KHRC continues to lead efforts to stop corporate abuse and state capture and fight for justice in national and global supply chains.
We are focusing on three main areas to promote corporate accountability in key sectors:
In the horticulture and land and natural resource sectors, KHRC continues to work on labour rights, community rights, and climate justice. The sovereignty components of these are integral. Challenging the oppressive conservation model is advanced separately and entrenched within and across the land, resources and climate justice interventions. In telecommunications, we are focusing on digital security, data privacy, and corporate negligence.
We are responding to corporate actions that violate people's rights to education, health, housing, clean water, and environment.
We are quickly addressing new and emerging injustices linked to corporate activities.
Institutional excellence means achieving high performance, quality, and effectiveness in everything we do. It involves constantly improving how we operate by using proven methods, new ideas, and learning from evidence. On the other hand, institutional resilience is our ability to cope with challenges and bounce back quickly from tough situations.
KHRC systems and people transformed to deliver on its mandate.
KHRC is more flexible, effective, sustainable, and resilience. It is creating a positive and supportive work culture, and having strong resources, systems, and practices to help us carry out our work.
We are building our capacity by improving staff skills, leadership, and well-being. We are also strengthening our internal systems, learning, and using new tools and technologies to stay effective. These are done through training, mentorship, learning from others, and ensuring we respond quickly to new challenges.
To strengthen and grow as an institution, KHRC is focusing on two main areas:
We are transforming our internal systems to manage resources and operations better by strengthening financial management, communication, information systems, human resources, procurement, and our Monitoring, Evaluation, Reporting, Learning, and Adaptation processes. We are also making better use of technology, research, and knowledge management to support our work.
We are ensuring KHRC has the people, leadership, communication, and funds it needs to achieve its goals. This involves the following key areas: