Centre for Enhancing Democracy and Good Governance (CEDGG) is a non-political advocacy civil society organisation that works to empower vulnerable and marginalized citizens to claim their rights in local development and governance processes. CEDGG has been in operation since the year 2001 and legally exists as a Non-Governmental Organization. The organization has a strong programme presence in seven counties in the former Rift Valley region namely: Nakuru, Baringo, Kericho, Laikipia, Elgeyo Marakwet, West Pokot and Turkana. The core problem that CEDGG is seeking to address in the society is the low capacity of the marginalised and vulnerable groups to engage with and participate in the decision making processes around the constitutional reform agenda and the development process in general.
CEDGG has established itself as an avant garde civic education provider and capacity building organization in the democracy, governance and human rights sector in her target counties. The organization enjoys support from local government agencies and a wide network of Civil Society Organization (CSOs) from this region. Collaboration with these institutions has often resulted to greater synergies that ensure minimal replication and maximum realization of results. Moreover, the organization has established a number of issue based citizen/CSOs networks across the target counties. These networks are integral in undertaking continued civic education and spearheading community advocacy efforts to address governance issues as may arise from time to time.
On the governance front, CEDGG is a pioneer and leader in social accountability work where they have successfully facilitated local communities to participate in county budget processes as well as monitor service delivery using various tools such as social audits, participatory budget analysis, and community score cards. Through their human rights and access to justice program, CEDGG play host to the Nakuru County Human Rights Defenders Network. The network has been instrumental in supporting survivors of human rights violation through documentation/reporting and referrals of cases to oversight institutions such as Office of the Ombudsman, Kenya National Commission for Human Rights and local Court Users Committee. With the support from UNDP, they have established a model legal aid clinic in Nakuru town. The Nakuru Legal Aid centre has been instrumental in providing free legal advice to the victims of human rights violations in the wake of the COVID 19 pandemic i.e. Preparation of court documents for online filing, self-representation coaching, case tracking services and promotion of alternative dispute resolution.
