The Commission on Administrative Justice has warned public institutions against delays in resolving citizens’ complaints, after 579 of 813 cases received in 2025 remained pending at the end of the reporting period.
Speaking during a high-level consultative meeting with leaders of 54 institutions in Nairobi on Tuesday, Commission chairperson Charles Dulo said delayed responses, weak feedback systems and failure to implement recommendations were undermining public confidence in administrative justice.
The meeting brings together nine State departments and other public institutions for a three-day engagement aimed at improving complaints resolution and compliance with the Access to Information Act, 2016.
The Commission said nine institutions accounted for 630 complaints, representing 77 per cent of all complaints received in 2025. Their pending rates ranged from 40 per cent at the Ministry of Interior to 89 per cent at Kenya Power.
Kenya Power, NTSA, Immigration, SHA/SHIF and the Pensions department recorded pending rates of more than 80 per cent.
Delay was the leading complaint category, accounting for 42 per cent of complaints among the nine high-volume institutions. In the Pensions department and Immigration, delay-related complaints accounted for close to 80 per cent of cases.
Dulo said institutions should stop viewing complaints as isolated administrative matters and instead use them to identify weaknesses in service delivery.
“A complaint is an early-warning signal. It can reveal a policy gap, an unclear procedure, a weak service standard, poor communication or a repeated exercise of discretion that produces unfair outcomes,” Dulo said.
He said unresolved complaints often have direct consequences for citizens, particularly where delays affect livelihoods, pensions, licensing or access to government services.
“Behind every file reference is a person waiting for the State to work as it should,” Dulo said.
The Commission is calling on public institutions to establish clear ownership of complaints, strengthen internal escalation mechanisms and ensure referrals are acknowledged and acted upon within predictable timelines.
Dulo said senior management should also receive regular reports on complaints volumes, response times, recurring issues and outstanding matters to enable early intervention before individual complaints develop into systemic failures.
The Ombudsman also raised concern over rising applications for review of access to information matters, which increased from 32 in the 2016/2017 financial year to 654 in 2025/2026.
The Commission received 2,260 applications for review during the 10-year period, a trend it attributed partly to growing public awareness of the constitutional right to information and continued weaknesses in institutional compliance.
Among the challenges identified are failure to proactively disclose public information, delayed responses to information requests, weak records management, incomplete digitisation and inadequate systems for tracking requests.
Dulo urged institutions to move beyond simply responding to requests and adopt systems that make public information readily available.
“The real question is whether our institutions have dependable systems for listening, deciding, explaining, correcting and learning,” he said.
The Commission wants public institutions to designate and empower Information Access Officers, strengthen internal access to information policies, improve records management and digitisation, comply with statutory reporting requirements and implement decisions and orders arising from the review process.
Dulo said the ultimate measure of the three-day engagement would be whether institutions return to their workplaces with clear responsibilities, timelines and mechanisms for following up unresolved matters.
He said administrative justice is ultimately reflected in the daily conduct of public power, including how institutions listen to citizens, make decisions, give reasons and correct mistakes.
The Commission said it will continue monitoring compliance through assessments, proactive disclosure audits, capacity building, stakeholder engagement and enforcement where necessary.
