Corruption Brakes Crusade (COBRA)

The year 2013 marked further progress by the organization. More calls were made into the office by public to make reports on some actual or suspected irregularities on public service delivery. Although many turned out to be unfounded and hence not constituting the basis for corruption, the action taken by the public to report demonstrated sincere concern and growing awareness of our role in the community. It also gave proof of   the reach of our media campaign i.e. Public Outreach.

Public out was carried pot and was extended to schools, community based groups, faith- based groups. It is estimated a thousand people were reached, many of whom have continued to link with the office as on-field volunteers.

 The campaign against corruption took the form of advocacy, sensitization, tracking issues and monitoring projects and public servants and most especially the Police with the oversight of Hurinet. The campaign on the   abuse of human rights took the form of dialoging with the police and the judiciary. This involved tracking of case file , often hidden or lost, thereby creating delays and suffering of the inmates. A campaign to promote right to bail was initiated. Legal Aid services were extended to a few people due to the cost involved and expertise needed. Approaches have been made to partners to help along this line and FAPAD has taken up issues referred to them on our behalf. This particular program considered mostly the children, women, the poor from largely rural areas.

 Documentation has been taken up in limited respects due to limited equipments. The little that was done presents the beginning of, the otherwise indispensable exercise, and the imperative need for equipments for recording in word and pictures.

 Evaluation remains a cornerstone activity of the organization and has helped to prove both the direction and relevance of COBRA.

Research has been realized as an innovation with the great returns and has been initiated on a low scale with the support of the volunteers. To attract support research will need greater attention to initiate fundable projects.

Given our present status ,COBRA will need to scale up its association with government, increase outreach to  sub-counties, build sustainable partnerships at community level , engage more in advocacy for respect for economic social and cultural rights , improve management information system, strengthen monitoring and evaluation.  There will also be need to maximize the financial and the outputs sustainability of COBRA.

The upcoming year action plan seeks to address the democracy and human rights deficit at policy, legislative and practice level and use ICT for advocacy for human rights. Our new plan will cover the areas of: Research, Advocacy and lobbying: Legal Services: Civic Education: Special Projects and Organizational Development.

As we move a head we look forward to the cooperation and commitment of our network including membership, management volunteer-staff, Board of Directors, Development partners, peers and beneficiaries..

COBRA has over the past period of time endeavored to carry out many activities that fell under varied programmes. As an upcoming body it had to do so in order to learn from the potential partners in order to win their support, trust, cooperation, connection with donors and networking. Principally we had to understudy such organizations.

 In so doing we engaged in activities as under- listed and we look forward to engaging in new ones as covered in the forth coming strategic plan. These are:

• To monitor and document human rights practices in the effort to promote dialogue and respect for human rights and democratic governance and development.
• To advocate for best practices in the promotion of and administration of justice.
• To promote sustainable access to justice for the poor and vulnerable people and victims of corruption and wars/insurgencies.
• To build the civic competence of the communities, grassroots associations, for effective participation in democratic governance.
• To embolden the citizens for systematic exposure of corruption, human rights abuses, to enable effective participation in democratization processes.
• To monitor the electoral process and advocate for reforms for free and fair elections
• To strengthen the institutional capacity and sustainability of COBRA.

The activities will aim at civic participation, access to justice freedom of expression, right to life, liberty and security of person, integrity and accountability, leadership development of defenders of human rights and democratic governance.

The above activities as themes will be carried out under the following sectors: Research, Legal services, Capacity Development, Communication and Information, Program Development and Management and Executive sectors.