The above order which is embedded in Cap 19, Public Archives and Documentation Services Act as a subsidiary legislation may have been sneaked in to guard interests of the ruling class. The implication of the above order is far an wide. Kenyans need to be told what exactly “security records” are.
The recent case of terrorist prisoners abuse by CIA in United State is a case in mind of how far in the name of security individuals case can be abused. In Kenya we have our own share of extremes in our effort to clump down on “enemies of the State” by the security agents. The famous Nyayo House Agents are a case in mind. To this day, none of the perpetrators of this form of atrocity have been brought to book and the explicit details of what exactly happened in those doomed rooms may remain hidden to surviving relatives of the victims. Classifying security files is one thing but going ahead and arbitrary closing such files for 55 years is a stub on the backs of citizens.
This country has been let down more by the elite than by the ignorant majority. Those charged with the responsibility of ensuring that the fundamental rights and welfare of the citizens have always acted to the opposite. The officer who advised and later signed the above regulation was not even a politician but a professional of great refute in the area of records management. Am saying advise, because the law gives him powers to advise the government on public records.Whose interest was he representing? Who was he protecting?

When a section of Kenyan’s has been campaigning for the enactment of the Freedom of Information Access, the professionals in government positions have been acting the opposite. Complacency by these officers who know very well that the guys on top are only serving their own interests and a far from being nationalists still baffles me. Our political class hate transparency, accountability and true democracy. In short, they do not like “being lectured on governance” despite presiding over failing and fallen institutions. (In other words, don’t tell the emperor that he is naked!).
The freedom of Information Access is a legislation that is long overdue in this country. Whereas enactment of this legislation is not a panacea, it will definitely empower Kenyans by bringing information about and public officers. This will in turn enable them to make informed decisions on who and how they want to be governed. Who would not want to know if that PC /DO or even the Minister in charge of security is the same fellow who tortured Kenyans in the dargeons of the Nyayo House? Opening up records relating to activities of the security agents during such era will obviously give a glimpse of the role played by different public officers. The 55 year rule covers records closed in 1955! It is very sad given that this is the period when Kenyans were in the middle of the struggle for independence of this nation. When will Kenyans get to know the details of the Wagalla Massacre? If you are 35 years and above, you may never get to know the details of military operation on the SLF of Mt Elgon or even the Mugiki suppression by KweKwe squad! You may never get to know the details of security operations in Naiivasha, Nakuru, Eldoret and other places. Why? Because, the law does make sure that, you will be long dead or a senile cabbage.
Compared to US, Kenya is extremely secretive and protective of political and military operations (underlealings?). In 2006, US passed a law requiring automatic declassification of files that are 25 years and older and are of archival nature. Applied to Kenya, that would have meant that files relating to 1982 coup attempt an the trial of Charles Njonjo and the rest would be available for perusal.

One of the the things that Kenyans want is to have responsible and accountable institutions. As of now, Kenya National Archives ought to have worked out a plan on migration and preservation of electronic records that are in the cutody of the public institutions. They ought to have provided guidelines on creation, use and disposition of the same records. They ought to have provided in-house training sessions to all ministries and public bodies on management of records in this new media.
Waiting until the situation gets out of hand could cost Kenyans heavily as far as preservation of electronic records is concerned (think of a situation where such records may be destroyed by way of deleting from the storage media, leaving no copy or evidence of their existence, think of situtions where, due to lack of guidance, public officers fail to transfer to an appropriate media records which are contained in an obsolate and unreadable media,… think of.. etc)
Kenyans expect the Kenya National archives to provide guidance and be at the forefront in the campaign and legislation of the Freedom Information Access Act. When the Act is operational, the KNA will have a great responsibility in regulating its operation. It is for this reason that KNA should be out there preparing the grounds for the operation of this Act.
Kenyans expect monthly communication from the Kenya National Archives giving information on which records have been opened to the public. As such the KNA website should be a breathing one but not one that is on and off.
Remember, it is our tax that support that insitutitions, thus, it is supposed to be delivering to us services. We want to see these services, every day not on certain occasions.

At the central registry, Jacob knew every single file off-head. He manipulated them in so many ways to ensure that he did not have lots of paperwork. This he did by pulling out material he did not understand. To the management, he was the file guru and therefore if a file was missing, then ‘it was simply missing, so forget about it and let Jacob build another file’. Part of what Jacob manipulated was information contained in the files. He would add, remove, and distort information to suit him. The dept heads did not bother with Jacobs work since they did not need his services any way. So he found himself in a strange position where no body really needed him but by the virtue of his position, the organisation had every reason to have him at the Central Regisrty- besides, which organisation does not have one? It is no wonder, he survived the entire previous employee purging by the company.
The coming in of new management ushered in a new approach into the way information was created, used, shared, maintained, and disposed. There was great need for accountability to the shareholders who were getting concerned about the organisation’s ups and down as that was affecting the shares in the stock exchange. Heads had to roll and the first action was to initiate a systematic Records Management Program (RMP). To do this, they had to first come ip with a Policy to manage all the information that the enterprise owned. An Information/ Records Management policy that covered manual as well as electronic/ digital records was in no time formulated and put operational. Since Jacob had very little knowledge in the new way of managing records, he had to give way to the new records gurus. Armed with their tool of trade (Information/records management Policy), the Records Managers systematically started off with Information Audit- To establish what information the organisation had, in what condition, format, where it was, who was in charge, what information was vital to the organisation, what was simply rubbish/junk, the classes / subjects /functions that the information related to, how long different types of information would be required…. and so on.
The task by these young, energetic and foresighted records masters was so thorough, it left Jacob’s foggy brain numb. The next move was appraisal, i.e. physically examining each information container (e.g. Files) to establish its value to the organisation. When they got at Jacob’s office, they discovered that 3/4 of all his files were not important at all and yet he hanged on them all these years. These files had to be destroyed. 1/3 of the remaining ones were of archival nature and needed to be moved to the archives and the other 1/3 was to be shifted to the records centre since there use was so staggered, it did not make economic and efficacy sense to maintain them in his office.
The next stage was for these records/information wiz to come with inviolable procedure to guide every employee in creation, use and disposal of records. This was going to be the company’s Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) which governed every piece of information created or received by the organisation. This cradle to grave management of the organisation had to be guided and well directed so as to take root if it were to bear fruit within the organisation. As expected there was resistance within the organisation hierarchy but since there was top management support, the system took root. All records/ information held in the organisation electronic and manual systems were now under control. To ensure that everyone knew what they were expected to do with the new way for doing things, series of training were held within and without the organisation, incentives and reminder systems were also deployed to ensure that the culture took root.
Information sharing: A new and vibrant way of knowing what each person was doing was implemented. With more and more information turning up in electronic format (born digital) and the rest having been digitized (born again), the staff of this company found themselves getting better and better and finding workplace the best place to be. Information sharing ushered in a new era of dealing with information overload. One of the ways that the Information Wiz did was to design a taxonomy covering all the information resources within the organisation and having a system to enhance and galvanize usage. A simple one was found in the market. This system proved to be quite easy to deploy and implement and use. this was Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS).
The company made great business the year that followed as the client and business partners found doing business with it very easy since they had all the information they required and customer information was seen to be secure.

Jacob was to retire after two years but with the coming in of the new system of doing things, he decided to learn more about the NEW way of handling information and teach others too.

Today, Jacob owns an Information/ Records Management Consultancy that helps other organisations to bring life to their information.

Jacob’s company is a hypothetical case picked so as to explain the process that most organisations go through in establishing viable records management program. Does your organisation have one?
Consult us through info@kenvisiontechniks.com or log on to www.kenvisiontechniks.com for more information.

Solomon M Kaminda – Information Architect, Kenvision Techniks Ltd (specialists in Corporate Information Management and Workplace Management)
URL: www.kenvisiontechniks.com