NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 16 – The Office of the President has launched multi-stakeholder consultations to prepare Kenya’s 2026 State of Openness Report, marking a fresh push to strengthen transparency, access to information and public accountability under the Open Government Partnership (OGP).Speaking during a launch at State House on Thursday, President William Ruto said public institutions would increasingly be judged on how openly they serve citizens.“Open governance is no longer a bureaucratic luxury or an optional add-on for our ministries,” the President said.The consultations bring together oversight institutions, Parliament, government agencies and civil society organisations to agree on performance indicators and implementation timelines under Kenya’s Fifth National Action Plan (NAP V).A key proposal unveiled during the consultations is the integration of transparency and access-to-information compliance indicators into the annual performance contracts of Cabinet Secretaries and Principal Secretaries.“Moving forward, the metrics established by the Ombudsman will be embedded directly into the annual Performance Contracts of every Cabinet Secretary and Principal Secretary. If you fail to open your books and respond to the public, that failure will reflect directly on your scorecard,” Ruto said.Officials said the move is intended to make openness and responsiveness to public information requests a measurable component of government performance.Ruto also announced plans to expand digital transparency tools, saying the government aims to make information on public debt and borrowing more accessible to citizens.“We are leveraging the digital superhighway to rebuild trust with the Kenyan people. By December 2026, we will fully operationalize interactive portals that translate complex public debt and borrowing into plain, accessible language. Every single coin borrowed must be visible to the citizens it is meant to serve,” he said.Among the initiatives under discussion are the Publish What You Borrow portal and the Jihusishe citizen engagement application, which are expected to simplify public access to information on national borrowing and public finances.Delegates also reviewed plans to strengthen parliamentary openness by publishing alternative budget proposals and expanding access to legislative information.The consultations form part of the implementation of Kenya’s commitments under the Open Government Partnership, an international initiative that promotes transparency, citizen participation, accountability and the use of technology to improve governance.Officials said the framework agreed during the consultations will guide implementation over the coming months, with ministries and state departments expected to submit transparency compliance reports to the Commission on Administrative Justice (Office of the Ombudsman).Civil society organisations, including Mzalendo Trust and ARTICLE 19 Eastern Africa, are participating in the process to help ensure the monitoring framework remains independent and evidence-based.OGP Global Civil Society Co-Chair Demas Kiprono urged the government to ensure the initiative delivers measurable results rather than symbolic commitments.“The true test of today’s consultations will not be the high-level commitments made, but the technical indicators we lock in,” Kiprono said.“We do not need public relations masking. We need verifiable, unfiltered data on budget items financed through debt, clear lists of creditors, and real administrative consequences for state offices that choose to ignore public information requests.”The OGP National Steering Committee is expected to issue a communiqué outlining timelines for ministries and state agencies to submit their internal transparency audits to the Office of the Ombudsman.