ABSTRACT
The
title of this study suggests that records and archives form an essential and
significant part in protecting citizen’s right in Kenya as a nation's
information resources, and that Programme for their management and use are, or
should be, integral parts of protecting citizen’s right. This study sought to
explore KNA$DS: its departments, services, citizens’ right and role of archives
in protecting it.
Keyword:
Citizens right, Archives
INTRODUCTION
Archival
institution refers to the agency responsible for
selecting, acquiring, preserving, and making available archives. Also known as an archival agency or
archives. Note: To avoid
confusion, the term archives is used to refer to an institution only in formal
titles such as records and archives institution or National archive. Archival
institution is one of the essential institution of a modern society
The Kenya National Archives and
Documentation Service (KNA&DS) is a department within the office of the
Vice President and Ministry of State for National Heritage and Culture. The
Kenya National Archives was established by an act of parliament, The Public
Archives Act of 1965(Commenced on 25th January 1966).
“There shall be established, constituted
and maintained a public department to be known as the Public Archives Service
for which there shall be appointed a Chief Archivist, and such other staff as
may be necessary for the purposes of this Act.”
(Section 3. (1) – Establishment of Public Archives
Service)
The Act was later revised in 1990 to
become The Public Archives and Documentation Service Act, Cap 19 of the Laws of
Kenya. There was a slight amendment in this Section 3. (1) To rename the Public
Archives Service to the Kenya National Archives and Documentation Service.
Besides the renaming, the position of the Director was created for that of
Chief Archivist. Notable was also inclusion of Section 5A. that distinctly set up
the National Documentation Service and outlined its major roles of which
majorly empowered the section to select , collect ,process, house , control and
preserve all bound documents created by any government ministry or department.
The main mandate of KNA&Ds is to formulate, implement, coordinate and
oversee the execution of records and archives management services and programs
within the public sector. Archival institutions select, preserve, and make
their records accessible for a number of reasons, including legal, financial,
and administrative purposes. KNADS maintains records as evidence of the government’s
policies and operations.
It’s the mission of KNADS To offer
consultative records management services to the public service; acquire and
preserve valuable public as well as private records as part of the national
documentary heritage; and ensure timely accessibility of records and archives
to users.
It have various department.
The Department is responsible for the following:-
The Department is responsible for the following:-
- Care and preservation of all public records and archives;
- Advise public offices on the creation, care, control and use of public records;
- Acquire and preserve public and private records and archives;
- Make records and archives accessible to users.
The
department has seven divisions
1. Records Management Service
2. Archives Management Service
3. National Documentation Service
4. The Conservation Section
5. The Audio-Visual Archives Section
6. The Microfilming Section
7. Administration
1. Records Management Service
Record is
a document regardless of form, medium created,
received, maintained and used by an organisation (public or private) or an
individual in pursuance of legal obligations or in the transaction of business,
of which it forms a part or provides evidence.
Records management
(RM), also known as the records and information management or
RIM, is the professional practice of managing the records of an
organization throughout their life cycle, from the time they are created to
their eventual disposal.
The main purpose, of this service is to
advice public offices on proper records management practices. This is through
developments of file classification schemes, file retention and disposal
schedules. Each of these is headed by a Provincial Archivist.
This section is decentralized with five provincial
record centres, namely:
a)
Nairobi Records Centre: Established in
1980 and it serves three (3) provinces: Nairobi, Eastern and North Eastern
Provinces. It is housed in Co-operative House within the Central Business District.
b)
Nakuru Records Centre: Established in
1980 Serving Rift Valley Province, right from the South to the North Rift, a
wide region indeed.
c)
Mombasa Records Centre : Established in
1981 Serving Coast Province
d)
Kisumu Records Centre : Inaugurated in
1989 Serving Nyanza Province
e)
Kakamega Records Centre: Set up in 1982
Serving Western Province.
2. Archives Management Service
Archives are the records maintained
permanently by a given institution in any medium because of their legal,
fiscal, informational, evidential, and historical value. 'Archives' is also a
term used to describe the physical site where records of permanent value are
arranged, described, preserved, and made available, or the department within an
organisation responsible for administering the Archives
An Archives Management programme can
help an organisation in the following areas:
ü To
determine what has continuing value to the organisation and should be managed
and preserved within an archives programme.
ü To
establish standards and procedures for describing archival materials.
ü
To
develop appropriate strategies for increasing awareness and use of archival
holdings.
ü To
identify specifications for services including microfilming and imaging.
ü To
establish initial conservation priorities and plan for on-going preservation programme.
ü To
carry out listing/cataloguing of archival holdings.
ü To
exploit archival material through publication or exhibition.
This service is centralized at the
department’s headquarters in Nairobi. Its main purpose is to provide
preservation of public archives (microfilming, storage, audio-visual and conservation)
and access facilities (search room) of the same materials. Efforts have been made
to computerize archival lists and catalogs. Users are able to access both
manual and catalogs on archival holdings.
The department has embarked on a
digitization project with the purpose of long-term preservation of archives as
well as increased accessibility of archival holdings.
3. National Documentation Service
This service supplements archival
materials with publications. In addition it facilitates establishment of
information resource centres / documentation link centres in public offices.
The
NDS has six distinct sections, namely:
·
The Government Publications Section
·
The Murumbi Africana Collection
·
The Staff Library
·
The Legal Deposit Library
·
The General Publications Section
·
The Periodicals Section
4. The Conservation Section
It has state-of-the art equipment for
conservation purposes. The major role of the department is to restore damaged
specimens. In order for information to be available, it has to be preserved and
conserved. They department also offers advisory services on the best practices
for preservation and conservation of information resources across formats – print
, digital, microfilm etc.
5.
The
Audio-Visual Archives Section
Just as the name denotes, this section
houses information that can be listened to –audio viewed – visual-. Others can
be both listened to and watched as in the case of video tapes. It has a rich
collection of still photos on Kenya’s heritage; it also houses audio tapes
that
were taken on and about Kenya. There are tape reels. All these have information
about the rich Kenyan heritage.
6. The Microfilming Section
It has become important to convert
information to other formats and this is exactly what the Micro-filming section
does. The department concentrates on converting print documents to digital
formats. Notable are the Kenyan Dailies – Nation, Standard, Kenya Times. The
section had also started digitizing the Murumbi Africana Collection – the rich collection
of the Late Joseph Murumbi, one time Kenyan vice president.
7. The General Administration
This section co-ordinates all the
general Administrative and support sections like the accounts, secretarial,
procurement, registry, switch board, transport, cleanliness and security among
other duties of the section.
The Kenya National Archives and
Documentation Service is headed by a Director, who has two deputy directors
being followed the Provincial Archivists and the Heads of the various sections
mentioned above.
CITIZENS RIGHT.
The Constitution of Kenya 2010 is
anchored on the fundamental human rights principles which are reinforced in
nearly all the chapters. It is therefore imperative for archives institutions
to protect citizens’ right in their services. To implement the provisions of
the Bill of Rights will require all archives institutions of Kenya to integrate
the relevant constitutional principles into their services.
Every person is entitled to the following citizens’ rights:
1.
Right
to life;
1.
The
right to equality, equal protection and equal benefit in law;
2.
Human
dignity;
- Protection from slavery, servitude & forced labor;
- Right of access to information;
- Right of assembly, demonstration, picketing and petition;
- Political rights;
- Protection of right to property;
- Fair labor practices;
- Right to a clean and healthy environment;
- Right to economic and social rights (health, housing, food, water, social security & education)
- Right to use of language and culture of one’s preference;
- Consumer rights;
- Fair administrative action;
- Right of access to justice; and
- Right to a fair hearing.
Archives
role towards protecting citizens right
1) Archives
are non-current records that have been formally appraised, and found to have
continuing or permanent values as evidence or for research purposes. This
protects social right for education.
2) They
serve as the nation's memory, and enable society to plan intelligently for the
future based on an awareness of past experience. This also enhance right of
access to information as the information can be accessed in the future.
3) Archives
preserve a record of the obligations and commitments of the government and
evidence of the rights and entitlements of the citizens.
4) The
archives contain a vast amount of information about people, organizations,
social and economic development, natural phenomena, and events invaluable
primary source material for writing about all facets of the nation's history.
As a source of national history the archives can become a powerful influence in
fostering a people's understanding of itself and in creating a sense of
national identity.
5)
Archives as a
Means of Developing the National Culture and Identity. The archives of a
nation, if properly organized, managed and supported, will come to embody a
comprehensive account of the national experience. The archives will document
the origins and migration of the people, the successes and failures of their
leaders, the economic and social development of society, wars and natural
calamities, and relationships with other peoples and nations. The information
they contain constitutes a priceless national treasure which can be used for
the betterment of the people in myriad ways.
6)
The
archives, if effectively exploited as an educational and cultural resource, can
be invaluable in the process of developing a sense of national identity, and in
fostering a people's understanding of itself and its relationship to the rest
of the world.
Conclusion
Archival
institution focusses on preserving and facilitating the use of records of
permanent value. The only valid reason for assuming the continuing burden of
preserving archives is to ensure that they will eventually be available for use
by the government itself, by individual citizens as evidence of their rights
and entitlements, by primary users whose research and writing extend the
frontiers of human knowledge and understanding and, indirectly, by secondary
users who may benefit educationally and culturally by exposure to the products
of primary users and to archival exhibitions. The Kenya National Archives and
Documentation Service being a major department in the Kenyan government is
playing a great role in protecting citizen’s rights in the country. This is
basically on the information that is being provided from the establishment.
There needs to be relevant support from the concerned
agencies, the government and the stakeholders.
REFERENCE
1.
Cook, T. “From the Record to Its
Context: The Theory and Practice of Archival Appraisal Since Jenkinson,” S.A.
Archives Journal Vol.37 (1995), pp.33
2.
Government of Kenya (1990) the Public
Archives and Documentation Service Act, Cap 19. Nairobi: Government Printer
3.
Government of Kenya (1966) the Public
Archives Act, Cap 19. Nairobi: Government Printer
4.
Government of Kenya (1962) The Records
Disposal Act Act, Cap 14. Nairobi: Government Printer
5.
Lilian K. Gisesa:The Role of the Kenya
National Archives $ Documentation Service in Democracy
