Why we must pay, formally recognise our village elders

One of the most disturbing cases to ever reach our ministry’s headquarters involved a minor who had been defiled and later killed. Shockingly, the case was quietly swept under the rug under the guise of ‘out-of-court settlement’.

It might have ended there were it not for the courage of the girl’s mother, who defied the pressure to stay quiet and escalated the matter in pursuit of justice for her daughter. It later emerged that some village elders had been compromised through monetary influence, choosing silence over accountability.

This tragic incident was not just a crime against one child. Rather, it was also against those who have tolerated some glaring cracks within our traditional village administration system.

For decades, the system has quietly held our communities together. At the heart of it all are dedicated village elders, who, unpaid and often without formal recognition, have mediated disputes, settled some serious conflicts, and upheld social order.

All this while, they have been operating outside the boundaries of formal governance structures, their service rooted in goodwill, cultural heritage, and our collective desire for social equilibrium.

In recent years, some of the cracks have become too troubling to ignore. From our assessment, the absence of a formal legal framework and structured compensation for the elders has created significant gaps in oversight. Instances of nepotism, favouritism, and, in some cases, outright corruption are increasingly coming to light.

Even more alarming are grave matters, including sexual violence and murders, being casually ‘resolved’ instead of being escalated and referred to the formal justice system, as the law requires.

And thus, without underplaying the invaluable role village administration system has long played, we must now ask ourselves: is it still truly serving our communities, or is it merely surviving on legacy?

They say, “If it’s working, don’t meddle – unless you’re improving it.” The foregoing concerns highlight the urgent need to strengthen our village elders’ place in local governance through structure, training and accountability.

The Draft National Government Village Administration Policy seeks to officially recognise village administrative units and provide a legal framework for the engagement of these elders.

The policy, which is a culmination of a journey we began last year, spells out a conscious evolution of our pluralistic legal identity, which has always balanced statutory law with customary practices.

From our perspective, and from the overwhelming memoranda we received from the public and our stakeholders, by anchoring the elders’ work in law, the policy will not only empower them to play a more active role in governance, justice, and security, but also will draw a clear line between customary dispute resolution and matters that demand formal legal intervention.

In fact, we already have evidence of how well such collaboration can work. Through grassroots structures like the Nyumba Kumi initiative, we have effectively dealt with serious security threats, including terrorism and organised crime, by leveraging community vigilance and information-sharing with our security organs.

The proposed policy, alongside the National Government Coordination (Administrative Units’) Regulations, 2025, marks a critical turning point in how we envision our grassroots governance. This new framework aims to formally recognise the elders and provide them with a clear legal identity, defined responsibilities, and standardised roles across the country. This formalisation is a long-overdue step toward protecting both the communities they serve and the integrity of the offices they hold

Beyond recognition, the policy and the draft regulations will facilitate the equitable decentralisation of national government services, ensuring that support, funding, and resources reach the last mile as envisioned in our Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda.

The two instruments will also promote public participation in administrative decision-making, foster transparency, and establish clear lines of authority and accountability in service delivery at the grassroots level.

Most importantly, they define a clear path toward restoring public trust in the village administration system by proposing structured governance to replace the elders’ informal discretion.

Our ultimate goal is to strengthen their leadership not just as custodians of our culture and community peace, but also as legitimate and recognised actors within our governance architecture.

We have selectively taken some lessons from other jurisdictions that have successfully integrated traditional justice into their legal frameworks and empowered their local communities to great effect.

In fact, some of the systems we’ve learnt from have become powerful extensions of their national security and administration infrastructure. In Canada, for instance, elders in indigenous communities play a central role in administering restorative justice.

Papua New Guinea has Village Courts led by local elders, who address civil and minor criminal matters through customary processes. Bolivia’s constitution also empowers indigenous communities to administer justice based on traditional and culturally grounded laws.'

India’s Gram Panchayats and Samoa’s councils of chiefs similarly settle disputes and conflicts at the community level with full state support.

Not to mention numerous examples from African countries where village-level administration plays a prominent role.

These models affirm one truth: formal institutions may not always reach the heart of community conflict. Our village elders have given us a unique perspective on cattle rustling and helped us dismantle the criminal enterprise by revealing it as a warped expression of cultural identity, which had been exacerbated by poverty, peer pressure, and political incitement.

They also bring firsthand understanding of boundary disputes over land and water, highlighting issues that touch on heritage, livelihood, and survival, through which we are finding more viable ways to address these challenges.

By giving them structured authority and accountability, we will not only create a governance system that is both responsive and responsible, but also ensure serious crimes are rightly escalated to the formal justice system. This will be a system that will also place justice within walking distance of every mwananchi. It will also mark a radical shift in mindset that will accord these elders their deserved recognition, tools, protection, and compensation.

With foresight and the input from all our stakeholders and partners, key among them national and county governments, the civil society, inter-faith groups, community representatives, and members of the public, we hope to build an administrative and justice system that starts where the people are.

Kipchumba Murkomen is the CS Interior, and Dr Raymond Omollo is the PS for Internal Security and National Administration