The Kenya Wildlife Conservancies Association (“KWCA”, “we”, “us”) is committed to being accountable to the conservancies, communities, partners and members of the public we work with. We welcome feedback, and we take complaints seriously as a way to put things right and to improve how we work.
This policy explains what counts as a complaint, how to raise one, and what you can expect from us when you do.
A complaint is any expression of dissatisfaction about KWCA’s work, services, decisions, staff, representatives or partners acting on our behalf, where you expect a response. It may concern something we did, something we failed to do, or the way we behaved.
General questions, requests for information and suggestions are welcome too, but are handled as ordinary enquiries rather than under this policy.
Anyone affected by our work can make a complaint, including member conservancies, community members, landowners, partners, donors, suppliers, grant applicants and members of the public. You can complain on your own behalf or, with their consent, on behalf of someone else.
Some matters have their own procedures and are handled under those instead:
If you are unsure which route applies, contact us and we will direct your concern to the right place.
You can raise a complaint in whichever way suits you:
Complaints can be made in English or Kiswahili. To help us respond, please tell us your name and how to reach you, what happened and when, who was involved, and what you would like us to do to put things right. If you need help putting your complaint in writing, a member of staff will assist you.
You may raise a complaint anonymously. We will look into it as far as we can, but we may be limited in what we can investigate, and we will not be able to tell you the outcome.
We aim to resolve complaints quickly, fairly and at the earliest possible stage.
Acknowledgement. We will acknowledge your complaint within five working days and tell you who is handling it.
Stage one: investigation and response. A senior member of staff not involved in the matter will look into your complaint and send you a full response within 20 working days. If we need more time, we will tell you why and when to expect a reply.
Stage two: review. If you are not satisfied with our response, you can ask for it to be reviewed within 20 working days of receiving it. The review will be carried out by the Chief Executive Officer, or by someone they nominate who has not been involved, and we will respond within 20 working days.
Stage three: Executive Committee. If the matter remains unresolved, or if your complaint concerns the Chief Executive Officer, you can refer it to the Chair of KWCA’s Executive Committee. The Committee’s decision is final.
If your concern involves possible harm, abuse or exploitation of any person, particularly a child or vulnerable adult, please tell us straight away. We will treat it as a priority and handle it under our safeguarding procedures, which may involve referral to the relevant authorities. If someone is in immediate danger, contact the police first.
We will handle your complaint confidentially and share details only with those who need them to investigate and respond. We process personal information in line with the Data Protection Act, 2019 and our privacy policy.
Making a complaint will not affect how we treat you, your conservancy or your organisation. We do not tolerate retaliation against anyone who raises a concern in good faith, and we will take action against any member of staff or representative who does so.
We ask that complainants treat our staff with the same respect. Where a complaint is pursued in an abusive or unreasonably persistent way, we may limit how we communicate, but we will still consider any genuinely new issue that is raised.
We keep a confidential record of complaints and how they were resolved. We review them regularly to identify patterns and improve our work, and report a summary to the Executive Committee each year.
We will review this policy at least every two years, or sooner if our work or the law changes. The date at the top of this page shows when it was last updated.
