Winnie Byanyima Quotes

We as citizens should hold our government accountable for word and deed.

Do we have the right to understand the world we live in? The right to all the information regarding why our governments are making the decisions that they are?

I will run an open government that speaks with honesty, seeks opinion, listens to its citizens.

In a democracy, citizens pass judgment on their government, and if they are kept in the dark about what their government is doing, they cannot be in a position to make well-grounded decisions.

Obama has already rejected the bright sunlight of public knowledge, which is democracy's great disinfectant and cure.

Access to government-held information allows citizens to hold their government accountable for policy decisions and public expenditures…. Access to information bridges the gap between state and society ….

Be aware and hold the government accountable.

The country's future is what you will make it. Make your local representatives in parliament and assembly more answerable. Ask for more transparency in use of public funds.

The citizen can bring our political and governmental institutions back to life, make them responsive and accountable, and keep them honest. No one else can.

The people of Zimbabwe have a responsibility to ensure that the government that they elected behaves properly.

The responsibility for good government lies not just with governments themselves but also with every other part of the system they operate in, including media, non-governmental organisations and the public.

The Transparency Bill is something we should all support - practical steps in promoting an open and accountable democracy.

No one in government should ever think that the citizens they work for can't or won't scrutinize their actions.

The value of government to the people it serves is in direct relationship to the interest citizens themselves display in the affairs of state.

I mean those people who are interested in good government will certainly contribute in order to make certain there's some counter-balance to those whose interests in good government is less.

Remarkably, governments are beginning to embrace the idea that nothing enhances democracy more than giving voice and information to everybody in the country. Why not open their books if they have nothing to hide?

We have a right to know and a duty to discover what you think of the great constitutional issues of our time.

The overarching purpose of access to information legislation … is to facilitate democracy. It does so in two related ways. It helps to ensure first, that citizens have the information required to participate meaningfully in the democratic process, and secondly, that politicians and bureaucrats remain accountable to the citizenry.

The only way we are held accountable is if people know what government is doing.

Right to Information is a small concrete step in making our polity more democratic.

The American people deserve their government to be open and accountable.

We have to make the bureaucracy accountable to the people. It is not something esoteric, it can be done.

We were sent here to hold government accountable.

I'm a big fan of public trust.

Our whole system of government is based on "We the people," but if we the people don't pay attention to what's going on, we have no right to bellyache or squawk when things go wrong.