Section 28, The Right to Access Information Act, 2013

(1) Subject to subsections (3) and (4), a public authorityshall appoint as many public information officers in all offices or units as they have at the local, district, provincial and national levels as is necessary to enable it to provide information to persons requesting information under this Act. (2) Where for any reason, a public authority has not appointed a public information officer, the head of the public authority shall for purposes of this Act, be deemed to be the public information officer of that public authority. (3) A public information officer shall be the principal contact person within a public authority to deal with requests from persons seeking information from the public authority. (4) A public information officer shall be of sufficient rank within the public authority to be empowered to make binding decisions in relation to information disclosure under this Act. (5) Notwithstanding subsection (3), it is the duty of every official to provide reasonable assistance to a person seeking information under this Act and no official may refuse to receive a request for information on the ground only that the official is not a public information officer. (6) An official other than a public information officer to whom a request for information is made under subsection (5), shall refer the person seeking information to a public information officer and, if no officer is immediately available, the official shall receive the request and shall ensure that it is forwarded to the appropriate public information officer, who shall also issue a receipt for the request, indicating on it the official’s name, date and designation of receiving the request. (7) A public information officer may seek the assistance of any other official that the officer considers necessary for the proper discharge of the officer’s duties, and the other official shall render the required assistance.