- We will make the government accountable to the people through what we call ‘Wajibika’ Town Hall forums.
- We plan to recruit over 100,000 youth directly, a move that we expect will impact more than a million people indirectly.
Image: MOSES KURIA/X ACCOUNT
All great transformation efforts start with a promise: a promise to do things differently to make life better for the people, a promise to buck the trend and look at a problem through a different lens and, most importantly, a promise to provide solutions to what might look to some like intractable challenges.
In the case of our public service, this transformation has started in earnest with the Public Service Rapid Results Initiative.
This will see a complete makeover of how public servants interact with the public, with a clearly defined and measurable performance matrix.
This is a game changer that we expect will change the way we have been delivering services through a careful blend of carefully thought-out strategy backed by an execution roadmap.
In line with the government’s shift to digitalisation, we will make the government accountable to the people through what we call ‘Wajibika’ Town Hall forums to be held jointly with other ministries and county governments.
These open forums will allow the public to be updated on developments both at the county and government levels and, more importantly, to engage us face-to-face.
We also plan to roll out a digital ombudsman tool known as ‘Pasha’ for the public to report cases of denial or poor services offered by the national or county governments, compliment them and offer suggestions.
These reports will be available to the public and media for scrutiny for accountability purposes.
Tied closely to this initiative will be another digital tool that my Ministry will use to track performance contracts for all the 900,000 public servants; their performance will also be shared with the public monthly for accountability.
Knowing the latent potential that lies with the National Youth Service, we will make it a mandatory leadership college for those planning a career in public service or the disciplined forces, the intention being to imbue and inculcate in them essential leadership skills.
The massive potential for NYS has remained latent for a long time, but we will change this by making the institution the contractor of choice for Central and County governments as well as the private sector.
To enable us to carry through with this ambitious plan, we plan to recruit over 100,000 youth directly, a move that we expect will impact more than a million people indirectly.
Of course, the bouquet of services offered by the NYS will be refined to world-class standards to enable them to compete with other players.
The Kenya School of Government is one of the top leadership training institutions in the country.
We will further consolidate this position by converting it into the African School of Government so that its pan-African - and indeed global - ambitions can be achieved.
The institution will lead on emerging issues, including strategic peace, security and defence, climate action and green finance, and democracy and human rights.
The African School of Government will also support the African Union’s Agenda 2063 and provide intellectual support in a reformed global governance architecture.
To tackle the growing demographic imbalance in public service and youth unemployment, we will replace all retiring civil servants with young Kenyans while simultaneously ensuring that we recalibrate the technical-to-support staff ratio towards a more productive and result-oriented 80/20 ratio.
Closely tied with this pledge is our plan to provide an open and transparent opportunity to those willing to join the public service to do so via a verifiable digital hiring tool.
We will also encourage the private sector and overseas recruiters to use the platform in their hiring practices.
To further reduce friction in public service, we have pledged to expand the network of Huduma Centres countrywide while expanding the range of services to cover ALL the government’s 5,000-plus services.
Once this is done, we expect to roll out the service to the domestic and international sectors while at the same time transforming the Centres into a global leader in e-commerce and Business Process Outsourcing.
We will also undertake reforms for state corporations and state-owned enterprises to streamline their operations, making them more efficient and cutting waste.
To maximise government efficiency, we will institute business process re-engineering, tap into technology, and eliminate all red tape to improve service delivery.
Service delivery to the people remains our top agenda. By rolling out this Rapid Results Initiative, we are determined to set new standards in public service delivery while remaining accountable to the people.
Hon. Moses Kuria is the Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Public Service, Performance and Delivery Management.