KAIKAI'S KICKER: Let us value and protect the civil service

On my Kicker tonight, I reflect on a critical component of our statehood and the backbone of our governance – the civil service – also referred to as the public service.

Earlier this week, I spent a lot of time with former Head of Public Service Francis Muthaura, a career public servant who spent nearly 50 years in the civil service.

Muthaura has just penned his memoirs and joins some of his predecessors such as Duncan Ndegwa and the late Jeremiah Kiereini who have shared their experiences through books.

In my conversation with Muthaura, the very guarded former Head of Public Service explained the place of what he described as good public service in the wellness of the country, saying; “The success of any country is determined by the capacity and drive of the Cabinet, the drive of the top civil servants and also the quality of the business practices and ethics.”

When I invited Muthaura to comment on concerns about the appointment of politicians to what was traditionally career civil service positions like Permanent Secretary, now renamed Principal Secretary, the career administrator responded diplomatically about the appointments being entirely dependent on the capacity rather than the background of the appointees.

But listening to Muthaura and reading from the Kiereinis, Duncan Ndegwa and others, left me in no doubt that the discussion on the quality of civil service appointments must always be had and so robustly by Kenyans. The civil service is the core of our national body; the skeleton and frame upon which our statehood rests.

Article 236 of the Constitution for example sets the values and principles upon which our public service must be constructed. The values and principles include high standards of professional ethics, efficient, effective and economic use of resources, responsive, prompt, effective, impartial and equitable provision of services and accountability for administrative acts by those in the public service.

The constitutional principles also require that fair competition and merit are the basis of appointments and promotions and that the appointments be representative of Kenya’s diverse communities.

The values and principles in the Constitution certainly sound noble. But how much of that is reflected in today’s public service realities?

Ethics and work culture have for example been flagged by current Head of Public Service Felix Koskei who only last week described adherence to working hours, dress code, code of conduct and norms and standards in the public service as extremely poor.

Back to my conversation with retired Head of Public Service Francis Muthaura, a country of our kind of diversity cannot afford declining standards in the civil service. 

History shows that national stability has more than once counted entirely on the strength of the public service. The place of a good, professional ethical and well-functioning public service in Kenya is therefore not in question.

That is my Kicker!