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Kenya

Speaker champions civil service reforms

NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct 14- The Speaker of the National Assembly Kenneth Marende has urged the public service to embrace reforms aimed at modernising operations.

In a speech read on his behalf by Deputy Speaker Farah Maalim during the Public Service Week, the Speaker said they should also be willing to accept criticism that will help them improve on their shortcomings.

“It’s upon the public sector to perform to its optimum to be able to deliver service to Kenyans and that is the least that Kenyans should expect,” the Speaker said in his speech.

“The public service is undertaken using resources that are from the public themselves; we will promote reforms in this country that is going to make it easier and going to give quality service to Kenyans.”

He said public service should be about reflecting on governance and delivery of service to the public and providing a feedback mechanism for measurements.

“I would like to mention the importance of measuring performance through regular staff appraisals as a critical aspect of service delivery – as they say what gets measured gets done and what does not get measured does not get done,” he said.

Mr Maalim said Kenyans deserved professional service for their taxes adding that Parliament had set the pace by opening up House and Committee sittings and its other operations to the public.

“There should never be any secrecy about how institutions are run, how resources are utilised and how fast services should be delivered to Kenyans. Kenyans are encouraged to ask for nothing short of the best.”

“In a democracy it’s only through that dynamism and the constant desire to have something better that services can always be improved,” he said. The theme of this year’s event is ‘modernising public service towards realisation of Vision 2030’.

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The event which is expected to close on Thursday registered a huge turnout on its second day.

The most visited stands were those of the Kenya Police, Administration Police and Kenya Army where most of the visitors were inquiring on the workings and recruitment processes of the forces.

Another favourite of the crowd was the Ministry of Immigration and Registration of Persons where most of the visitors inquired about the process of getting a passport and other identification documents.

But some visitors were disappointed after they could not find the display stand for the Kazi Kwa Vijana Programme.

“Why are they hiding such a good thing like that?  All we wanted to do is get some information into how it works instead we are being sent from one stand to the other,” said a visitor.

The group told Capital News that they began at the Office of the Prime Minister as the coordinating ministry but were referred to the Ministry of Public Works or that of Enviroment and Mineral Resources and later to Ministry of Youth and Sports.

“We finally got to the Ministry of Youth where they told us that there was no such stand as it is run by line ministries and we should ask at the district where the project is being implemented,” he said.

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