The government will shortly raise compensation for all public employees in an effort to enhance their morale, according to Aisha Jumwa, cabinet secretary for public service, gender, and affirmative action.
Jumwa indicated that the public service was demoralized and that something needed to be done to reverse that while speaking to the media following a visit of the Kenya School of Government (KSG) Mombasa.
Since being sworn into office last week, it was her first formal trip to Mombasa and the coast in her capacity as a CS.
She was speaking to 41 freshly appointed public servants who were taking part in an orientation course.
“I came into this office that was already dealing with a myriad of challenges, top on the list being that the public service is demoralized, which is true,” said Jumwa.
Mine is to ensure that I have facilitated the conversation to make sure that we are getting to a point of revamping the public service by boosting their morale and giving them a conducive working environment,” she added.
Jumwa emphasized that as a ministry, they are required to assess the pay and working conditions for all public employees and that they will hold off on making adjustments until the necessary funds are available.
“My intention is very clear and I will begin the conversation to achieve this, in the meantime, I am going to engage all the relevant ministries and government agencies to ensure that we actualize this,” she said.
The CS continued by stating that the government intended to increase the productivity of public employees and that this would be done through inspiring them and boosting their morale.
She added that there was a shortage of public employees in the nation, stating that slightly more than 900,000 workers were serving the roughly 49 million people who called it home.
In order to guarantee that Kenyans receive effective and high-quality government services, she claimed that the workers were overworked and overstretched.
The Mombasa Huduma Center at GPO was not visited by the CS as originally planned.
However, she praised the Huduma Kenya program, saying it had done a fantastic job of providing citizens with government services.
She claimed that efforts were being made to increase the number of Huduma centers nationwide at the constituency level.
There are currently 41 huduma centers located all over the nation.
“I can attest that the Huduma Kenya program has worked wonders and I am very much impressed. We also have plans to increase the huduma mashinani program working with our Members of Parliament. We will give them direction on how they can be able to construct huduma centres at the grassroots and also how to increase the platforms for government services to be there,” Jumwa said.
Jumwa made the announcement while giving a tour of the Teleposter building in Nairobi, which houses the huduma secretariat, and all huduma centers will be open from 7am to 7pm.
According to her, employees would work in shifts to guarantee that Kenyans receive government services on schedule and in accordance with the president’s plan.
“I will not be a CS who sits in the office, I will be at the grassroots to see that Kenyans get services that they deserve,” she said.
