No Kenyan Will Die Of Hunger, CS Kobia

Public Service, Gender, Social Protection, Arid, and Semi-Arid Lands (ASAL) Cabinet Secretary Margaret Kobia said they are working with development partners, embassies and other like-minded individuals to come up with the necessary interventions to arrest the hunger situation in the country.

At least 2.5 million Kenyans are in dire need of relief food after back to back seasons of rain failure, with the government assuring that no one will die of hunger.

Speaking after flagging off the distribution of 340 tons of food supply from the Kuwait government in Thika town today, Prof Kobia said about 23 counties are extremely affected by the hunger, but assured that interventions have been put in place to mitigate the situation.

She said among the most affected counties are Marsabit, Turkana, Samburu, Wajir and Garissa.

“The government is doing a lot to respond to the challenges of drought. The number of those affected is high and that is why we continue to urge our development partners, NGOs and other friendly nations to intervene. We shall make sure no Kenyan will die of hunger,” she said.

Some of the government interventions, she said, include the release of Sh8.5 billion this month towards vulnerable families through the Inua Jamii programme.

Government has also released Sh400 million as bursaries to children in boarding schools especially in Form-one and who have not been able to pay their school fees because of poverty.

Another Sh13 million has been given towards nutrition to children in ASAL counties, CS Kobia said.

She further added that the Kenya Meat Commission has been given the necessary resources to undertake livestock offtake to reduce risks of livestock deaths because of the drought.

While urging residents to sell their livestock to reduce more deaths, the CS said the livestock will be slaughtered and distributed to locals as food.

She added that the government is also working to have resilient programmes to reduce perennial reliance on relief food in such areas.

Some of the programmes include drilling boreholes for irrigation, having a drought fund to help in interventions, putting up irrigation schemes, connecting residents to roads and electricity as well as having a  school feeding programme among learners in the ASAL.

On the distribution of the relief food, the CS said they will be on the ground to ensure the food is given in a manner respecting integrity.

“Only those affected are the ones who will get it so that the food does not go to the wrong hands,” she said.

Kuwait Ambassador to Kenya Qusai AL Farhan said the bond between the two countries is strong and that they will offer more assistance if needed.

He said the food will be distributed to 6,300 residents in ASALs and will take them over two months.

“The connection between the two countries is too strong. When President Uhuru Kenyatta appealed for food donations to help mitigate against drought, Kuwait did not hesitate to help,” he said.

Among the food items distributed include rice, cooking oil, maize, sugar and flour.

By Muoki Charles

GOVERNMENT RELEASES KSH 8.95 BILLION TO VULNERABLE GROUPS

The Government of Kenya continues to put a heavy premium on addressing the plight of the needy and vulnerable populations in our country through mounting of various safety net interventions to cushion citizens from extreme poverty.

As part of these measures, the Ministry of Public Service, Gender, Senior Citizen Affairs and Special Programmes has disbursed funds for three critical programmes targeting the vulnerable groups as follows:

ProgrammeNo. of beneficiariesTotal Amount (Kshs.)
Inua Jamii1,067,8058,542,440,000
NICHE339,15113,045,000
Presidential Secondary School Bursary22,000400,000,000
Total1,123,7168,955,485,000
  1. INUA JAMII PROGRAMME

TheMinistry of Public Service, Gender, Senior Citizen Affairs and Special Programmes has released Kenya Shillings Eight Billion, Five Hundred and Forty-Two Million, Four Hundred and Forty Thousand (Kshs. 8,542,440,000) for payment to beneficiaries enrolled in the Inua Jamii programme.

Inua Jamii programme is a Government cash transfer programme that supports the most vulnerable members of the community by providing them with a stipend to cushion them from poverty, hunger and with the aim of improving their lives.

The programme targets

  1. Orphans and Vulnerable Children;
  2. Older Persons; and
  3. Persons with Severe Disabilities.

These beneficiaries have already been enrolled into the program and their accounts have been successfully submitted to the Consolidated Cash Transfer Management Information System.

2. NUTRITION IMPROVEMENTS THROUGH CASH AND HEALTH EDUCATION (NICHE)

The Ministry of Public Service, Gender, Senior Citizen Affairs and Special Programmes has released Kenya Shillings Thirteen Million and Forty-Five Thousand (Kshs. 13,045,000) as top up payment to 339,151 NICHE Complementary Program beneficiaries.

The Nutrition Improvements through Cash and Health Education (NICHE) is a Government of Kenya project that aims at investing in the scale-up of the existing nutrition-sensitive safety nets, and testing customised economic inclusion models – as a complement to the regular cash transfers.

The NICHE Programme targets households with children under two years of age and Pregnant or Lactating mothers who are already enrolled in the Inua Jamii Programme.

The 339,151 households will benefit from the top up of the NICHE payment depending on the number of children enrolled in the (NICHE) complementary programme in Kitui, Kilifi, Marsabit, Turkana and West Pokot counties.

PAYMENT STATUS

The funds have been credited to the accounts of 1,067,805 Inua Jamii beneficiaries with payment expected to start on January 18, 2022. The Government is making this payment through the six contracted banks namely: Cooperative Bank, Equity Bank, Kenya Commercial Bank, Post Bank, Kenya Women Finance Trust and National Bank.

Beneficiaries will receive Kshs. 8,000 being payment for months of July, August, September and October 2021.

Beneficiaries or caregivers can access all or part of this payment at any time over a six months period. Therefore, beneficiaries are advised that the funds will remain in their accounts for a period of SIX months hence there is no need for all of them to rush to the banks to collect the money at the same time. This will avoid crowding at the payment points.

Payment modalities for the funds have been agreed between the Ministry and the paying banks to ensure the Ministry of Health guidelines on containment of COVID-19 are strictly followed while paying beneficiaries. These guidelines include:

  1. Utilisation of their mobile banking platforms to prevent crowding of beneficiaries at the payment points;
  2. Ensure social distancing by staggering payments;
  3. Provision of handwashing facilities, sanitisers and masks for the beneficiaries during the payment; and
  4. Ensure that all biometric devices are cleaned and regularly sanitised.

The Ministry has adopted a multi-agency approach in the payment process involving the Ministry of Interior and Coordination of National Government, County Governments, Ministry of Health, elected leaders and Ministries’ field staff to ensure seamless coordination.

3. PRESIDENTIAL SECONDARY SCHOOL BURSARY PROGRAMME

The Government has released Kenya Shillings Four Hundred Million (Kshs 400,000,000) to vulnerable students under the Presidential Bursary Programme.

The Presidential Secondary School Bursary for the orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) is a flagship project under vision 2030 that was started in 2013 as a complementary programme for orphans and vulnerable children cash transfer programme (OVC-CT).

The aim of the bursary scheme is to enhance secondary school access, enrolment, attendance and completion by OVCs in Kenya.

Disbursement of this fund is constituency-based with all constituencies getting an equal allocation of Kshs. 1.3 Million.

In the 2021/2022 Financial Year, 22,000 students in public boarding schools will have their fees paid to a maximum of Kshs. 30,000 per student.

For further information please email ps@socialprotection.go.ke

Prof. Margaret Kobia, PhD, EGH

CABINET SECRETARY

MINISTRY LEADERSHIP SIGNS THE 2021/2022 FY PERFORMANCE CONTRACTS

The recently reconstituted Ministry of Public Service, Gender, Senior Citizens Affairs and Special Programmes has today held its 18th Cycle of Performance Contract signing ceremony for the Principal Secretaries, Chief Executive Officers and Chairpersons of Semi Autonomous Government Agencies.

Welcoming the new State Departments during the ceremony held at Kenya School of Government in Nairobi, Cabinet Secretary, Prof. Margaret Kobia said that the two departments will add significant value to the ministry which has already been handling the vulnerable – women and persons with disabilities – under the State Department for Gender.

“It is clear, from the mandates, visions, goals and strategic interventions, that the two Departments come with established structures, roadmaps and directions for implementation in order to deliver services to the vulnerable,” said Prof. Kobia.

On his part, State Department for Social Protection, Senior Citizens Affairs and Special Programmes Principal Secretary, Mr. Nelson Marwa was thankful that the 4 State Departments had been put together under the social pillar function.

“I’m happy we have come together under the social pillars to serve the public. Let us serve Kenyans diligently for this is what we are paid to do,” said Mr. Marwa.

Development of Arid and Semi Arid Lands (ASALS) Principal Secretary, Mr. Micah Powon welcomed the move by his Excellency to move the Department to the reconstituted Ministry.

“The State Department for Development of ASALs is happy to be working under this institution and we are focused to putting our efforts together to provide services to our people,” he said.

Performance Contracting has been a key accountability tool used by the government since 2003 in its endeavour to improve service delivery in the public service. The Performance Contract function falls under the State Department for Public Service.

Public Service Principal Secretary, Mrs. Mary Kimonye in her remarks highlighted the importance of performance contracts in terms of measuring performance in public service.

“Performance contracting aims at improving service delivery, reversing decline in efficiency, institutionalizing performance oriented culture and enabling performance measurement and improvement in the public service,” she said.

The Principal Secretary recognised the roles of each State Department in harnessing public service delivery.

“This ceremony provides a platform for us to meet, share and engage with one another as we recognize the integral role that each and every department plays in the service delivery process within the State Department,” she said.

The purpose of the Performance Contracting guidelines is to support MDAs, Constitutional Commissions and Independent Offices in identification of their performance indicators and annual targets; undertaking negotiations and vetting; review of the vetted Performance Contracts; and in implementation of the Performance Contracts. The guidelines are also intended to ensure standardization of the Performance Contracting process and the Performance Contracts.

Present at the ceremony were Chief Administrative Secretaries, Hon. Rachel Shebesh, Hon. Beatrice Elachi and Hon. Jebii Kilimo; Uwezo Fund Board Chairperson, Prof. Lusenge Turoop and CEO Mr. Paul Lengapiani; Women Enterprise Fund CEO, Mr. Charles Mwirigi; Anti-FGM Chairperson, Mrs. Agnes Pareiyo and CEO, Mrs. Benardette Loloju among other senior Ministry officials.

Cabinet Secretary, Prof. Kobia shares her journey to an efficient Public Service and a clean NYS

Cabinet Secretary, Prof. Kobia shares her journey to an efficient Public Service and a clean NYS

Share with us your journey to becoming a Cabinet Secretary, from your days in high school.
I never knew I would become a Cabinet secretary at any one point. However, I always knew education was important.  Ever since I was in primary school, my parents always said that to get out of the environment we lived in that involved doing a lot of shamba work, I had to get good education. I looked up to my teachers. They were mostly women and were smart. They also seemed to have a better quality of life at home. I endeavoured to do well in order to be like them. When I joined Alliance High school, I met more female teachers who were even more smart and I kept dreaming bigger. My dreams kept on changing.

So where does it all start?
I started my career at Ngara Girls where I taught for four years. I needed to do something else because it had become monotonous. I moved to the Kenya National Examination Council as a test developer and researcher. While at the examination council, I realised I needed a masters and the government offered me a scholarship to study at Kenyatta University. I taught at Kenyatta University and at the same time did administration.
 A time came that if one needed a promotion, they must be in possession of a PhD. Knowing that this too hindered women, I applied for a PhD at Kenyatta University, but there was not much progress because of issues like lack of supervisors and strikes.

What happened next?
I moved to the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, where I did my PhD in education and entrepreneurship. I came back and went to teach at Strathmore. While I was at Strathmore, the Kenya School of Government advertised for the position of a director.

How was it like serving as a director?
I served this position for eight years. While serving as a director, I realised the difference between leadership in men and women. The staff had the trouble addressing me, other people left because they found my administration very difficult, all the same, I shared my vision of the school and I am proud of how it is now. When the new Constitution came, the government advertised the position of a chairperson for the Public Service Commission. It had never had a female chair since its establishment. I always went an extra mile in my work and God is always on my side, so I got the position.

You inherited a docket bedevilled by corruption, poor work ethics, and poor work delivery; how does the cleaning process look like now?
When I joined the ministry of Public Service and Gender, we had a big challenge with National Youth Service; we had lost money. There was NYS I and II. We sat to understand the challenges and root causes of the malpractices, we realised that as long as youth service is a department in the public service, it would never perform because of lack of proper oversight and it had a huge budget. This made it an avenue for recruiting youths and the President was so passionate about it. Upon analysing the situation, we saw the need to put structures on how the National Youth Service would be run. We recruited an oversight board, we reviewed the whole procurement procedure to be compliant with what is expected by the government. This is my fourth year in youth service and no money has been stolen.

What still gives you sleepless nights?
I think if money is ever lost in this NYS, after what happened to one and two, I would not be able to face the president and explain. This would definitely keep me up at night.

Youths and women suffered a big blow as a result of the Covid pandemic. What is the ministry doing about this?
As a government we have looked at expanding technical institutions, reviewed the curriculum and made people understand that universities were never meant to train people for jobs. University gives a broad liberal education so that you can be able to survive anywhere.

What can you tell qualified Kenyans suffering unemployment and waiting for a white collar job?
There are many Kenyans with university qualifications who think that they only went to school to get a job and sit in the office. But this is because most of us grew up hearing that we should go to school, pass exams and get a job, when this doesn’t work for them they lack other options and can’t think beyond that. We need to interact with the youth and let them know that being employed is no longer going to be possible. The education you get up to university should be an avenue to learn and not just sit and wait.

Work life integration is very difficult for women. You hold a powerful office, how do you balance?
Women struggle with work balance because nothing exempts you from being a mother or looking after your children and husband. In the office, I delegate a lot. I have a support team at home; it is okay to iron clothes and other basic things. It is important to invest in your family as much as you invest in your career. 

Everyone has a family; you must find a balance because you will always need your family. Women can have it all but you must be comfortable with what is said about you or around you and have clarity of what you want. They also need a coping strategy.

We don’t have a female presidential candidate 60 years into independence, what can we do about this?
This is a work in progress which will not just happen unless we come together as women and join with men then we start pursuing that goal. One day perhaps we will have a female vice president. If we become deliberate on our target, building capacity through training and exposure. I think one day, Kenya will get a female president.

As published in https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/thenairobian/politics/ By Esther Dianah

Inaugural Inter-Ministerial Human Resource Management and Development Committee

Inaugural Inter-Ministerial Human Resource Management and Development Committee

The State Department for Public Service on 3rd September, 2021 held the inaugural Inter-Ministerial Human Resource Management and Development Committee meeting.

The committee has been established to develop frameworks for Human Resource Innovation; identify emerging issues and trends; research, propose and develop appropriate policies to ensure optimal staffing and redistribution; and to focus on career progression for the public service.

The Principal Secretary, Mrs. Kimonye who presided over the breakfast meeting held at Serena Hotel, noted that there’s need to identify areas of engagement and focus on the career progression for the public service.

“We need to focus and come up with clear guidelines on career progression in public service in order to address the existing gaps,” she said.

State Department for Interior and Citizen Services Human Resource Management Director, Mr. Benson Githua who is the Chairperson of the committee noted that streamlining and addressing matters that are human resource centered is critical in ensuring efficient and effective service delivery.

Also in attendance were directors of Human Resource Management and Development: Dr. Jacob Mbijjiwe, State Department for Public Service, Ms. Susan Mucheru, National Treasury, Mr. Paul Kang’ira, State Department For Early Learning and Basic Education, Mr. Albert Mokua, Ministry of Health among others.

By Charity Mongina

East African Community and Regional Development Staff Award Ceremony

East African Community and Regional Development Staff Award Ceremony

On 3rd September, 2021: The Ministry of East African Community and Regional Development held a staff recognition ceremony to award its staff members following the Performance Contract Evaluation for the financial year 2019/2020.

The Chief Guest, Cabinet Secretary, Prof. Margaret Kobia, congratulated the Ministry for a job well done. Prof. Kobia said that due to rapid changes taking place globally, there is need to understand what is changing, why and how we can find a good fit in public service delivery.

The Cabinet Secretary urged Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to benchmark with the top performing ministries. “Moving on forward, MDAs should benchmark with the top performing Ministries in order to adopt best practice in Government Performance Management,” she said.

Cabinet Secretary for East African Community and Regional Development, Mr. Adan Mohammed urged the staff to work harder and emerge first next time. “I want you to work even harder towards service delivery to emerge position one in the next evaluation,” he said.

The Ministry emerged third in the ministerial category. The staff members will receive 50% of their basic salary, State House staff members, who emerged first, will receive 100% of their basic salary while Treasury, who emerged second, will receive 75%.

New system to integrate data on public servants to be rolled out soon

New system to integrate data on public servants to be rolled out soon

The State Department for Public Service is in the final stages of developing a Unified Human Resource Information System which will help integrate public servants information into one system.

Consolidating Human Resource data and automating the Human Resource Management function on a unified platform is expected to, among other benefits, standardize Human Resource practices across the public service, minimize manual Human Resource processes, and create a trusted single source of Human Resource information for decision-making purposes.

In her remarks during the official opening of a 3-day workshop for the 2nd and final validation of the system held at Kenya School of Government from 2nd September, 2021, Principal Secretary, Mrs Mary Kimonye said that the development of the new system is an incredible milestone for the public service as it will help in monitoring areas that have had challenges in the past.

In January 2021, the State Department for Public Service appointed a task force of software developers to undertake the review and overhaul of the existing Human Resource software known as Government Human Resource Information System (GHRIS).

The task force produced a prototype of the Unified Human Resource (UHR) information system in April 2021 which underwent the initial validation on 4th May 2021 by internal stakeholders comprising the GHRIS Implementation Steering Committee, Human Resource Process owners, as well as Heads of Departments and Units.

Subsequently, the task force has constructed to full functionality three (3) modules prioritized for the 2020/2021 financial year namely Payroll Administration, Leave Management and Pension Claiming.

The workshop was attended by Human Resource Officers drawn from various public service institutions.

By Brian Kochwa

Huduma Kenya Service Leaders Workshop

Huduma Kenya Service Leaders Workshop

Principal Secretary, Mrs. Mary Kimonye presided over the opening ceremony of the Huduma Kenya Service Leaders Workshop at Kenya School of Government, Nairobi on 1st September, 2021.

The 3-day workshop was to train 52 Huduma Centre Managers from 52 Huduma Centres across the country to understand the structure, roles and responsibilities of a servant leader; review the service performance of the various Ministries, Departments and Agencies; propose clear interventions for service delivery; adopt the one-stop-shop government policy for deployment and management of services, and chart the strategic direction as far as service delivery is concerned.

In her opening remarks, the Principal Secretary commended the centre managers for their innovativeness during the COVID-19 pandemic which ensured that public service delivery was not disrupted.

“I would like to recognise and appreciate the effort you have all put in during the pandemic which has ensured that service delivery was not disrupted. I note in particular that there were centres that sought partnership with different institutions to ensure that fumigation was done which was a demonstration of great leadership,” she said.

The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic presented new challenges in public service delivery. The containment and mitigation measures put in place by the Ministry of Health necessitated a rethink of the operations of public service delivery. Huduma adopted new approaches and innovations to service delivery such as Service by Appointment (SBA).

The workshop largely focused on financial management training in order to enhance the Finance, Accounting and Procurement skills of the managers.

Recently, the State Department for Public Service has devolved the Authority to Incur Expenditure (AIE) to centre managers which will enable them fast track the acquisition of procurement items which is expected to improve service delivery in the centres.

Mrs. Kimonye urged the centre managers to play their role in “Building Back Better” for their country as they are are the main drivers of national development. She also urged them to uphold the Huduma values.

“Let us be true to our principles that entail professionalism, integrity, courtesy and transparency,” she said.

Present at the workshop opening ceremony was CEO Huduma Kenya, Mr. James Buyekane and Commissioner Titus Ndambuki from the State Department for Public Service among others.

State Department for Public Service Workshop on Performance Contracts

The State Department for Public Service held a two-day workshop on 30th and 31st August 2021 in Naivasha. The workshop sought to harmonise the State Department Performance Contracts.

The Government has used Performance Contracting as a key accountability tool since 2004 in its endeavour to improve service delivery in the Public Service. Performance Contracting is part of the broader public sector reforms aimed at improving efficiency and effectiveness in the management of the public service.

The workshop which was attended by select Heads of Department and appointed Performance Contract champions assessed the government projects carried out by the different departments within the Ministry of Public Service and Gender for the FY 2020/2021 in order to ascertain the actual delivery level against the budget allocations to the State Department for the said financial year.

The following were the objectives of the workshop:

  1. To assess the implementation level of government projects being carried out under the Ministry of Public Service and Gender for the F2020/2021;
  2. To analyze and report on the government projects progress vis a vis the budget for the different State Departments within the Ministry of Public Service for the FY2020/2021; and
  3. To assess the challenges and emerging issues such as COVID-19 on the implementation of government projects under the Ministry of Public Service and Gender for the FY2021/2022.

Speaking during the opening ceremony in Sawela Lodge, Naivasha, Head of Central Planning and Project Monitoring Unit, Mr. David Kiboi, noted that performance contracting in the public service is pertinent in as far as measuring performance is concerned.

“If we don’t measure what we are doing, we will never get anything done. Performance Contracts ensure that what gets measured gets done,” he said.

Taking cognizance of the emerging realities of COVID-19, the Ministry of Public Service and Gender has developed a complete end-to-end online platform – the Government Performance Contracting Information System (GPCIS) towards automating the Performance Contracting process.

The system was used for the first time in FY 2020/21 to develop the FY 2020/21 Performance Contracts for all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs). The system comprises a negotiation module, vetting module, review module and monitoring & reporting modules.

These modules are fully linked to provide a logical flow of the Performance Contracting process from target setting to monitoring of progress. The overall design of the GPCIS will have the potential for the development and generation of various management reports.


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