KENYA
Senior Kenyan Public Servants are on an unofficial “go slow” in protest at the high number of outside “advisers” employed by Ministers.
The outsiders, mostly from the corporate world, have been fast-tracked into senior positions, which many PS staff claim should have gone to them through promotion.
Investigations by journalists show that Ministers had an average of five aides who had unfettered access to them, with the majority literally running the Ministries.
Conservative estimates put the overall number at around 100.
So influential have they become that even Principal Secretaries have to go through these advisers to meet Ministers, which they say lengthens an already crippling amount of red tape in Government.
One senior officer said the advisers did not appreciate the functioning of Government and were not willing to step out even when matters of top security were discussed.
“They are controlling the Ministers and there isn’t much you can do about it,” the officer said.
Deputy Secretary-General of the Union of Civil Servants, Jerry olé Kina said the trend was worrying and the union was evaluating the options it had to put a stop to it.
“Why can’t the Cabinet Secretaries pick their advisers from the Public Service?” Mr olé Kina asked.
“What’s happening now is a morale killer.”
He said it was disastrous having “some young, clueless person, who just because of proximity to the Minister is giving orders to someone who has been in the Service for 25 years”.
Cabinet Secretary in charge of the Public Service, Professor Margaret Kobia (pictured) admitted that her colleagues had many aides who were not from the Public Service, but defended them from accusations of interference in the day-to-day running of the Government Departments.
“Advisers are personal staff of Cabinet Secretaries with specialised skills employed on contract during the tenure of the Cabinet Secretary,” Professor Kobia said.
“Cabinet Secretaries are free to pick whoever has the competence both from serving Civil Servants and outsiders.”
Nairobi, 20 March 2019
