The cabinet secretary Public Service, Gender and Affirmative Action Aisha Jumwa has said that salaries for all public service workers will soon be reviewed in a bid to boost their morale.
Addressing the media after a tour of the Kenya School of Government (KSG) Mombasa, Jumwa said that the public service was demoralized adding that something needed to be done to change that.
This was Jumwa’s first official visit in her capacity as a CS to Mombasa and the coast region since she was sworn in to office last week.
She was also at the facility to address 41 newly appointed public officers undergoing and induction workshop.
“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 making sure that we are getting to a point of revamping the public service by boosting their morale and give them a conducive working environment,” she added.
She however noted that it will not be easy given that the country was already grappling with tough economic times and a ballooning public wage bill.
Jumwa reiterated that as a ministry, they have a duty to review the salaries and working conditions of all public servants saying that they will wait for money to come in to implement the changes.
“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 added that the government had the intention to improve the productivity of public servants saying that this would be achieved through motivating them and raising their morale.
She further said that the country was facing a shortage of public servants saying that slightly above 900,000 people were serving the country’s population which was about 49 million.
She said that the staff were overstretched and overworked adding that the number needed to be increased to ensure that Kenyans get quality and efficient government services.
The CS failed to tour the Mombasa Huduma Center at GPO as earlier scheduled.
She however lauded the Huduma Kenya program saying that it had done a tremendous job in terms of providing government services to the people.
She said that plans were underway to ensure that the country has more Huduma centers to the constituency level.
Currently there are 41 huduma centers spread across the country.
“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 centers at the grassroots and also how to increase the platforms for government services to be there,” Jumwa said.
While on a tour of the Teleposter building in Nairobi that hosts the huduma secretariat, Jumwa announced that all huduma centers will be working from 7am to 7pm.
She said that staff will be working in shift all to ensure that Kenyans get government services on time in line with the president’s agenda.
“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.