This archive report was first published on 29 October 2019.
Published on October 29, 2019, the Sunday Nation reported that the Cabinet Secretary for Public Service, Youth and Gender Affairs, Prof Margaret Kobia, was finalising the transfer of key functions from the ministry to the Kenya School of Government.
The move involves disbanding the management consultancy services department, which has been responsible for driving the affairs of civil service since its formation in 1978.
The department offers free consultancy services to the public service, but the motive behind the transfer remains unclear.
According to the Principal Administrative Secretary, Ms Mary Kimonye, the decision was made to hand over the department's functions to the KSG, but critics argue that this move lacks constitutional mandate.
Even the CS cannot just wake up and decide to move a department; that can only be done through a presidential executive order.
The trend of retaining a coterie of advisers on higher job groups has brought confusion in the processing and implementation of public policies.
Senior civil servants, otherwise referred to as policymakers, have been cut off from accessing the executives as most decisions being made by the State are not processed through the policy-making chamber — the boardrooms.
A civil service serves to stabilise the effects of a partisan political environment at any given time because civil servants are obligated to serve the government of the day.
It would appear that moving HR and research outfits is a calculated move to bring in more advisers as private consultants to carry out what officers in MCS have been doing.
Since no other logical reason informs the decision why key departments are being moved from the mainstream civil service to a training institution, Kenyans are left with no option but to speculate.
President Uhuru Kenyatta and Parliament must rise to the occasion and rein in on overzealous ministers.
