any country remains the most important institution to mitigate challenges faced by citizens as it is uniquely placed to provide solutions. He was speaking in Nairobi during a luncheon hosted in honour of Prof. Jim Jose of the University of Newcastle and the coordinator of the Newcastle–Public Service Commission Australian Fellowship Award Program on 2nd May 2019.
“This fellowship programme was born out of an MoU between the University of Newcastle and the Public Service Commission of Kenya. It focuses five issues namely: Promotion of applied research for evidence-based decision making; Capacity building of Public Service Commission staff in policy formulation and implementation; Devolution in public service; Leadership development; and Exchange and other related programmes,” said Kirogo.
The Chairman stated that the Commission will leverage on the fellowship programme to achieve four major objectives including public service performance and capacity building for good governance performance improvement management; increasing public service productivity through improving competence and ensuring value for money is achieved in the service; public service ethics by establishing a governance framework and value system that is desirable; and public policy development and implementation.
He said the Commission will also bring the Kenya School of Government into the partnership as a way of increasing opportunities to develop and improve the capacity of public servants. The meeting was also attended by the Cabinet Secretary Ministry of Public Service, Youth and Gender Affairs Prof. Margaret Kobia. Prof Kobia noted that Kenya’s ties with the Australian government went a long way back. “We share a common background as members of the Commonwealth and we have enjoyed extremely productive ties between our countries,” she said. She added that the PSC-Australia Fellowship Programme is another pillar that will continue to strengthen these bilateral ties.
“The fellowship programme has the potential of bringing great contribution in the transformation programme through institutional capacity building,” said Prof Kobia.
“It is therefore our wish that the partnership be up-scaled and expanded in scope to incorporate more middle level and senior level public officials from other segments of the public service,” she said
Prof Jose mentioned that the programme targeted areas that were considered a high priority for the Commission and that the exercise so far has been worthwhile. Present during the meeting were the PSC Vice Chairperson Charity Kisotu, Commissioners Joyce Nyabuti, Joan Otieno, Salma Ahmed, Reuben Chirchir, and Andrew Muriuki. Others were Acting CEO Mr. Simon Rotich, Deputy Commission Secretary Mr. Remmy Mulati, Director Performance Management Dr. Sylvester Obong’o and Assistant Director Research and Policy Analysis Mr. Daniel Oliech.