Remarks · 11 April 2023
The Deputy President; The Prime Cabinet Secretary; Attorney General; Cabinet Secretaries; Principal Secretaries; Chairpersons and Chief Executive Officers of Constitutional Commissions & Independent Offices; Chairpersons, Directors and Chief Executive Officers of State Corporations; Chairpersons and Principals of Tertiary Institutions; Good Morning;
Today, we witness the culmination of the annual performance contracting cycle and the commencement of analysis, reflection and improvement of future performance on the basis of evidence-based evaluation and feedback.
Although the performance management framework is now in its 19th annual cycle, it is important to note that it emphatically and systematically incorporates, articulates and enforces the values and principles of public service, as laid down in Article 232 of the Constitution and thereby enables the public service to become the foremost champion of the national values and principles of governance set out in Article 10.
We must do our part in full to ensure that this event and the process it represents underscores high professional standards, highlights efficient, effective and economic use of resources, demonstrates responsiveness, promptness, effectiveness, impartiality and equity in service provision, enhances transparency and accountability and promotes meritocracy, inclusion and diversity.
The imperative of ensuring that the provision of public services to citizens meets a specified constitutional threshold, makes it inevitable for us to insist upon a more standardized, rational, and evidence-based management regime.
Last week, I engaged public servants about the constitutional stipulations regarding how government goes about the task of realising citizens’ expectations, through the public service.
In our constitutional dispensation, the public service is configured to become the optimal instrument to effectively mediate between government’s commitments and citizen’s aspirations. In formulating the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda, we went to great lengths to conduct exhaustive consultations with Kenyans throughout the country. These consultations enabled us formulate the policy and strategic basis of our manifesto, as well as formal charters containing actionable commitments to be implemented through the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda.
We understand our governing mandate to be anchored on the deep understanding we have with the people of Kenya and that my performance contract as President, is set out in the Constitution and the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda.
My performance contract therefore sets out targets that the government must achieve in feeding every Kenyan, providing affordable housing throughout the country, achieving universal health coverage, establishing necessary infrastructure for the explosive growth of the digital and creative economies, as well as creating millions of jobs through aggressive expansion of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and industrialization.
My team in the Executive assists me in the performance of this contract through contracted delegation as authorized in the Constitution, and the programmes, projects and tasks required to be performed, are relayed onwards to various departments and agencies under ministries. Under Article 132 (3) (b), I shall exercise my mandate to direct and coordinate the functions of these ministries and government departments, thereby ensuring that your effective performance satisfies the government contractual obligations with the people.
In other words, you will have all the necessary authority and support to deliver successfully, because through you, I am committed to excel in every item indicated on my scorecard during my performance evaluation when I return to the people to seek a fresh mandate. I must, therefore, oversee the execution of government mandates to the highest degree of achievement and the best level of performance.
Here is our opportunity to unbundle all the commitments in our agenda as determined in the High Level Retreat in Nanyuki early this year and prepare to assign them for implementation.
As we consider the results of the evaluation and feedback, we also have to deliberate with greater intention about the design of forthcoming performance contracts, their implementation and evaluation. Above and beyond the broader constitutional obligations and the strategic objectives in terms of our Plan, I am very keen to observe how the next performance management cycle enhances the realization of national values and principles of governance throughout government, at all levels of governance and in all parts of the country.
In particular, how much the public service affords equal opportunities to men and women, persons from all communities and persons with disabilities, will be of foremost interest. Equally critical will be the mainstreaming of a comprehensive agenda for Kenyan youth, including training, apprenticeship, industrial attachment and internship, access to government procurement opportunities and entrenchment of the digital and creative economy.
Further, it is of paramount importance that the performance management mechanism meaningfully reflects our resolve to enhance efficiency and reach of government services through digitization, automation and deployment of various information and communication technologies.
Kenya is a regional, continental and global champion of a just transition to clean, green industrialization. Our credibility in this cause is founded on demonstrable commitment to green up our national power grid, restore degraded landscapes and ecosystems, conserve forests, water towers, wetlands and other carbon sinks and promote heavy investment in wind and solar power, in addition to hydro and geothermal power. We are also promoters of e-mobility and sustainability across every sector.
This magnitude of our commitment to the green agenda is further demonstrated by the fact that Kenya will host the
Africa Climate Action Summit in Nairobi, between 4th and 6th September.
I therefore expect our performance management framework to incorporate commitments that are consistent with our obligations under Articles 42 and 69 and commensurate with our credentials as a global leader in green industrialization.
Because of the urgency in delivering our commitments and providing services to the people, the need to ensure that every shilling of our increasingly scarce resources delivers its fullest value and the requirement of transparency and accountability, the government is determined to reinvigorate performance management as a means of motivating, facilitating and coordinating the public service.
At this juncture, I must emphasize the need to ensure completion of viable, budgeted for and already commenced projects and programmes before we embark on new ones. I ask Cabinet Secretaries, Principal Secretaries, Chief Executive Officers of State Corporations and Principals of Tertiary Institutions to use Performance Contracts to ensure that projects and programmes are completed on time and within the available resources.
Institutionalising performance management is both desirable and rational. This is the rationale behind the decision to assign the government’s performance contracting mechanism to the Public Service Performance Management Unit in the Office of the Prime Cabinet Secretary Hon. Musalia Mudavadi, and I am confident that we shall all begin to experience considerable improvement in public service delivery.
I also know that the institutionalization of performance management in government is going to be further anchored in a clear policy framework through the Public Service Performance Management Bill, once it undergoes the necessary development in readiness for legislation.
In keeping with our digital agenda, I am delighted to note that the Government of Kenya has made progress in developing the government online performance contracting information system. This system will promote efficiency, promptness and transparency, thereby delivering the possibilities, benefits and advantages of digital technology to the management of public service delivery.
A results oriented, effective coordination and commitment to go beyond the extra mile, must be the new features of our approach to service delivery. Let us each do our part in strengthening a performance culture throughout the public service.
To do this, let us eradicate all practices of sabotaging and discouraging high standards of performance in the public service and instead motivate, reinforce, encourage and support them. Let us also remember that the performance management mechanism is one more platform on which Kenyans will subject their servants to intense scrutiny, and align our conduct accordingly.
The annual performance evaluation results to be released today will form the benchmark for performance in subsequent contracting cycles. Against this, it will be reasonable for Kenyans to expect incrementally enhanced performances in the spirit of continuous improvement. Similarly, time has come for us to brace ourselves and be ready to embrace the discussion and feedback, compliments and criticism, praise and condemnation that may be instigated by the results. That is accountability at work. I assure you of my support as you implement this year’s performance contracts and those in the future. I now officially release the Report on Evaluation of the Performance of Ministries, State corporations and Tertiary Institutions for the Financial Year 2021/2022. Thank you. God bless you. God bless Kenya.