Secretary to the Cabinet Mercy Wanjau, has called for greater accountability in county governments, saying devolved units should create jobs and drive economic growth rather than relying heavily on the national government.
Speaking on Radio Generation on Monday, Wanjau said counties were created to drive economic growth, but the debate often focused on the national government and the equitable share of billions of shillings allocated to devolved units.
“One of the difficulties here is the word that the county governments have has to do with human resource engagement, others known as employment, and whatever threshold they know by law they should adhere to, they do not,” she said.
She said political pressure often influenced county employment, with leaders seeking to demonstrate that they were helping their supporters by securing them jobs.
“That’s why you find there’s a department in every county called environment. Environment comes to sweep roots and so forth,” Wanjau said.
She argued that counties should instead focus on their constitutional mandate of driving growth and using public resources effectively.
“County government, and by their very creation, was supposed to provide the impetus for this growth we keep speaking of,” she said.
Wanjau also called for more investment in training and reskilling to enable Kenyans to take advantage of emerging opportunities.
“There is a whole need to train, to train for these roles, to train for the appropriate skills, so that you can be able to position and adjust towards the value chain or chains of choice,” she said.
Turning to the public service, Wanjau said government workers must adapt to rapid technological changes, including artificial intelligence and digital governance.
She said Kenya has close to one million people serving in the public service, with the figure rising when national and county workers are combined.
“The public servant of the day has not only to be motivated; they have to be a lifelong learner,” Wanjau said.
She said the growth of technology meant public servants could no longer rely on old ways of working, particularly as more government services move online.
“When a government has 22,000 services online, you cannot ignore,” she said, adding that public servants needed to “keep agile, to keep learning”.
Wanjau said citizens were also demanding a different relationship with government, requiring officials to listen and engage rather than simply issue instructions.
“The citizen is saying, ‘Don’t speak at me. Engage with me,’” she said.
She added that public servants, as the face of government, must “reposition and design that experience around the citizen, not the other way round.”