Public servants are overworked – Jumwa
The public service suffers an acute shortage of staff, Public Service and Gender Cabinet Secretary Aisha Jumwa said yesterday.
According to her, 900,000 public servants are required to serve 50 million Kenyans.
“This clearly shows the public service is understaffed and workers are overloaded. This contributes to low morale. This we seek to solve by reviewing salaries to ensure the staff are motivated and serve the public with passion,” she said.
She vowed to revolutionise operations under her ministry to ensure Kenyans get quality services.
Speaking during the launch of an induction programme for 41 new staff of Huduma Centres at the Mombasa’s School of Government, Jumwa promised to be a hands-on CS who will always be on the ground to serve the public.
Jumwa said the new government had inherited a demoralised public service that is riddled with among other challenges, huge workload and low pay.
To address the issue, the CS said she was keen to start a conversation to boost the morale of the workers by improving the terms and working environment.
“At the moment I believe we are on the right track and going forward, things will be much better because I will not be a CS who spends most of the time in office. I will be on the ground to monitor and ensure that wananchi get the required services to complement President William Ruto’s agenda,” Jumwa said.
The CS said she is currently in the process of familiarising with the departments and institutions under her docket to get a good understanding of what needs to be accorded priority.
