Jacqueline Mogeni  

A popular quote that has found its way on many of our tongues is, ‘knowledge is power’. These three words are often said casually, but they run deep. 

The 21st-century economies are knowledge-driven. How an organisation creates, identifies, organises, shares, stores and transfers vital knowledge determines whether it will deliver its results efficiently and effectively. 

To be more precise, the importance of knowledge management in today’s public sector cannot be sufficiently emphasised. 

Constant citizen demand for quality, accessible and affordable services is a clarion call to both the national government and the county governments to maximise their resource basket for optimal results.

Duty bearers have to apply concepts that promote excellent performance. This is where Knowledge Management (KM) is critical. 

Governments all over the world are regular creators of knowledge, and they do this through formulation of policy and legislation; conceptualisation and implementation of sector projects; innovations in service delivery and development of reports.

Ministries at the national and county government levels are governed by a myriad of policies, laws, regulations, circulars, manuals, guidelines and Gazette Notices.

Where and how are these stored? Can members of the public, researchers and colleagues in other government entities access them?

Since government regimes change with every election, KM processes are integral in ensuring that knowledge is well retained and seamlessly transferred to new personnel.

And in recognition that we are in a digital world, the public sector needs to invest in technologies that facilitate sharing of information.

The national of county government must move with the times and demystify the myth that its information can only be accessed in dark, dusty rooms full of files.

Finding a policy document at the click of a button saves much more time than having to make numerous calls to a chain of public officers. 

When institutionalised properly, KM also plays a very key role in promoting best-practice sharing and peer-to-peer learning.

Identification, capturing, documentation and sharing of best practices enables institutions to learn from each other at a minimal cost. 

To illustrate, Kilifi county successfully and robustly ran an advocacy campaign against teenage pregnancies, an initiative that led to the reduction of this vice in the devolved unit.

This story was documented and disseminated by the Maarifa Centre, a knowledge repository for best practices, innovations and case studies emerging from service delivery in the counties.

If another county intended to run such a campaign, they would not need to undertake an expensive benchmarking venture.

They would quickly access that story, learn how Kilifi county did it, and domesticate the lessons therein to suit their circumstances.  

Counties continue to find innovative ways of delivering services and KM is pivotal in ensuring that knowledge assets that are harvested in the course of service delivery are available for consumption by other devolved uniots and other subnational units across the world.  

Another ripple effect of KM is that it fuels competition among peers, pushing institutions to perform better and become more innovative. 

KM processes are an ingredient for influencing performance and keeping the government accountable.  —The writer is the Chief Executive Officer of the Council of Governors