Nominee to PSC vows to reform civil service
By Rawlings Otieno, January 10, 2025
Ghost workers in the civil service and public servants with fake academic papers will be a thing of the past if Parliament endorses the Public Service Commission (PSC) nominees.
President William Ruto’s PSC nominee Francis Meja wondered why the commission had never thought of automating its processes when he appeared before the National Assembly’s Labour Committee chaired by Runyenjes lawmaker Muchangi Karemba,
Meja while responding to questions from the members on what he would do if approved, said that he would drive an initiative that would make PSC and Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec) have a link to weed out civil servants with fake academic papers.
The former National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) Director General said that it was appalling that despite many years, Public Service is still riddled with ghost workers.
“How come that in the private sector, there are no ghost workers? It is because each employee reports to somebody. Why don’t we interface PSC and Knec since there is a database of all those who have taken the exams? These vices have been left for far too long. I will drive the change,” said Meja.
Former Public Service Principal Secretary Mary Kimonye a nominee for the Vice Chair’s position had a hard time convincing the committee of her ethnicity.M
Kimonye told the committee that although she was born in Kirinyaga, her identity is Meru given that her grandparents and parents settled in Kirinyaga but were descendants of Meru.
Muchangi had asked her to withdraw her candidacy for the sake of fairness and diversity in the commission’s top management.