Hundreds of civil servants at the Rift Valley Region National Government Offices in Nakuru were left stranded on Monday morning after arriving late, only to find the gates locked in a surprise operation led by Public Service Cabinet Secretary Geoffrey Ruku.
The gates to the offices were shut by the CS, who had arrived earlier without notice, catching many off guard.
Ruku, who had issued a stern warning the previous week against habitual lateness among government workers, walked into the premises precisely at 8:00am to find that most of the staff were yet to report to work. The impromptu visit was part of his initiative to enforce discipline and assess service delivery in public institutions.
“The visit was to check on the operational delivery of public services to Kenyans in need of government services,” Ruku stated, expressing disappointment over the absenteeism of several key staff. “I was dismayed to find that most of the staff had not reported to work by 8:00am, leaving Kenyans unattended.”
He, however, acknowledged ongoing structural challenges within ministries, departments, parastatals, and commissions, but insisted that punctuality was a basic requirement that must be adhered to across all government offices.
On June 10, following a similar impromptu visit at the Coast Region National Government Offices in Mombasa, Ruku warned that the government will not relent in taking action on public servants who knowingly hamper service delivery by absconding from duty.
Initially, in a bid to streamline the public service, the CS had announced that plans were underway to ensure employment in the public sector is purely based on merit.
According to Ruku, the employment process in the public sector has been tainted because some people are not getting jobs based on merit, but because of connections, assuring that this is set to change in the coming days.
The Ministry is already instituting measures within the public sector to ensure meritocracy is followed to the letter.
Although the Public Service Commission (PSC) is an independent agency, political influence and nepotism are said to have a significant role in hiring decisions, with jobs being distributed based on ethnic affiliations and political loyalty rather than qualifications.
According to a 2018–19 report by PSC, Kenyan citizens filed nearly 950,000 complaints related to public service performance, with a staggering 99.7 per cent of those complaints citing "delays in service delivery."
Examples included long wait times at Huduma Centres and public offices, leaving ordinary people stranded for hours without explanation.
