Several employees were caught off guard on Monday, August 18, as Public Service Cabinet Secretary Geoffrey Ruku made an impromptu visit to their offices.
Ruku, who has developed a knack for surprising employees in the public sector, was in Embu County, where he made a stop at the Eastern Regional Headquarters, among other offices.
During his visit in the morning, the CS interacted with some of the staff as he inspected the headquarters infrastructure and its various departments.
While at it, the CS also visited Huduma Centre offices, where he sampled some of the services at the facility. It was during one of these interactions that the CS noted some staff arrived late for work, and he effectively locked them out of their stations for a brief lecture about their conduct.
Amid the rains being experienced in parts of the country, including Embu, Ruku showed little remorse for the late employees who were caught off guard by his presence. At one point, the CS gathered the employees at a parking lot where he appeared to issue a warning about their conduct going forward.
Speaking on the crackdown, Ruku reiterated that the spot checks in various government offices would be a regular occurrence as the government, through his docket, continued to crack down on laxity in the public sector.
"I was in Nyeri, Mombasa and Nakuru, and I will continue doing spot checks across the Republic of Kenya," Ruku said.
"Most of us in public service do not wake up at the same time. The private sector is working hard for this economy, but some of us are not doing our part."
While hailing services at the Huduma Centre, Ruku specifically flagged the Ministry of Education offices in Embu County for alleged laxity in their work.
Ruku further urged workers in the Public Service to adhere to the Human Resource Procedures and Manual of 2016, which outlined expected standards of professionalism, ethics, and performance, warning that the government would take a tougher stance on poor attitudes at the workplace.
To further curb lax attitudes in the workplace, Ruku revealed the government was in the final stages of developing an application which would monitor employees' productivity in real time, with the app set to be launched at the end of October.
Downloading the application will be mandatory for all civil servants, with Ruku warning in July that workers who failed to report to work consistently and on time would be treated as ghost workers.
