What a race! What a rush! What a competition! What a scare! How could the Public Service Commission (PSC) extend the deadline for submitting applications for Principal Secretary (PS) positions without a reason and alter the shortlist it had made public?
A good question, but the search for any job is a fight, nay, a war, according to author Jim Clifton. This means as “independent” as the PSc is, “external forces” wouldn’t fail to browbeat it.
The first shortlist had 477 names; it was extended by 108 names because some people had to feature. Claims of bribery? It is a war!
The final list has ruling party’s insiders, loyalists, and advisers, and Who’s Who in academia, industry, and politics.
Recruiters and head-hunters are known to extend application deadlines when submissions reveal undesired qualifications or names.
A whopping 9,154 (or more) Kenyans with multi-page CVs and a chain of first, second and third degrees made the shortlist.
Verdict? Impressive.
Former PSs, State firm directors general, university vice-chancellors, former assistant ministers, election losers and inimitable consultants applied for the 49 positions.
From the frenzied applications and the recruiter’s decision to “stop press” — to use the newsroom lingo for accomodating must-run news story — and probably create room for the best of the best, it’s incontrovertible that the PS, not the CS, is the ultimate public servant.
A PS is the accounting officer, who midwifes and delivers policy, thereby directly influencing success of government programmes.
This is the reason top brains apply for these jobs in droves as other equally well-read and experienced technocrats keep off, probably saying such positions are reserved for a few people, a good number of them well known within the political, business, and family circles.
Indeed, there is a need to blend the team of PSs using a mix of career civil servants and tested and tried technocrats, the former boasting experience of navigating political terrains that define such jobs.
But even for the green horns who are plucked from air-conditioned offices in the private sector, the government has one of the best training programmes that turn the best brains into super-performers because they learn fast and tweak with the finesse of experienced architects.
They excel in design of policies and are great weaving artists who should midwife implementation for low-hanging fruit and impact. Sadly, their performance is nothing to write home about.
Therefore, ahead of the PS interviews, and the process coming hot on the heels of a Supreme Court verdict that dismissed some litigants, saying they presented weak evidence that amounted to “hot air” and took the Bench on a “wild goose chase”, it makes sense to ask the PS candidates to prove to Kenyans that their degrees are sharp tools that will lift “hustlers” from the bottom of the pyramid.
While accepting such jobs turns fine people into politicians who endlessly cloud facts with abracadabra, this time it should be different.
It would not make sense to leave lofty and respected positions such as heading a university, being a dependable consultant, and having influence across the world through tight research and reasoning, to bow to political influence that sinks the best brains into scholarship oblivion and opprobrium.
Were these well-educated people and experienced authorities to trade in their credentials for State largesse, it would be a sad day for Kenyans whose taxes were spent on educating them from Class One and will be used again to pay the PSs top dollar.
The army of applicants that will be lucky to join the government, must do so ready to go against the grain to deliver dignity to the bottom-of-the-pyramid person that President William Ruto calls Hustler.
Going against the grain by applying experience, putting technical ability to good use, guided by the Kenya Kwanza manifesto will be the indelible mark expected of such a special team of Kenyan men and women.
Assuming the recruitment, vetting, and appointment will gift Kenyans good people, the 49 PSs should deliver Kenya out of food insecurity, build a firm manufacturing foundation, unlock the country’s innovation potential, and ensure all and sundry get quality medicare at affordable rates under the universal health coverage dream.
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