Public sector transformation requires shifting from compliance-driven to productivity-driven governance, where governments must convert fiscal pressure and high citizen expectations into measurable value creation through four interconnected pillars: objectivity (credible data and audits), accountability (clear responsibility cascading from leadership to frontline staff), service delivery (citizen outcomes and satisfaction), and consequences (rewards for excellence and support for improvement). This transformation demands leadership commitment, organizational culture change, technology integration, and citizen engagement to ensure every public resource creates measurable value for society.
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KBC TV LIVE: National Productivity & Performance Conference 2026 II 17th June 2026 II www.kbc.co.ke
Added:government coordination.
I will be presenting uh a paper to you under the title of the paper is re-engineering productivity and performance management system for objectivity, accountability, and service delivery. I also want to uh inform the participants that the public service performance management unit is also domiciled in this uh state department.
If uh I think uh maybe someone will help us uh Yeah, show the paper.
This paper will be covering uh a number of areas.
And uh these include the moment.
Kenya must convert pressure into productivity. As you are all aware, we are facing a lot of uh pressure. That is uh fiscal pressure, high public demand, and uh we need to turn this pressure into productivity. The paper will also cover the governance pivot. That is from compliance to public value. You will find that uh since independence, the systems are there into law and order, which has given very small space for innovation, and hence uh lack of growth.
We have moved from that level to around 1990, where we have tried to come up with some kind of structural adjustment program.
Uh like coming up with issues like the result-based management.
And around 204 2004 the performance contract concept was introduced in Kenya during the reign of uh His Excellency the late President Kibaki.
And performance contract has really helped us a lot.
Especially in improving accountability.
However, there are still exists a gap.
And the gap is that despite the fact that uh that it has improved issues of accountability, what about the aspect of efficiency?
That is value for money.
Yes, we have seen we have closely followed up issues of completion of project, timely completion of project, and etc. But did we make sure that issues of effectiveness and efficiency, that is timely completion of project and whether value for money has been gained in regards to the same? Then thereafter, we have now moved We are now moving from performance contracting to performance and productivity contracting.
That is it will be a combination of performance, productivity, and consequences. I will speak to these later. I'll also speak to issues of uh uh public value scorecard for the public sector, and this is simply about the scoring system.
We We speak to four pillars that will turn productivity into governance and the four pillars include issues of objectivity, accountability, service delivery, and consequences.
We will speak to each of the four pillars as well.
Thereafter, I'll touch on the aspect of public productivity compact.
Where we will be looking at whole society accountability.
We will be moving from serikali ni saidia syndrome to a system where we will be all working together as partners.
Thereafter, I will also speak to issues of institutional architecture where we will be looking at one national performance and productivity ecosystem.
I will also speak to the aspect of performance and productivity based budgeting where we will be looking at value for every shilling.
We will speak to the aspect of the single government as a productive accelerator.
I am sure uh if you look at our systems the young generations demand a kind of one-stop shop where they can easily access services from the comfort of their homes.
Then, how will we achieve the same and ensure that one can access service anywhere, anytime digitally.
Then, we will also speak to the aspect of the road map that is what next for performance and productivity for that is for the period of 2026 to 2020 to 2030 where where we will be speaking to issues of productivity transformation pathway.
Now, yeah, if if I will speak to the first issue of the moment, Kenya must convert pressure into productivity.
Like I have already told you, we are facing a lot of pressure.
And one of the pressures we are facing include financial pressure.
If you look at uh our country, the real GDP growth in 2025 Let me start with 2026.
It was about 5.7%.
2024 4.7%.
2025 4.6%.
You can see the kind of uh fiscal pressure we are facing. If you look at uh our public and uh publicly guaranteed debt as a share of GDP as at the end of uh June 2025, we are facing 67.8%.
The same for the debt service as a share of uh ordinary review revenue in the financial year 2024-2025, which is 71.2%.
Now, how do we turn this pressure we are facing into productivity? Remember, this conversation cannot be overstated.
And uh this is not pressure we are facing alone.
This is a pressure that all over the world they are all facing such unprecedented pressure.
And, let's not forget that the citizens, on the other hand, also expect a lot from us.
Technology, on the other hand, if you look at it, is a rapidly growing.
And, uh changing the way government operates.
With the existing kind of uh of technology, information is moving very fast.
And, easy, you know, to create some kind of uh misinformation that may even result at times to tension in in the country, like what happened just recently.
So, this paper will be looking at the aspect of how then do we turn this pressure we are facing as a country to productivity?
Now, if you look at the aspect of uh Kenya cannot spend its way into transformation. It must increasingly productivize expenditure.
It must improve its institutions, human capacity, and service delivery to the people.
All we are doing, if we do alone, we will not achieve uh better results. We need to work with the people in all steps we undertaking right from the initial stage to the end. That way, we working with the people will solve many of our of our problems.
We are facing fiscal constraints.
We have high citizen expectations.
We are facing the technology the technological disruptions that I have just raised.
How then are we involving the people in our conversations?
Working with them so that they can understand every step. Be it now uh in terms of revenue generation and etc. Now while our economy remains resilient we are aware that this demand is a highly increasing.
How are we going to make sure that we are working with the people in what we are doing so as to make sure that at the end of the day we are all reading from the same script.
What is happening currently in our setups is that we impose projects arbitrarily on the people.
Resources are scarce.
You need to look at the priority ranking of the people, involve them in the decision-making right from the initial stage of identifying the project to the budget making through public participation process.
And remember public participation is enshrined in the constitution starting from the first article in the constitution article one where the sovereign authority is invested in the people.
Article 102A Article 118 where Parliament is required to carry out public participation.
County assembly equally required to carry out public participation and etc. etc. Then if we involve if we are involving people in the public participation process, are we making sure that that it is again quality public participation where decisions are informed by our people directly or we do it for the sake of doing.
Remember if we carry the people with us at every stage, then we will not be facing challenge.
But when we try to thrust down issues down the throat of the people, this is where we are getting the biggest challenge.
Now we said under the compliance to public value aspect.
We have come all the way from the different stages I've just explained, the compliance where we were just going by rules.
We have moved from the compliance level of just observing law and order, giving little space for innovations and growth to that aspect of performance contracting. Then from there we have from performance contracting we are moving to the performance and productivity level where we will be having a governance system that is called performance and productivity contracting. This is we are trying to make sure that there's value for every shilling that we are producing.
Then then thereafter we are trying to have a level where we are where we will create public satisfaction. And public satisfaction is only created through your action. Public trust is created through the results we achieve. And how do we achieve that result?
If the people are satisfied with the services you are providing, definitely there will be public trust.
If they are not satisfied with the services you are providing, public trust will be absent. Then, if you are involving people in decision-making right from the initial stage of need identification, priority ranking of the projects, public participation, implementation.
Let me Let me Let me go back to the level of budget making where you are involving people in through public participation process.
Then we move from the public participation process, implementation.
From implementation, we go to the level of reporting. And then finally, the aspect of uh uh uh sustainability.
Now, if you are involving people in every and each stage, and they know how every and each of their shilling is spent, and they know that there's value for money, that will lead to public satisfaction.
And with public satisfaction, you will get trust.
That is how to earn trust. But are we really doing the same in our current system, or there is something absent in what we are doing.
All right.
Then we go to the aspect of productivity governance.
Remember, governments exist to create public value.
Citizens will judge government not by the number of reports by they produce, not by the regulations, not by the activities, but they will judge by the outcome at the end of the day.
Did they get quality education for their children? Did they get quality health services? Was there efficiency of public services?
Did they get that security and safety they require? That is how they are going to judge you. Not the number of reports we produce, and etc. And etc. Then, there are issues. The aspect of objectivity.
When we are doing the performance and productive contracting, the aspect of objectivity, we must come up with credible evidence to show what we are doing.
And when we are doing the performance evaluation, that is really important.
And are we Unlike before, are we carrying ourselves with the people? At the end of the back of your mind, it should be people-centered processes.
Then the aspect of accountability, clear responsibility. We must have clear responsibility for each and every individual in the system right from the cabinet secretary. secretary. Don't forget that the president has made commitment to the people of Kenya through and we have produced a document called the better document.
Which was aligned to MTP 4 and Vision 2030.
This document called better we have put it we have put in different areas and made sure that different ministries implement the different activities.
Now the different activities that the ministries are doing, the cabinet secretary signs performance and productivity contract with the president. That is cascaded down to the principal secretary, to the CEOs, to heads of department, up to the lowest level.
And each of these level unlike before where we where we were looking at the aspects of just checking whether targets were achieved, here we are now we will be interested in public satisfaction. Do we have value for what we are doing?
Did we inculcate public trust based on the services we are providing to the people?
Then the aspect of consequence that is it could be there could be two issues.
It could be positive consequence where you are given rewards and recognition for the good job you have done or if you are not performing well, then we see how best you can be supported so as to perform well. But if you persistently decide not to perform well, that also has definitely it is on consequence.
So this aspect of objectivity, accountability, consequence and service delivery, which is of course the citizens outcome.
>> Can you give me about another >> 10 minutes today.
>> Yeah. Okay.
>> Then the last the last aspect of service delivery, which is the most important aspect, citizens outcome.
Whatever we are doing, are the people satisfied with our services? And if they are satisfied, then do do they have do they show trust for the services we are providing? Um I'm a bit told I'm slow. I will do my best to speed up. In our current setup of the performance contracting, we were just looking at the aspect of target achievement, activity completion, reporting discipline, outputs and scores. But now that we will be having the performance and the productivity contracting, we'll be looking at the aspect of performance results, productivity assessment, service delivery outcomes, and consequences, and improvement. Remember, performance contract has remained the most successful governance reforms in Kenya. It has transformed public administration.
It has strengthened accountability. It has introduced a culture of measuring results.
But we should move, like I have said, from that normal performance contracting concept to performance and productivity contract, so as to make sure that aspect of efficiency is addressed.
Uh Then finally, Okay.
Finally, the aspect of uh public value score scorecard for public sector. The this one is how we intend to carry out uh uh the assessment, the evaluation for in the different uh setups.
I will move to the next aspect. These four pillars are really important.
Like I have uh told you there are there will be four pillars under the performance and productivity contracting, that is objectivity, where we'll be looking at uh measuring productivity with credible data, audits, independent and validation. We will be looking at aspect of consequence management, that's rewarding those who perform well, and uh trying to support improving those who don't perform well, aspect of accountability, where we are cascading performance right from the cabinet secretary to the lowest level, aspect of service delivery, where we are making sure that at the end of the day uh the there's value for the outcome. Then uh the aspect of uh the whole society approach. I think I have uh already speak to this one. We are moving from uh uh society as a county concept to one where we are having the society as a partner, and we'll embrace uh uh whole society approach in all what we'll be doing. On the institutional architecture we will be having one national performance under productivity ecosystem where of the executive office of the president that is hopes will be providing strategic direction, public service, and SRC will be providing issues of accountability and and performance. Uh national government coordination under PSPMU will be providing the performance and productivity management.
Then our treasury and KNBS will be providing the aspect of uh fiscal and statistics integrity and office of the auditor general will be supporting the issues of uh of of of uh independence. There was a question on who is going to audit uh the auditor general's office. I am sure currently, as you are all aware, you we during the audit of auditor general's office, parliament appoints an audit firm to audit the auditor general's office. However, for other areas like state corporations, there are those regulatory state corporations, office of uh hopes is making a check.
And recently, I am sure we had a meeting with all our uh s to check on uh their performance.
Uh as I conclude, I'm under a lot of pressure from the gentleman here.
Yeah.
As I conclude, digital government as a productivity accelerator, we are moving technology is one of the greatest productivity multiplier available in the modern government. Of course, currently, we have the e-citizen the e-citizen approach, the Huduma approach, the digital payment approach, and integrated government platforms.
However, we need to move on all tire.
Look at the aspect of artificial intelligence. Look at the aspect of the predictive analytics.
Uh so that real-time services monitored and digital productivity dashboard so that anyone, the CS or the PS, from the comfort of their office can just see how we are performing in terms of performance and productivity uh target achievements.
As I conclude, yeah.
I think uh uh the time allocated was low. Roadmap and uh this is the final uh part, but a very important. We need to have a roadmap for the new performance and productivity concept. That is what are we doing uh right from uh the end of uh uh this uh 3-days conference.
That we will be coming up uh with a policy architecture indications. Earlier on we used to give out only performance contract annual performance contract guidelines. Now we will be issuing what is called performance and productivity guidelines. The GPCS design that was there will still remain there. Then uh in 2027 we will try to institutionalize and uh pilot the performance and productivity concept in '28-'29.
We will try to scale and uh integrate uh uh the two. We will also look at aspect of budgeting and uh service standards.
Uh that we look at aspect of public uh public expenditure that uh which has to create, by the way, measurable value in all that will be undertaken. Remember the back of our mind, all we will be doing will definitely now we should have value for every shilling that we are going to spend.
So, uh we have we will make sure at the end of the day that citizens will experience better outcomes and in our productivity and we will have a a productive a a state where performance and productivity is really uh not one-day activity, but a culture.
Yeah.
And uh where everyone will uh support that uh leadership uh philosophy.
As I conclude uh my my uh my last remarks.
Yeah.
I am not uh bowing to the pressure of uh uh of my colleague.
As we conclude, I think it is important that uh we have come up with so many reports on numerous occasions.
But then, what is important is walking that talk.
At the end of the 3 days, we must make an undertaking that we are all ready to support the new path where every and each of us, will now, going back to our offices, make sure that uh we look for value for money.
Value for every shilling we spend.
That we move from the old from our current style, let me not call it old, of just performance uh uh management, but going to the aspect of performance and productivity management.
We will be going from next year 2027 to what is called performance and productivity contracting. I am sure this is uh difficult because always there's resistance for issues of uh of of uh measuring performance. Even uh in our current setup, many have viewed that uh the aspect of our performance contracting is more of uh of a punitive whatever, and really it is not punitive. It is just meant to improve us from where we are to the next level.
And by the way, even the use of sanctions, if you are not performing well, is not there. We are looking for supportive ways of improving the staff's productivity. So, uh it is a tough journey.
It is my hope that resistance will be reduced and we will all embrace that tool to go to the next level. At the end of the day, it should be a people-centered process and the employee should be the heart of all we are doing.
Thank you and God bless you.
Thank >> Thank you. Thank you, PS. Let's appreciate the PS once more.
PS, thank you. We would have wished to give you a lot of time, but the program is really tight and you will allow us to proceed. I hope you I know you'll have time to discuss and interact with the team here.
So, thank you for that. Please allow us to appreciate him once more.
The message is home.
Let's move from compliance-driven to productivity-driven.
Let's move from performance contracting to productivity and performance contracting.
Thank you. The the the keynote presentation has really challenged us that we need to rethink the future of public sector accountability.
And we have had a compelling argument from the PS.
We now have the opportunity to interrogate these ideas.
We need we need to interrogate these ideas further through a distinguished panel comprising of leaders, practitioners from the government at both levels, the public sector, as well as the private sector.
And so, allow me to introduce our panel.
We are running a bit short of time.
We'll take a very short time, PS.
Karibu.
We'll have a distinguished panel that will interrogate the ideas presented by the PS.
And allow me now to introduce our distinguished panel.
Uh we have the PS of course himself will be part of the panel.
And um the secretary national productivity uh Dr. Moitalel Please welcome him to the stage.
Let's applaud him as he comes.
We have uh Reverend Dr. Patrick Omwotia.
Patrick Omwotia is special secretary productivity in the executive office of the president.
We have uh Karen Wanjikũ the executive director Imagine Leaders Foundation. Is she in the room?
Karen Wanjikũ, karibu.
Then we have um Commissioner Leonida Achieng' Commissioner SRC my colleague in the commission.
Please welcome him to the stage.
And lastly, we have Ms. Esther Ngari EBS managing director Kenya Bureau of Standards or Statistics.
Statistics, great.
Ladies and gentlemen, kindly Statistics uh standards. Okay, I'm corrected there.
So kind My goodness, there's no seats.
Uh organizing team, please get me one more seat.
Kindly get me one more seat.
Ladies and gentlemen kindly join me in appreciating our distinguished guests.
Our distinguished panelists, I mean.
Thank you.
>> [laughter] >> Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner Michael Kingi is really helpful. Thank you.
Thank you, Esther.
Now, I I also wanted this moved. I don't know how I can operate from here, but it's okay.
We'll operate from the where we are in the situation. So, panelists, welcome.
Uh the topic that has been presented or the the paper that has presented by the PS has really challenged us.
And he has a strong uh compelling proposition that we need to move from uh the current practice to a productivity-driven practice.
And that is a challenge for us.
And uh we need to have systems in place.
So, let me start with the PS himself.
PS, the keynote paper that you have just uh take us through has challenged us to move beyond measuring activities and targets towards measuring productivity and public value.
How then can productivity and performance management systems be redesigned to enhance productivity and accountability in the public service?
>> Thank you.
Thank you.
I think uh we can uh redesign our current way of uh of uh performance contracting in a a manner acceptable to all.
The first thing is uh the aspect of uh awareness.
Remember, people will own what they participate in.
And uh if there's no participation in the process, then ownership will be absent.
It is important that uh we create adequate awareness and make sure that we carry everyone on board in ensuring that we are working together in this journey.
There were lessons learned from the current performance contracting we are undertaking, and uh we need to address uh those uh existing challenge in in in the current performance contracting we are taking if we are moving from from performance contracting to performance and productivity contracting. For example, uh an employee may feel that uh the current performance contracting concept could be a punitive one and not one meant to improve uh and motivate uh an employee. Then, we should come up with uh with with the measures that will make sure that an employee owns the process, that an employee can even carry his own self-appraisal before appraised by by uh an immediate supervisor. An employee will uh will feel that when he does well, he's recognized. For example, it could be through uh promotion or through any other form of recognition. Such that it will be a self-driven process.
So, uh I think uh uh that aspect of ownership of the process will help us walk with the people, carry the people with us. And finally, if we were just measuring, for example, moving this number of files from this place to another, it should be clear that at the end of the day, what is measured is not only the final results, but what time you have taken because time itself is a resource and what resources you have used to spend the same. And there comes value for every shilling we are spending. I think that we working it means working together all of us to achieve common result and make sure that there is a public satisfaction is and through our actions. Thank you.
>> Thank you. Thank you, PS. Here recognition, promotion and uh and in the public trust. Thank you.
Uh Dr. Emoitolel you are in the department or in this in the productivity, which is a uh uh an institution in the in the labor uh department or in the Ministry of Labor that is charged with productivity.
Um you have heard what the presentation said and the discussions we have in the morning about productivity and what needs to be done.
Uh what key public service reforms are necessary to strengthen productivity management, productivity and performance management?
>> Um thank you.
First of all, I want to give an assurance to the country that productivity has been in existence or National Productivity and Competitiveness Center has been in existence since 2002.
And it has perfectly worked for the private sector.
In the private sector, you are either productive or you go home.
So, what I want to assure the country that um what need to be done immediately is establishment of the productivity and performance contracting on all MDAs.
And the reason why I mentioned the word or I underlined the word immediately is because in 2022, we did a pilot on matters productivity on on 20 MDAs and it came out perfectly.
And now we are in the third circle in the PC whereby it has um worked very well. And also we need to understand that um productivity and performance is part of the better.
In if you check the manifesto of the government of the day, you will realize that better and and productivity and performance is in the manifesto. That is why again as I said, we need to underline the word immediately because it has been done, it has been tested, it is now on the fourth year.
Now, the reason why it is possible is that the PC can easily be divided into two parts.
There is now part A that handles productivity and part B that handles performance.
Uh as in the process, we need also to strengthen the independence of the assessment such that the moment there is PPC now productivity and performance contracting, there is need now to assess all the outputs and the measures that are being made, indicators and the matrices are done.
And also therefore, we need to institutionalize citizen-centric because at one point, we'll need to involve all the MDAs all the Kenyan citizens on a public participation. That is where we'll also come up with the institution like now the budget. The budget office is very integral in this part because we need to integrate performance and productivity in the budget making process. And therefore this is of the agenda in public reforms in the country, and we cannot achieve the Vision 2030, the MTP 1 to 4 without integrating this change on matters productivity, whereby we need to link reward to performance and productivity, whereby all the leaders in the country are therefore made accountable.
Thank you.
>> Thank you, Dr. Thairu. I hear that you are urging us to institutionalize productivity, that it will help us achieve our Vision 2030 and all our strategic plans or our strategic visions.
Let's reward productivity, let's tie reward to productivity.
Uh very indeed insightful. Let's now turn to Dr. Yabuti. Dr. Productivity transformation is ultimately driven by leadership and culture.
What role should leadership and organization culture play in driving productivity and performance management?
>> Uh thank you for that very important question.
Uh in terms of productivity and performance transformation, we should see that it is fundamentally a leadership challenge before it becomes a technical or administrative one.
Uh around the world, we do note that countries that have been successful have that have successfully improved public sector performance, such as Singapore, South Korea, Estonia, Rwanda, did so not by beginning with systems.
What they did is that they began with leadership commitment and culture change.
So, that should be the start point.
You don't do systems because systems without good leadership and culture will go nowhere. So, similarly, what we have seen that in Kenya we have over time developed policies, strategies, performance contracts, monitoring frameworks, and digital platforms.
However, the greatest determinant to the success still remains our ability to have quality leadership and a culture that leaders create within their institutions.
Because leadership, as we know is about radiating positive influence.
And therefore, it is the role of the leadership to set priorities and determine whether public officers focus either on compliance or value addition.
So, if you are traditionalists, you will tend to maintain compliance. But, the leadership to deal with today's challenges, you should have leaders that create an enabling environment where those who follow them are able to not only create but also add value on a continuous basis. So, it therefore means that productivity improves when leaders consistently ask some three simple questions. One, whether they are delivering quality results.
Secondly, whether they are using the resources at their disposal efficiently.
And most important, whether the citizens for which we have been given responsibility to serve are receiving better services because of what we are doing.
And therefore, a productivity-oriented leader is one who moves his or her institution from measuring activities all the way to creating and adding value.
Equally important is the aspect of organizational culture.
Because we do know that culture means the way we do things around us.
And therefore culture influences how people think, how they behave, how they innovate, and how they respond to challenges before them.
So, where you get in an organization a culture that tolerates waste, bureaucracy, absenteeism, even presenteeism. The presenteeism means you are at work, but at the end of the day at 5:00 you have done nothing. You have just been existing and not adding value.
A culture that tolerates duplication, low accountability will inevitably mean that it will undermine performance regardless of the systems that you put in place. So, what then do we need? We need a productivity culture that promotes accountability for results, that promotes continuous improvement, change for the better, Kaizen.
Thirdly, a culture that promotes innovation and problem-solving. Because we were created by God to solve problems and nothing else.
Also, we were we want a culture that promotes responsible use for resources, a culture that promotes teamwork and collaboration, and finally, and very important, a culture that considers uh citizens at the center of service delivery. Therefore, what the PS has presented as a solution is that we, if we want to change, we now need to focus on a concept of productivity and performance governance that because that needs to be governed, managed, and measured.
So that >> Thank you.
>> it replaces. I think that is in summary.
Thank you.
>> It needs to be measured and a number of issues that we have raised.
Organization culture, creation of an enabling environment, quality leadership. These are parameters that needs to be inculcated in the performance and management if it has to be on productivity. Thank you, Dr. uh reverend. Let me now come to uh Karen Wakoli. Uh Karen, organizations today are operating in a rapidly on a dynamic environment characterized by technology innovation and increasing stakeholder expectations.
How can then technology data analytics and digital transformation be leveraged to improve our performance and productivity?
>> Thank you very much um for that question.
And I'd like to start off by just um saying that what what what happened here is part of adaptive leadership. That you see a challenge and actually observed our moderator, he was going to stand the whole time.
That was going to impede his productivity and even his well-being.
Yeah, and I thought, yeah, let me let me move on the side, let him take my So in public service, it's really critical that we are adaptive. We see what challenges are happening, how can we move with speed to actually make sure we resolve those particular challenges.
Um and talking about technology and data analytics, and just picking up from the speakers in the morning, what they shared with us, I think it would actually be critical that we embrace wholeheartedly technology, data analytics, and digital transformation to be able to move from just activity-based reporting, and that will help us to make sure that we have real-time evidence-based citizen-centered performance management.
This is so critical.
Part of what Emerging Leaders Foundation Africa has done, together with the Public Service Commission of Kenya, is to run a leadership fellowship program called the Public Service Emerging Leaders Fellowship. Part of the fellowship involves these young leaders drawn from different counties and different um ministries of government going to pose as citizens at public centers to receive service, and then we're able to do an assessment to see how long did it take to be served?
Was your problem resolved? What were some of the challenges you faced? And this really helped us to go back to the drawing board to see how can national government and even county government work through such a program to then make sure that citizens are able to get better quality service. And in this case, I have also looked at data by the ICT Authority and seen that at the moment, citizens are able to access about over 22,000 um public services uh on e-citizen. But then the question is, can we move like this is an achievement, but then can we move from this level to the next level, which is having real-time data?
Can we invest in that to then be able to know at any one particular time, what is the number of applications we have received? How many citizens, just by a press of a button, have been served by a Huduma Centre, by a hospital, by a school, by a public institution. What was the quality of service?
Real-time data is going to be so critical in terms of decision-making and enhancing that level of decision-making.
The coming to performance contracting, I I learned of a a beautiful time in Rwanda. It's called Imihigo.
And Imihigo is performance contracting.
It is public.
And like the PS said, uh currently we have no punitive measures on whether or not public servants perform.
But for Rwanda, it's really interesting that by the time reviews are being done, a number of public servants actually resign because they have not been able to meet the targets given to them. And for those who've been able to meet the targets, they get to celebrate and they're honored. So, I think it will be critical for SRC and Public Service Commission to actually see how to work out the incentives, the reward mechanisms for public servants that get to perform.
Coming to something else um on succession planning and leadership, and thank you so much uh for talking about leadership. I have had the pleasure of serving on four government national government boards and one county government board where I served as the chair. And I look at the quality of leadership and the quality of productivity in those particular agencies and ministries, and guess what?
The bottom line was leadership.
Leadership determines everything and so much, but as people get promoted, do they get a chance to go through capacity strengthening, capacity training, mentorship, succession planning? That is so critical and so at the core of government performance, and so I would actually um urge the different entities charged with that to make sure that we work on that. And uh definitely, as I come to a close, citizen engagement is so critical.
How are we engaging citizens?
What what is the essence of public service?
Who is the client? Who is the customer?
Who is the the end product or end service receiver? It's the citizens. Do we ever make time to listen to them?
What they say? Do we have mechanisms?
Like right now, almost everybody has access to digital platforms and and and telephones and access to internet.
Do we have customer satisfaction surveys that are able to help us to rate the quality of service, the quality of turnaround time, the cost of service or product given to citizens? This is so critical. So, I would actually urge that in fact, if government agencies and ministries can endeavor to work with civil society organizations to look at, for instance, budgeting processes. What is informing that? And as we re-engineer um productivity and performance contracting and all that, what is informing that? Data is going to be so critical, and it is so critical in terms of informing what happens and how we get to re-engineer. Organizations like Emerging Leaders Foundation Africa, Budget Hub, TISA, uh IEA, working with the communities then working with different MDAs and county governments would really be so useful in terms of informing data-driven, data and and values-driven engagement and measurement of performance and productivity. Thank you.
>> Thank thank you. Thank you, Esther. Um very insightful.
Indeed very insightful in what technology can do and how it can hasten productivity.
Indeed very very very insightful. Let's now move to uh uh the next panelist, uh Esther Ngari.
I'll come to you, Commissioner Esther.
Uh one of the recurring concerns in the public sector reforms is that institutions often measure activities but they struggle to measure productivity.
Uh and value for for public or value for money. How can then productivity measurement be integrated into existing existing public sector performance management frameworks to strengthen accountability and value for money?
>> Uh thank you very much. Uh I want to start by correcting the organization I work for. It's Kenya Bureau of Standards.
>> Thank you.
>> Thank you very much. So, uh to answer that question, let me start by stating that productivity at Kenya Bureau of Standards is not a parallel uh program. It actually sits within our performance management.
And Kenya Bureau of Standards started um with a pilot that um Dr. Mwikali mentioned in 2023. So, we've been working on this for the last 3 years.
And we have I will give the specific example of how we have done, practically how as an institution you will go about it because we have walked through this for the last 3 years and it's very possible.
When uh the pronouncement was made that uh we'll move from performance contracting to productivity and performance, this is how it is going to be like. It has worked for us.
And I am sure it is going to be transformative, the shift that we have been talking about from the time we started. So, the first thing is to make sure that the we start with the mandate. Every institution has a mandate that you have been given. For us is the Standards Act.
So, from the mandate, you we don't generate uh the the targets uh from just some key performance indicators as our productivity. We develop them from the mandate that has been given to the institution. And um we started by developing eight productivity metrics that we were able to map um with our such statutory function. And from there we were able to compute uh the the the composite index.
And this index is what we are able to measure. So, it's a composite index is not um different We are not measuring the eight uh matrices separately.
And these are embedded directly into our balanced scorecard. As an institution, we use the balanced scorecard.
And therefore, when it comes to performance contracting before the beginning of every financial year, we are able to look at the guidance which have been given. We develop a balance We develop a scorecard for the corporation.
And that balanced scorecard is the one that is signed between the managing director and the chairman of the board.
And from there, we are able to um to cascade to the management. Meaning that every day from the 1st of July, when the uh performance contracting starts, then every person within the institution knows exactly what is expected of them.
And as an institution, we are also able to come up with a framework on um on on awards and sanctions, which then, as you work from the first day of the financial year to the last day, everybody is aware of what is expected of them. And remember these metrics that are developed, they are actually creating value for the common mwananchi.
It is the mandate, what is expected of Kenya Bureau of Standards, and what value does the common mwananchi expect from the institution. So, that's how we have worked. It is possible and I believe it will bring a shift into this country. Thank you.
>> Thank Thank you. Thank you, Esther, for being brief.
Uh let's appreciate Let's appreciate her.
And and fi- and finally and finally before we conclude, uh we have uh Commissioner uh Ashindu, Leonida Ashindu.
Commissioner, uh citizens experience governments directly through uh through service delivery at county levels.
Uh how can national and county governments collaborate to institutionalize productivity and performance management?
>> Th- Thank you very much and I'll start from the paper by the PS in terms of uh the the mechanisms you mentioned, we must always work jointly for us to achieve better results with regards to performance and productivity both at the level both levels of government. In this case, I mean uh the HR component at the county level is managed by the county public service boards, whereas at the national government level is managed by the public service uh commission.
It's high time we re-look and uh the chief guest today challenged us we look at our governance structure, our constitution, and uh many other uh frameworks that we use to the extent that I I ask myself, do we need 47 county public service boards?
I I challenge I'm also challenging you to the extent that we are working disjointedly that we have 47 counties with the 47 county public service boards, each working in their own way.
Therefore, in terms of having one avenue or one result, then we have 47 results.
Uh in that case, we are too disjointed, working in silos.
Yet, if you go to schedule four of our constitution, it gives functions to the counties.
But, if you look at the functions that are devolved, they have a national government component.
The training component, the regulation component is both national. So, why should we separate completely via off from uh a national government approach other than going uh working jointly. So, as we speak now, the second which is the second point in terms of Now, how do we deal with this matter as is?
I know we have 47 county boards public service boards with their respective staff, and you also have the other general public, the other staff of public service both at the four three levels of government, the legislature, uh judiciary, and the executive.
But, we can harmonize and uh synergize through common training and capacity building. I know as SRC, uh with regards to this particular matter, we have a a joint working relationship with the this institution, Kenya School of Government, in terms of curriculum development and training and capacity building, especially on the aspect of productivity and performance.
Therefore, I'll urge all of us, all institutions, both levels of government, to take advantage of such kind of collaborative mechanism so that we can be able to to to domesticate what you have done nationally, the national framework, into our respective institutions and have common curriculum for this particular elephant in the room, that is performance and productivity. Finally, I'll speak about uh the end product.
Where now SRC comes in. And uh in that case also, it is it also should be domesticated to individual institutions.
SRC comes with the talent to remunerate.
And we're saying in our current call, we say rewarding productivity.
We reward based on what the institution has has has been able to to evaluate.
And the institution also depends on various institutions. We have the performance department. We have performance productivity NPCC and many other institutions.
And therefore, again, that's as big a question. As SRC is depending on very many institutions to determine what to reward.
Is it high time that these many institutions that we depend on for for information, could they be domiciled in one institution or one one one one one stop shop to make this work easy?
Thank you.
>> We'll cut you there and apologies for that.
Uh I understand there is a second and next speaker in the next session who is in the around and we is someone that we don't Uh we would have loved this panel to continue and have a second round and even have a question and answer session from the delegates. But distinguished delegates, allow us to stop it there.
There's several several important themes several important themes that have emerged from this discussion. First, productivity must be measured if it is to be improved.
Productivity and the second uh leadership and organizational culture are critical enablers of productivity transformation.
Thirdly, technology and innovations are increasing are increasingly becoming indispensable tools for accountability and service delivery.
And finally, productivity must ultimately translate into better outcomes for for citizens.
And I'll allow me just to ask one final question and 1 minute each of the panelists before we conclude.
Uh if you are to recommend one transform transformation or transformative or transformative reform uh that will significantly improve uh our productivity and performance accountability in the in the public sector, what will it be and why? What is the one thing that if you today you are given to change, you will change?
Uh let me start with the PS.
>> I think uh >> please.
>> Let me say the public service uh reform based on merit, skills, and above all people-centered service.
Where a merit-based recruitment and uh promotion is observed.
Where we will conduct fair appraisal.
Where we will get uh continuous uh training and uh where we will carry out uh citizen satisfaction survey.
Where you take consequence for your action, be it positive or negative.
Thank you.
>> Thank you.
>> Um one of the key recommendations that I will want really to to come up in the public service is that um there should be reward on matters productivity and performance.
And therefore, the moment that reward is there, it should be owned by the topmost organ in the institution.
And that involves budgeting.
Because we realize that um if we commit a certain percentage on performance and productivity, it then transform to the mandate of the institution, and then we reward productivity and performance. Thank you so much.
>> Thank you.
I thought I'd continue.
>> Uh mine is a very simple one. It's just to re-evaluate the way we have been measuring or attempting to measure uh productivity. Because when we we it was mainstreamed, you found that uh the things that we chose to measure, we more re-emphasize 85% still on effectiveness.
And 15% on efficiency. We should look at this other duality. Anytime you do an effectiveness measure, uh imagine the efficiency measure. And thirdly, the two things of effectiveness and uh efficiency should focus on the value you deliver. So, that that should be a link between effectiveness and immediately think about its efficiency equivalent, and then what ultimate result it is, which is the value it is supposed to deliver to the public. Thank you.
>> Thank you.
>> Mine would be citizen engagement.
Effective, intentional, efficient citizen engagement. And let me use the 1 minute to actually ask a question to the audience. On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being so poor, and 10 being efficient and effective, how would you rate your quality of citizen engagement as you serve the public?
How many of us rate would rate themselves at a nine in the audience?
Anyone?
We have three people. SRC, I hope you have seen the three public servants.
>> [laughter] >> Please please do something um for them. And the rest of us who are not at a nine, please.
It makes such a difference. And and somebody, I think it was Mahatma Gandhi who said that we find ourselves when we lose ourselves in the service of others.
So, I really hope we can determine and endeavor to put citizens at the center of everything we get to do, and that we do everything with all our heart, soul, and minds, not as to them, but as unto God. Thank you so much.
>> Thank you. Make it quick, uh commissioner.
>> Thank you. Me, uh based on what I presented before, I'll be attempting to answer what the chief guest presented and the challenges he gave us and say that uh for us to transform the public service in terms of performance and productivity, we should be able to reduce repetition and working in silos.
And therefore, I'll still pose the question, do we still need very many institutions working on what towards one goal? Do we still need 47 counties county public service boards to recruit, train on behalf of the on behalf of the nation? Yet we have one public service commission for the entire nation. Do we need performance and productivity productivity as a as a as a component to be to be domiciled in various many other ministries and state departments, yet it could be domiciled in one one-stop shop for us to be able to offer efficient and effective service delivery. Thank you.
>> Thank you.
>> Yeah, one one reform that I would um uh advocate today, it is that the country needs to adopt a standardized data-driven framework for performance management for all public institutions. It is possible.
We can do it, and that is what will bring the shift.
>> Thank you. Thank you. Uh we have had a fruitful discussion discussions and insightful uh uh rich and insightful discussions uh from the panelist. The keynote presentation as well as the panel discussions, have reinforced a powerful message.
And this powerful I hope if this mic is working.
The powerful message is that productivity is not merely an economic concept. It is a governance imperative.
I think that is also what we have in what we have had in the morning.
And the discussions really were very very engaging and we we have had we we hoped to have had a lot a long time with this type of very powerful uh and insightful panelists. But because of time, we want to stop it there on behalf of the organizers. And I wish to thankly I wish to sincerely thank the principal secretary for the keynote for the keynote address. And I want to thank also GIZ for helping us. I want to thank our distinguished distinguished panelists and all delegates for the active participation and thought-provoking contributions. Please join join me in appreciating our keynote speaker as we welcome our CJ. CJ, welcome. Uh just just this let's all just stand up to receive our CJ.
Let's stand up to receive our chief CJ.
Welcome our chief justice.
Panelist, thank you.
Thank you. Let's appreciate our CJ and let's appreciate our keynote speakers and our distinguished panels.
Thank you. You can have our seat.
Thank you, CJ, and welcome to this uh session at the conference.
I the panelists will hold on kidogo. I'm told there are some gifts that will be presented to you.
Who gives?
Okay.
Bring them here.
I will need someone to help. Yes, Commissioner, thank you.
Uh bwana biashara asante sana. We appreciate.
I'm going commissioner.
You can help us in this.
Yes, you can give.
Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you our panelist. We appreciate.
As I tell you something.
Let me know how to over the session to our main MC of the next MC our commissioner Meli to take us to the next session. Thank you.
>> Thank you so much. Let's appreciate our speakers, our panelist, and our moderators.
Another appreciation again.
Thank you so much commissioner Hadden and the chair of productivity and performance at the commission.
Um, our chief guest chief justice Mother Kohome, most welcome to this event. We are happy to host you. And allow me to welcome the chair of SRC Sammy Chepkowny to pick it up from there. Chairman.
Thank you so much.
Yeah, and those who are in charge of the pulpit kindly please. We need this.
Who are the people in charge?
Yeah, quickly as the chair takes over.
Chair, most welcome.
>> Thank you Senator Commissioner Meli.
I can now confirm that Senator Meli actually goes to church because he has insisted that this is the pulpit.
Well done.
>> [clears throat] >> But but allow me, colleagues, >> [clears throat] >> allow me, uh ladies and gentlemen, uh to thank you once again for for for coming.
And I am really happy that you are here.
A lot of you I can see. I think in the morning we were not as many as this.
But I think it was intentional so that by the time the CJ uh comes, we are most of us are here.
>> [clears throat] >> Just one comment as I invite the CJ um here is that I must [clears throat] make again another confession to this time that the CJ >> [clears throat] >> is one leader of arm of government called the judiciary that has more than five jobs. I counted 1 2 3 4. When I reach five, I say and the and the others.
>> [clears throat] >> Because she's the Chief Justice of the Republic of Kenya.
She's the President of the Supreme Court.
>> [clears throat] >> What do you know else that she does?
She's a chairperson of the Judicial Service Commission.
Should I continue?
And more and more and more.
But the confession I wanted to make is that um we don't pay her as SRC for all of them.
But she has not complained.
Thank you, honorable CJ.
>> [clears throat] >> I think all of us all of us should should be like her.
The second confession I wanted to make about our our honorable Chief Justice is that uh right now as we speak she's running our own conference for the Chief Justices from all of Africa.
But when we paid a courtesy call she was [clears throat] gracious enough and said because of the importance of this conference she'll spare 1 hour to come here and speak to us about this very important subject of productivity.
We are so grateful that you made that gracious accommodation from your very busy diary this week.
I saw the CJ is accompanied by our another friend of SRC called Honorable Justice Fatuma Sichale who is there? Can you stand there?
So we are really honored CJ that you did not just come alone, you've come with a Honorable Justice Fatuma.
And allow me now to invite you but I didn't tell you that uh these organizers kept another away from you but we assure you can take surprises that the moderator of your session who I now [clears throat] want to invite uh to invite you is actually my boss.
Uh who is none other than FCPA Nancy Gatungu.
>> [clears throat] >> FCPA Nancy Gatungu is my boss because she's a chair of chairs.
Chair of chairs because in the 20 or so constitutional commissions and independent offices when she was not there >> [clears throat] >> we unanimously elected her as our chair.
When she came, we were not sure she was going to accept.
But eventually she accepted. Thank you very much.
But >> [clears throat] >> yours truly was also elected the vice chair in the same meeting.
So allow me, ladies and gentlemen to welcome FCPN Nancy Sekatungu to take over from here. Thank you.
>> Thank you very much chair of SRC, my good friend Sammy Chepkowny, who is also my vice chair.
The honorable Chief Justice Lady Justice Martha Koome.
The honorable Lady Justice Sichale.
Distinguished guests, PSs the diplomatic corps members the constitutional commissions and independent offices, a very good afternoon to you.
I'm I'm really very privileged and honored, Madam Chief Justice, to be your moderator this afternoon.
On this session on driving productivity and performance in the judiciary.
Um the judiciary, ladies and gentlemen, is a cornerstone accountability system institution linking governance, economic productivity and fiscal health.
The judiciary enables economic productivity through legal certainty.
It supports fiscal sustainability through accountability, tax enforcement, and anti-corruption.
It enhances service delivery by ensuring fairness, efficiency, and responsiveness in public administration. And therefore, the judiciary sets the bar and is expected to lead by example.
So, today we are very much honored to have the Chief Justice and the President of the Supreme Court of Kenya, the Honorable Lady Justice Martha Koome, to share more about how the judiciary drives productivity and performance.
And I must say, it will be quite interesting, and I'm not preempting Honorable Lady Chief Justice. It will be quite interesting to hear how the judiciary balances performance and productivity with regard to some of your key stakeholders or customers that come before you, either as accused persons or as litigants, where performance, for example, and we were reminded by the PS this morning that time is a resource, where performance, for example, could be on timely disposition of cases or judgment dissemination.
And depending on which side of the law they find themselves in, will they all rejoice and say the judiciary is working well? Or some will question expeditious justice that might lead to serious consequences if they have been in breach of the law. Analysis of customer service results must be quite interesting in the judiciary.
But I will not preempt, as I said.
The Honorable Lady Justice Martha Koome was appointed on 14th of May 2021 and assumed office on 21st of May 2021 as the Chief Justice of the Republic of Kenya and President of the Supreme Court of Kenya.
She is the first woman Chief Justice of the Kenyan judiciary.
All of Kenya, congratulations, madam.
She's a chairperson of the Judicial Service Commission, the National Council on the Administration of Justice, National Council for Law Reporting, and the Vice Chairperson of the Southern and Eastern African Chief Justices Forum.
And prior to her appointment, she was a judge of the Court of Appeal and a judge of the High Court. And before joining Judicial Service, she was a practicing advocate.
The Honorable Justice Martha Koome was a president of the Kenya Magistrates and Judges Association in 2019, a member of the African Union Committee on the Rights and Welfare of the Child from 2005 to 2010, a chairperson of FIDA of Kenya in 1997-2003, chairperson of the Bill of Rights Subcommittee at the Bomas Constitutional Conference, an inaugural treasurer of the East African Law Society. And here I must say, I sense that if the Honorable Lady Justice did not pursue law, she would be a fellow accountant.
You don't become a treasurer if you're not very good with numbers.
And she's also council member of She was also council member of the Law Society of Kenya from 1994 to 1996, chaired the NCJ Special Task Force on Children Matters that was the architect of the Children's Act for 2022.
Madam Lady Chief Justice was awarded the runner-up United Nations Person of the Year in Kenya in 2020, and received national honors as Elder of the Order of the Burning Spear, which was elevated to Elder of the Order of the Golden Heart. She's an advocate of the High Court of Kenya, and a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. She holds a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Nairobi, a postgraduate diploma from the Kenya School of Law, a Master of Laws from the University of London, a Certificate of completion for the women and power program from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, an executive education and the African Chief Justices Alternative Dispute Training uh just from October 2024 from Pepperdine University. It is my great pleasure to welcome you, Madam Honorable Lady Chief Justice Martha Koome. Please give her a welcome.
>> Uh thank you very much uh my sister FCPA uh Madam Gathungu, please have a seat.
Thank you. Thank you very much for that very generous uh introduction.
Uh it made me a bit scared because you set the bar very high. You have hyped me.
I hope I'll meet your expectations.
Um allow me to recognize in a very very special way uh the chairperson and the honorable commissioners of uh SRC and um all the distinguished participants this morning, allow me to abide by the established protocols and say a very good afternoon everybody.
Yes, um I'm most honored uh to address this very distinguished gathering of the National Productivity and Performance uh Conference uh 2026.
As we were speaking in the small room as I was uh getting my nerves together because I've been up from 4:00 a.m.
uh trying to run a conference of the Chief Justices who have convened here in Nairobi from the entire continent to discuss mechanisms of accessing justice to our people through the alternative means because as you know we were colonized, we were brought common law and we were told our traditional ways of resolving disputes uh was repugnant to law and morality and therefore we left those systems that were accessible to us that made sense to us that built harmony within our families and our communities and now we have been picking it back and in Kenya because of our constitution 2010 we have made a lot of progress by adopting alternative justice system, we call it AJS. I don't know how many of you have heard about AJS, can I see your hand up? If you have heard about AJS.
And it is really working.
And therefore my colleagues in the continent, the Chief Justices in Africa have decided to come and see how we do it and we have them in Nairobi. So we have something to showcase, we better clap for ourselves because we are not so badly off, some other people are coming to benchmark on us.
So tomorrow we'll take them on a field trip to Embu where the AJS summit is taking place and they'll see elders in action resolving disputes and then on Friday we'll have a conference. Uh therefore I have been up and about so I may not be very good this morning but as we were sitting there we said really this conference is absolutely timely because it's the high time the public service we in the public service asked ourselves what are we doing in our service delivery to the people we serve.
And this jogged my memory to when we were young activists and we were trying to put together an organization to deliver services to Kenyans, indigent women and children at FIDA and we were trying to set up uh a legal aid department and we had this uh consultant who was helping us and she would ask us uh you have been working today. What did you do?
And we had to be drilled down to what it is that we did.
And those are the systems we established at FIDA. If you are a lawyer employed to offer pro bono legal services to indigent women and you went to court and you were in court the whole day what did you do in court? And what you did, how is it going to transform the life of this woman who is seeking uh legal services?
And that is the practice we gained even in our own legal practices. We kept on asking ourselves what have I done today?
I was at work the whole day. I'm very tired. What have I done?
What have I put on the table? So, it's the same question that we are asking ourselves here about productivity. If or if as a woman I can give that example very well when you cook food and that food is not good because the ingredients you used or the way you mixed them is not good food.
But you've been there the whole day cooking. What have you done? And nobody will eat that food. It is wasted. You've wasted your time, you've wasted your money, you've wasted the ingredients.
So, it's the same thing about productivity. We ask ourselves what it is that we have done.
So, when we had that discussion, I think I was confident that I can actually now address you.
Uh because what we are talking about is very, very practical.
And allow me to recommend SRAC and all the partners. I understand we have private sector, we have NGOs, we have people from the government, from the public sector, and we have the diplomatic core that have partnered to convene this very important national dialogue and give us this platform under the theme of productivity for fiscal sustainability and efficient service delivery.
So, ladies and gentlemen, the question of productivity has traditionally been associated with economic growth, industrial performance, labor ex- efficiency, and resource utilization.
However, in modern governance systems, productivity has become equally important within public institutions that are responsive, that must work with efficiency, and must be accountable because of the resources that are entrusted to us, transparent, and capable of delivering services in a timely manner.
You have heard me speak about the judicial services that we render.
That no one no one individual litigant wants to file a case and come to court year in, year out.
They want timely and expeditious dispensation or disposition of their matter. They want to know, is the case around or is it dismissed? So that they can know what to do with those results.
So, for the judiciary productivity is not simply about operational efficiency.
It is about ensuring that justice is delivered fairly.
It's also delivered promptly and in a manner that inspires uh confidence in the rule of law.
Like my moderator has said the judiciary occupies a unique position within our constitutional architecture.
As an independent arm of government our responsibility extends beyond dispute resolution.
We are the guardians of our constitution.
So are we all.
But we also protect the rights and freedoms.
We strengthen the democratic governance and contribute to social and economic stability.
The effectiveness with which the judiciary discharges these responsibilities has very far-reaching implications for public confidence investment decisions economic activity and also and most importantly for national cohesion.
A productive judiciary contributes directly to national development.
Investors require predictable and efficient justice systems so that they can enforce contracts and resolve commercial disputes.
Citizens also rely on courts to protect their rights and secure remedies when their rights are being wronged.
Government institutions depend on judicial interpretation and oversight to strengthen accountability and constitutional compliance.
Where justice systems function efficiently, we experience public trust, which increases.
We also see business confidence growing, and we see societies becoming more stable and prosperous.
Conversely, when there are delays in the administration of justice, this can impose significant social and economic costs.
Prolonged disputes increase uncertainty, discourage investment, raise the cost of doing business, erode public confidence in institutions, and it goes without saying it opens up the system to corruption and other maladministration.
And this reality explains why productivity within the judiciary should be viewed not merely as an administrative concern, but as a strategic national development priority.
Distinguished guests, today I wish to share the story of how our judiciary has deliberately embraced performance, accountability, and continuous improvement as an essential pillar of our justice delivery.
For many years, discussions about judicial performance were often viewed with caution.
There was concern that measuring judicial work might undermine judicial independence or reduce justice to numerical targets.
Yet, experience has taught us that judicial independence and accountability are not con- competing values.
They are complementary.
And they are constitutional imperatives.
We are independent, and we are accountable. The two go together.
An independent judiciary must also be accountable to the people in whose name we exercise this judicial authority.
And it is for this reason that in 2014, the Kenyan judiciary institutionalized performance management and measurements and understandings. We call it PMMUs as a framework for monitoring and evaluating institutional performance.
The objective was not merely to count cases, but counting cases was very, very important because we began from a place where we did not even know the kind of caseload that was in each of the courts.
But because we counted cases, then we were able to cultivate a culture of responsibility, efficiency, transparency, and service excellence throughout the institution.
The PMMUs enabled us to establish measurable performance targets, monitor productivity, and create a shared commitment to improving access to justice.
Over time, however, we have come to recognize that measuring judicial performance alone, through statistics, such as the number of cases filed, number of cases heard or concluded, presents only a partial picture.
Courts do not produce commodities.
They resolve disputes.
We vindicate rights. We protect livelihoods, and uphold constitutional democracy.
I don't know what value can be put to the Supreme Court sitting for 14 days to determine the presidential election disputes, or other cases even in the small claims courts, because every case carries a different level of complexity, urgency, and societal impact.
Productivity in the justice sector, therefore, requires a careful balance between efficiency, quality, between speed and fairness.
This realization has informed our ongoing case waiting study.
It has been work in progress, and therefore we have been handling one thing to another.
When we started, people set their own targets.
As a trial judge, I said I could complete 12 cases and on merits.
And I could finish that uh interlocutory applications.
And so many other orders that I issued in between.
But we continuously asked ourselves, "If then I am finishing 50 cases, uh perhaps in a month, what happens if 200 are being filed in a month?"
And this you can look at it like a farmer who has a chamber, and you are able to weed uh a quarter of your chamber, uh because that's the target you have set for yourself. So, this is why we are thinking that we have to continuously look at the way we work, try and the cases that come so that we are able to know what weight to give to each of the cases that come uh to the court, and what attention to give to these cases. And this is now the ongoing case weighting study, which seeks to scientifically determine the amount of judicial time, effort, and resources required to resolve different categories of cases.
By recognizing that not all cases are equal in complexity or workload, the study will provide a more accurate and equitable framework for assessing performance, allocating resources, determining staffing needs, and managing workload across the judiciary.
This Sunday represents a transition from the quantity based assessment to once a more sophisticated and evidence-based understanding of judicial productivity.
We are committed uh to performance management uh which has yielded some measurable results.
For instance, in the last financial year the judiciary recorded the highest level of productivity in recent history.
Ladies and gentlemen, we were able to resolve 647,000 cases against 621,000 new filings achieving a historic case clearance rate of 104%.
Thank you. What this means is that for every 100 cases filed the judiciary resolved 104 cases enabling us to reduce pending case loads and standardly address historical backlogs.
Our case backlog declined by approximately 30% demonstrating that sustained institutional reforms can produce meaningful results.
These achievements have not occurred by accident.
They are the product of deliberate investments in technology uh leadership performance management infrastructure development and of course most importantly the employment of the alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, which we call multi-door approach to justice.
And of course, the human capital, which has been ejected in the judiciary.
One of the most transformative reforms has been digitalization of judicial services.
The nationwide rollout of e-filing, virtual hearings, digital case management systems, and online service platforms have fundamentally changed how justice is delivered.
Technology has reduced geographical barriers, lowered the transactional costs.
Uh because you remember those who have interacted with the court before the e-filing, one had to prepare documents, then you would drive your car, you go find a parking, then you go to the registry, find a clerk to open for you a file.
And also another clerk to take it before the judge. When the order is issued, another one to remove it to the judge, take it to the secretary to to type the order.
And you could be in the court one week pursuing that one order and that one application. Now, this is done at the comfort of your desk.
And technology has helped us to remove that human interaction that also brought other malpractices.
The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated this transformation. It brought us a lot of pain, a lot of tears, but in the midst of it, there was a silver lining that we embraced technology. And this digital innovation is not merely a technological choice, but it has become for us an institutional necessity. So, when you hear us crying that we do not have a budget to sustain our infrastructure for technology, it's because we do not want to go backwards.
Digital transformation has also strengthened data-driven decision-making.
Today, through our performance dashboard, those of us in leadership positions are increasingly able to monitor case flows and therefore able also to deploy resources strategically and evaluate the effectiveness of interventions.
Reliable performance data enables us to move from reactive administration to proactive management.
At the same time, we have expanded the use of ADR mechanisms, the court-annexed mediation, the arbitration, and the alternative justice systems that we are using at the grassroots, and in other court stations, which has emerged as a powerful tool for improving access to justice while reducing pressure on conventional court processes.
Through mediation alone, thousands of disputes have been resolved amicably, and we really like mediation because people shake their hand, and there is harmony and peace thereafter. If we have to talk about even the politics of this nation, although we determined the presidential disputes in 2017, I think even before then, the handshake is what carried the day or the no more cut here, or the broad base.
That is handshake. That is mediation.
So, we have not quite embraced mediation uh in this country, or even understood the importance of uh mediation.
But, we in the judiciary are following very keenly uh that thousands of disputes have been resolved and brought harmony in our communities because there's no appeal when people shake their hand. They move on. We've been able to unlock billions of shillings in economic value and preserving uh the social and commercial relationships that exist.
Uh so, we have also recognized that productivity is ultimately about people.
Judges, magistrates, registrars, judicial officers, administrative staff, remain our very most valuable assets.
And sustainable performance can only be achieved through investments in professional development, employee wellness, leadership training, mentorship, and continuous learning.
Institutions perform well when the people within them are empowered, motivated, and supported.
I was told this morning the biggest problem we have is people taking public service as a side hustle, and then doing their own business as the mainstream.
So, how can we mainstream public service and focus on delivery of service to our people?
We have to recognize that uh we need to address these challenges that they face us because rising population levels expanding economic activities, increasing legal awareness, and growing public confidence in the judiciary continue to generate higher demand for judicial services.
We have resource constraints.
We have very, very serious infrastructural deficits.
And staffing pressures, which remain a reality and require innovative solutions and sustained investments.
So, the future of judicial productivity will therefore depend increasingly on evidence-based management and continuous institutional improvement.
High-performing organizations across the world have embraced the philosophy of is called Kaizen.
The belief that excellence is achieved through constant incremental improvements.
And that's why we ask ourselves and file a form called DCRAT every day to ask ourselves, "What have we done today?"
And every officer is supposed to key in what they have done today. If it is a judge in court how many witnesses they had uh how many rulings they delivered.
And we collect that at the end of the week. I collect it monthly. And by the end of the year, we give the report on the state of the judiciary um uh report that we do every year.
So, we are embracing this philosophy by continuously reviewing our systems that we work with, our processes, our procedures, and the service delivery modules. We are asking ourselves, is this litigant who came to court better off that they have been in court or worse off before they came to court?
Looking ahead, we must broaden our understanding of performance.
Future productivity frameworks must move beyond case clearance rates and disposal statistics to include measures such as user satisfaction, accessibility, timeliness, quality of service, and utilization of the ADL mechanisms because they are cost-effective.
The other day, we had a summit where the Bankers Association came together to see how they can reduce the number of cases that go to court out of disputed loans and mortgages, and how they can even be able to nip them in the bud by tracing the early warning signs of loans that are not performing well, and work with the customers uh to reduce um disputes coming to court and agreeing how to settle these matters.
And their chairman was telling me they have recorded tremendous success through the use of uh alternative dispute resolutions, mediation mainly, and the indicators we are getting from the use of these multi-door approaches provide a more holistic and meaningful assessment of institutional performance.
We have also to think about the rapid emergence of artificial intelligence and advanced digital technologies that provide us with both opportunities and challenges.
The judiciary has been piloting AI assistant transcription of court proceedings and exploring technology-driven solutions to improve administrative efficiency and knowledge management.
While technology will never replace judiciary solely or human judgment, it can significantly enhance productivity and support better decision-making.
Our responsibility is to embrace innovation while safeguarding constitutional values, fairness, transparency, privacy, and public confidence.
So, ladies and gentlemen, to conclude, the judiciary's commitment to productivity is ultimately a commitment to the people of Kenya.
It is a commitment to SRC and to all of us working and serving the public. We have all recognized at the end of the day we are serving one public.
One member of public is being served by multiple institutions.
And therefore, every reform, every technological innovation, and every performance improvement initiative must answer one question.
Does it enhance access to justice? Are we making our society better? A society that follows and is governed by the rule of law. A society that is governed by our constitution.
Therefore, productivity is not an end in itself.
Its purpose is to ensure that our people receive timely, fair, affordable, and effective justice.
As Kenya pursues this fiscal sustainability, efficient service delivery, and greater competitiveness, the Judiciary stands ready to play our part.
Strong justice institutions are indispensable to economic growth, to democratic governance, and to social stability and sustainable development.
The future that we seek is one where every Kenyan can access justice without undue delay, where courts operate efficiently and transparently, where technology enhance this service delivery, where institutions continuously improve, and where public confidence in the rule of law remains strong.
Achieving this vision will require leadership, innovation, collaboration, investment, and unwavering commitment to excellence.
Productivity and performance are therefore not merely manage management concepts within the Judiciary.
For us, they're essential pillars for strengthening access to justice, advancing constitutional governance, promoting economic growth, and building a more just and prosperous society.
I thank you very much for your attention, and wish you very fruitful deliberations.
Before I sit down, I want to assure the chair that uh Judicial Service Commission nominated the honorable Lady Justice Fatuma Sichale, a judge of the Court of Appeal and a commissioner at JSC to sit through this conference >> [snorts] >> and bring us the outcomes of this conference so that we follow keenly the implementation of what is going to be the outcome of this uh great uh convening. Thank you very much.
>> I thank you very much, Madam Chief Justice.
Uh very profound messages there that indeed uh the judiciary is a partner in economic development and service delivery and democratic governance. The The judiciary is very much aware that the work that they do affects the lives and livelihoods of the people. It's the citizens at the front. The The judiciary is at the forefront in advancing the use of alternative dispute resolutions, mediations, and arbitration mechanisms so that litigants or people in conflict uh arrive at a win-win situation amicably uh without creating more enmity. And the judiciary is embracing innovation and technology to ensure that they provide uh quality enhanced fair and effective service delivery in the justice system. Indeed, the judiciary has set the bar and is leading by example. Thank you, Madam uh Lady Chief Justice for your um speech this uh afternoon. I will now hand over to the MC uh to tell us what is the next course of action. Thank you, madam.
>> Thank you so much. Let's appreciate uh, FCPA Nancy Kathungu. Very good job, well done.
Thank you so much. Um, chair, as we close this program, I want to invite you and invite the vice chair as well as Commissioner Wangui to come up front and present gifts to uh, Chief Justice FC- FCPA Nancy Kathungu and also uh, our judge Yasin Juma. Kindly come up front, chair.
And chair, allow me to use Chief Justice. The rest of the titles, please, you take over because uh, they are quite number.
Welcome. Welcome, chairman.
Yeah, uh, chair will present the a gift to Chief Justice.
Let's appreciate uh, chair. Thank you so much.
Thank you so much. Uh, vice chair, kindly present a gift to FCPA Auditor General.
Let's appreciate our chair, the chair of SRC.
Thank you so much.
And finally, Commissioner Wangui, it's your turn to present. Okay. Okay.
Thank you so much.
Yeah, Commissioner Wangui.
Thank you so much. Thank you so much.
That closes up our program.
Um allow me to make the following announcement.
Number one, we'll touch on the issue of uh where we we will have our lunch. And number two, the breakaway sessions in the afternoon.
To begin with the lunch, I just want to give the following guidance. Number one, in terms of the breakaway rooms, if you are seated in the red seats, kindly by show of hands, let let me see those who are sat in the at the red seats. Kindly by show of hands.
Wow, that's a big number.
That team will be here. That is room A.
Room A is where we are seated. And that team will be here.
All those who are in red seats. Number two is room B.
Room B is at the conference center, which is just behind me.
That at the conference center, all those who are seated in white seats.
All those who are seated in white seats will be at room B. That is the conference center.
There'll also be room C.
And that's the convention center. Under the convention center, we have two breakaway rooms opposite each other.
That is the building at the at the upper side of where we are seated. The convention center will have two venues.
There'll be um room D.
And all those who are seated in black will be in this room.
And again, we at the same convention center, we have those who are seated in green seats at the same convention center. And I think that is the guidance. And we will do that immediately after lunch. So, we will not have another meeting here after lunch.
Immediately after we take our lunch, we will proceed to our rooms as already announced. And finally, >> on the issue of the lunch, the first three rows, the first three rows, where my chair is seated, and the second and the third, will all proceed and our CEO will lead this team for a lunch. Where is our CEO?
So that the visitors who are Yes, our CEO is there, Anne Lisuro, will lead that team, that is the first, the second and the third row for the lunch.
The rest of the from the fourth row to the end, our lunch is already prepared at the tent outside on on on my right hand, and lunch is already prepared for you and will be served. And we have ensured that we have enough food.
So I want to ask all of us not to go away. We have a very important program in the afternoon, where we have already lined our facilitators to take us through a number [clears throat] of programs that are designed for this conference.
So allow, ladies and gentlemen, as we conclude, Yes, yes, yes, yes, uh quickly. Uh we have also assigned our staff to be responsible in these um breakaway rooms, so that the visitors can be guided very well. At conference B, we have uh Naomi Cheboy. Naomi Cheboy, if you can stand up. Naomi Cheboy.
Uh at conference D, we have Josephine Kiragu.
Josephine Kiragu. Thank you so much. At um convention center, that is C, we will have uh Brenda Ndirangu.
Brenda Ndirangu.
And our commissioners and the steer co members, all of us have already been assigned to those three break-away rooms. So, please, when we are there, let's ensure that we uh observe time as we run through the program for the afternoon.
Um Okay. Okay, Commissioner Wangui.
>> Thank you. I don't want the Commissioner to go very far away.
Uh with the permission of my chair, it's important to give honor where honor is due.
And amongst us, we have a commissioner who has really inspired the work that we do.
Uh has uh gone over and beyond, not just for this uh for this commission, but for public service in general.
And today is his birthday.
And uh that is none other than the MC, Commissioner Meli. He didn't know I was going to do this.
With your permission, if we could sing a happy birthday, you may choose to stand. I will teach you I will lead you.
Please, let us stand and sing for Commissioner Meli.
>> [laughter] >> Um Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, [singing] dear >> Mhm.
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