Managing human resources in the public service: Kenya Commonwealth Governance Handbook 2014/15 53 The promulgation of Kenya’s Constitution in August 2010 was a major turning point in the history of the country’s public service. Whereas the primary motivation for the new constitution was a change in governance structures, the changes it heralded also invariably and fundamentally changed the structure of Kenya’s public service and its service delivery. One critical area of impact for the new constitution was the way human resources (HR) are managed and developed in the country’s public service. These HR changes were primarily necessitated by the transition from a highly centralised system of government to the devolved system of government comprising the national government and 47 county governments. Not surprisingly, therefore, the establishment of the devolved system of government in Kenya ushered in fundamental changes in administrative procedures and functional structures and systems in the county’s public service. Of course, these changes are fraught with a number of challenges. To establish sustainable human resource management (HRM) systems under such circumstances, stakeholders in Kenya’s public service need to understand these changes and challenges so as to adjust HRM strategies, practices, systems and policies to achieve greater efficiency and effectiveness in the delivery of public services. This paper reviews the formative HRM conditions of the devolved system of government, the interventions undertaken by various arms and agencies of the national and county governments and the current HRM situation of the public service in Kenya. The final part presents some of the strategic options for enhancing HRM in the county’s public service in the face of devolution. HRM challenges The establishment of county governments immediately after the March 2013 elections entailed a myriad of structural and systemic challenges and gaps. Foremost among these was the dilemma of how to co-ordinate and manage HR in the 47 newly established counties. The following section outlines some of the main HR gaps and challenges that Kenya has come up against under the devolved system. One of the foremost challenges that the new county governments faced at the initial stages was the total lack of organisational structures. In most instances, available officers served in informally established positions with no proper chain-of-command or reporting structures within county public services. In the absence of formal organisational structures, county governments faced monumental challenges in matching staff to appropriate positions. In the period immediately after the first general election held under the new constitution, 47 county governments were effectively established. When they started off, county governments obviously lacked staff in critical administrative positions. Even where some informal organisational structures had been established, there were no officers to discharge their functions. With no personnel of their own, the county governments were compelled to borrow staff from ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) that existed under the centralised system of government. Further to this, with no formal administrative and governance structures, and without a skill and competency inventory or an audit of the competencies and skills of newly acquired staff, it remained difficult for most counties to match their staff to the new roles. The formative stages of the establishment of county governments were faced with a number of major technical capacity challenges, among these were the public officers that these governments inherited from the defunct local authorities. For the most part, employees of the former local authorities were characterised by lower-level skills and competencies that were mostly suited for nontechnical routine roles. Obviously then, the crop of officers that county governments inherited from local authorities were ill prepared for the emerging complex HR terrain under the new system. In the same way the organisational structures of county governments remained unresolved, the devolved units lacked any relevant policy to guide operations and administrative functions in HRM. At establishment, county governments generally lacked any systems for managing the performance of their staff, measuring productivity, and measuring and evaluating performance. There were also issues involving existing legislation. A number of laws were enacted in preparation for the new governance system. However, these laws only provided macro-level frameworks to facilitate the transition from centralisation to devolution. Specific county-level legislation to guide HRM, and other functions of the devolved units, was conspicuously lacking. Responses In response to the evidently serious administrative, structural and policy challenges facing the management of the HR function in the nascent devolved units, various arms of government stepped in with policy, legislative and administrative interventions. Critical administrative interventions came from the Public Service Commission (PSC), parliament and the executive arms of the national government. Interventions by the Public Service Commission As the agency of government that is constitutionally mandated to undertake public HRM functions, the PSC has made tremendous efforts in developing the HRM function in county governments and the wider public service in a number of ways. The following section outlines some of the main actions of the PSC in this respect. Margaret Kobia
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