Principal Secretary for State Department of Broadcasting and Telecommunication, Prof. Edward Kisiang’ani has called for fast tracking of the restructuring of functions in the department, to allow for seamless service delivery.
While noting that the changes were meant to align the functions with the development agenda and Bottom-up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA), PS Kisiang’ani announced that 60 positions for Directors of Communication will be established to enhance communication in government.
He regretted that the department was so restricted on the ground, noting that positions of County Directors of Information will also be created in the structure to strengthen communication from the grassroots.
“The state department can do better and the 60 directorates of Communication will help ease communication and reengineer our state departments to be in-tandem with the executive order which demands that we work as one across all ministries,” he said urging the public service to act on the reports that also clarified the roles and functions of various directorates to avert overlap.
He added that career civil servants will be given priority in filling the vacancies, with gaps in the structure being filled through promotion of officers and further recruitment.
PS Kisiang’ani, who announced plans to roll out e-commerce platform through the Postal Corporation of Kenya, noted the need for a Secretary of Postal and Infrastructural Services, adding that the department will work to safeguard and enhance its infrastructure in place to bolster e-commerce.
“We are proposing a Secretary for Telecommunications Services to spearhead the country towards a future in telecommunication that has seen organizations shift to satellite from the frequency spectrum platforms, because of the shortage of frequencies. This individual will be crucial in advising the government on matters of space science and how we can plug in to predict climate change, for instance,” he added.
Prof. Kisiangani, noted that there was need to strengthen the Government Advertising Agency, to help set policies and standards, while enforcing regulations around advertising sector that remained unregulated.
He spoke in Nakuru, when he gave his proposals to the taskforce restructuring the State Department’s Organogram, which will see the human resource structure of the department, including its Semi-Autonomous State Agencies (SAGAs) streamlined.
On training of Mass Media practitioners, the PS proposed the enactment of the Kenya Institute of Mass Communication institution’s mandate, through a Bill of parliament in a bid to make it a one stop shop for all media professional needs.
The PS urged civil servants to desist from taking political sides but instead work as a team towards ensuring that the citizens accessed government services without discrimination.
Managing Director of the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC), Samuel Maina while lobbying for KBC to keep abreast of modern technology, regretted that the SAGAs in the department poorly remunerated its employees for their professional expertise.
“We are looking at the functional analysis of the department to establish the gaps in the structure as we work on the proposals that take into consideration sustainable development goals, vision 2030 and the BETA manifesto.
“We also looked at the functions of the department as contained in the executive order no. 1 of 2023 and aligned it with the outputs required,” added Public Service Commission’s Director for Consultancy Services John Otom Ogola.
By Anne Sabuni and Anne Mwale
