Nairobi –Kenya’s public servants will be heading back to class. The Public Service Commission (PSC) has reinstated mandatory in-service training, calling it essential to lifting the quality of service across government institutions.
In a directive sent to all state corporation heads, the PSC warned that skill gaps among public officers have become too wide to ignore and that the effects are already being felt in offices and public institutions across the country.
“There’s been a noticeable drop in performance,” the Commission stated in a circular. “The suspension of these programmes has only made the situation worse.”
The move revives a set of training courses that had been paused in 2020, among them the Strategic Leadership Development Programme, the Senior Management Course, and the Supervisory Skills Development Course.
The PSC said the government is committed to building a workforce that is not only competent but also grounded in a strong ethical culture.
“A public service that is effective and efficient must be supported by ongoing training,” the Commission said.
Under the new rules, every officer promoted to a higher grade without completing the required training will be granted a two-year window to comply. Failure to do so could jeopardise future promotions or even lead to demotion.
The Commission also reaffirmed its policy that a master’s degree remains a minimum requirement for all director-level positions and other senior roles. That condition, long debated within some public circles, appears here to stay.
The reintroduction of training marks a shift in tone from earlier years, when budget pressures and shifting priorities led to cuts in professional development. But PSC now argues that the cost of not training has proved steeper.
Public sector analysts largely welcomed the move, calling it overdue.
“Training is not just a tick-box exercise,” said Dr. Caroline Achieng, a governance expert at the University of Nairobi. “Without proper skills, you get poor planning, poor budgeting, and ultimately, frustrated citizens.”
Still, critics say the programme’s success will depend on more than just rolling out courses.
“It’s one thing to send people to training,” said an officer at a state agency who asked not to be named. “It’s another to make sure they come back better at their jobs and that the training is actually useful.”
For now, however, the PSC is making its position clear: if Kenya’s civil service is to rise to the challenges of a modern state, its workers must be better prepared. And that begins, once again, in the classroom.
