On a sunny day in mid-March 2022, 51 young public servants gathered at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre in downtown Nairobi, Kenya. They were there to begin the Public Service Emerging Leaders Fellowship (PSELF), a 12-month programme designed to nurture the next generation of Kenyan public sector leaders to be agents for positive change, catalysts for innovation, and champions for transparent and ethical governance.

PSELF is an ongoing collaborative partnership between the Kenyan Public Service Commission, Emerging Public Leaders, the Emerging Leaders Foundation – Africa, and the Chandler Institute of Governance (CIG). The first cohort of 51 Fellows had been whittled down from more than 5,000 applicants by Kenya’s Public Service Commission. The successful applicants, 26 of whom were women, together represented 41 different counties and 26 government ministries.

Presiding over that mid-March ceremony, and delivering a keynote speech, was Liberia’s former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf – a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Africa’s first female elected head of state. While in office, President Sirleaf had founded a similar programme for young Liberian civil servants and she was clear about what the course meant.

“All of you represent the future of your country,” she told the Fellows. “Your leadership and the devotion you have to public service will result in meaningful contributions to Kenya’s bright future … as you Fellows begin this incredible journey, I hope you will take advantage of every moment.”

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The Importance of PSELF: Building Strong Nations

A strong civil service matters – and matters greatly – to building strong nations. The best strategies, policies, and plans are nothing more than words on a piece of paper without capable, ethical, and committed civil servants to translate them into practice. Programmes such as PSELF play an important role in this regard by building a pipeline of civil service leaders who speak the same language, share the same ethos of public service, and are equipped with the necessary skills to do their work effectively.

Such programmes require heavy investment – of time, resources, and manpower – to execute successfully. This is why few governments do it systematically and do it well. For those that do, resources are often dedicated to more experienced leaders, for which the returns are perceived to be more assured. So it is particularly significant that PSELF caters to young public sector leaders.

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A Distinctive Curriculum

Under the broad banner of “Nurturing Values-Driven Leaders”, the programme focused on several themes including citizen-centric government and public service leadership and ethics.

The distinctive curriculum was designed to address the priorities articulated by the Kenyan civil service and was contextualised to local needs. It also brought fresh perspectives on governance and the tradecraft of building strong nations. For example, as part of the leadership module, participants were asked to see themselves as stewards of the Kenyan national story tasked with discerning the context they are in and shaping the current chapter of their story, before passing the baton to the next generation.

Another key feature was its strong practitioner orientation. Developing a practitioner-oriented curriculum means focusing not just on the “what” and the “why” – even if both are important – but also emphasising the “how”. For example, Fellows were given practical toolkits and frameworks and went through simulated scenarios to apply the skills of policy design and strategic planning.

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Hearing from the Fellows

What better way to appreciate the significance of PSELF than through the experiences and voices of the Fellows themselves? We spoke to three members of the inaugural cohort. Their words and stories give a sense of their motivation for public service and their optimism for the future of the nation.

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Stephanie Hazel Kusa

HR Officer with the Executive Office of the Deputy President

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“The Public Service revolves around people,” said Hazel Kusa, an HR Officer with the Executive Office of the Deputy President. “When people are satisfied, they will serve with a smile. For me, that is what I am geared towards on a daily basis – making sure that the staff are resolved to serve their stakeholders well.”

Prior to her role in HR, Kusa carried out advocacy work with county governments to encourage them  to take account of the challenges facing young people and to do more to involve the next generation in finding solutions. She also joined the Young African Leaders Initiative, a programme run by the U.S. Department of State intended to “invest in the next generation of African leaders”.

Kusa was drawn to PSELF, she said, because, “I asked myself: ‘What extra mile can I go?’ Apart from the HR processes we know and the work that we do, what else can I do? When I saw this programme on the Public Service website, I said, ‘This is an opportunity that I need to seize.’”

PSELF’s hybrid learning approach enabled Kusa to learn in her own time and at her own pace. “The online modules offered by CIG taught me about policy design,” she said, “and it brought about a paradigm shift in how I approach policymaking. It made me realise the value of listening to the people – the recipients of the policy – to ensure that they benefit.”

The most valuable aspect of PSELF for Kusa was being able to mingle with the other Fellows: “The Fellows themselves challenged me a lot. We are all different, we all hold different knowledge and expertise. This meant I could learn from other Fellows, and challenge myself to be like them.”

Her time in PSELF helped create new professional opportunities. For example, she was asked to digitalise the process by which county government officials receive clearance to travel. “They need to meet investors and create these partnerships and linkages for the development of counties,” said Kusa, explaining the impact of a more efficient process.

In addition to the new opportunities, Kusa said PSELF helped her to develop the core skills required in public service. “We had a lesson on policy writing that really helped to sharpen my skills in this area,” she said. Kusa also described how she is more confident in her work: “I appreciated the fact that we were given a step-by-step process for policy design and implementation. I was previously clueless on how to even start, but I now have a way to systematically think about what to do. I am also more confident when speaking with my supervisor about how to approach my work.”

An especially impactful moment in the programme came when she listened to Mugo Kibati, a business leader who, among other roles, served as Director General of Kenya Vision 2030, the nation’s ambitious development programme. “He told us that as a public servant, we need to be open-minded, embrace innovation, and read widely on the history of government. Because when you go back to history, it really helps you see where you are going.”

We need young people to be assertive and go out there – engage, engage, engage, because we are looking at making a public service work to benefit the citizens.

Kusa’s advice for other young public officers in Kenya:

“Let’s talk. Having gone through the programme, I would like to support this culture of engagement, sharing with each other, and supporting one another – a single candle can light many others. I would also tell them: ‘Do not let fear stop you from serving.’ Even the most experienced public servants are asking: ‘How do we engage these young people?’ We need young people to be assertive and go out there – engage, engage, engage, because we are looking at making a public service work to benefit the citizens.”

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Linah Kiende Mwenda

Probation Officer with the Ministry of Interior and National Administration, State Department for Correctional Services – Probation and Aftercare Services

Linah Mwenda’s  degree in sociology saw her spend years studying human behaviour. That knowledge of society has, she says, served her well in her work as a probation officer – a wide-ranging role that touches on everything from preventing crime to re-integrating ex-offenders back into communities.

When asked why she joined the public service, Mwenda said with a smile: “To be honest, when I joined the public service, I was looking for a job. Then when I got the position, I realised, ‘Wow, this is so much more than a job.’ I saw that it is about service to humanity and the role that I play in building a better society.”

One way Mwenda is working to create that better society is by helping develop a better way of collecting and interpreting data to map criminal patterns, and to better understand the underlying causes of crime. In doing so, it can help policymakers to design interventions accordingly.

She applied to PSELF, she said, after she learned about it through a WhatsApp group, and saw how it could help her to develop her knowledge and become a more capable public servant. Among the skills that she believes are most relevant to her work are emotional intelligence, public speaking – “though I’m still learning” – and being self-aware.

Mwenda thought one of the most valuable skills covered in the PSELF programme was conflict resolution. “Conflict resolution skills are important to a public sector leader,” she said. “Our colleagues in government come from different backgrounds. Knowing how to mitigate conflicts that arise from different perspectives prepares me to become a better leader.”

She also left the programme with a deeper awareness of the damage that can be done by corruption. “My hope is that one day corruption will die,” she said, adding, “this has to start with public servants acting as role models – leaders at all levels need to model clean and ethical behaviour.”

Mwenda’s advice for other young public officers in Kenya:

“A quote that really speaks to me is, ‘If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, then you are a leader.’ So my advice to a young public servant would be: let your actions be the reason why someone else becomes a better person. Lead by example.”

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Mohammed Obierotenyo Swaleh

Probation Officer with the Ministry of Interior and National Administration, State Department for Correctional Services –  Probation and Aftercare Services

Mohammed Swaleh works in the same department as Mwenda, but brings a different background – he studied criminology and forensic studies. Asked why he decided to translate that background into a career in public service, he said: “Because for me, it was a calling and an opportunity to fulfil my dream of serving the public.”

When he spoke with Governance Matters, he was in the midst of pursuing a Master of Science degree in forensics and security management. “I want to participate in reducing crime in society by offering workable solutions, because as we speak right now, we as a country are facing a lot of challenges,” Swaleh said.

It was that desire to do better for his country that led him to apply for the PSELF programme. The components of PSELF most relevant to his work, he said, were the areas focused on public-sector engagement and ethics. “We cannot compromise our integrity in the work that we are doing,” he added, “engaging citizens is key because they are the people that we are serving.”

Swaleh also spoke about citizen-centricity and public engagement – core themes of the programme. “Discovering how to engage the public was useful. We have to get feedback from the communities we serve so that our policies and programmes are fit for purpose and resonate with the public.”

As with Mwenda, Swaleh’s role involves close collaboration and engagement with citizens. He works with local communities to support efforts to help past offenders reintegrate into the community. That means both educating and engaging. “We have to ensure that members of the public are safe, and that offenders can be integrated back into society as productive and law-abiding members of the community,” he said.

Reflecting on  the  importance  of   milestone programmes such as PSELF, he said, “It is important to equip public servants with the necessary skills and cultivate the right values, to better serve citizens.”

Swaleh’s advice for other young public officers in Kenya:

“Uphold the highest standards of integrity. I think many of us grew up seeing public servants seeking some personal gain in the course of fulfilling their public duties. We must endeavour to serve the public without expecting anything in return – other than the satisfaction of doing your job. That is how we will move our country forward.”

An Ongoing Journey

Implementing a coherent and structured system of training for public servants sounds simple – almost mundane. But nothing can be further from the truth. It requires strong political will, ongoing investment of resources, and an unstinting willingness to support continual learning. The launch of the PSELF programme reflects the commitment of the Kenyan government to developing its public service, and its recognition of the important role that an effective public service plays in improving the quality of national governance. The second cohort of Fellows embarked on their PSELF journey in April 2023, ensuring that the programme is well on its way to becoming a lynchpin in the broader system of public sector capability development in Kenya.