National Government Administration Officers (NGAOs) have now been directed to join other front row actors in addressing school fires and unrest.

Interior Principal Secretary, Karanja Kibicho, has told the administrators to assist other stakeholders towards finding a permanent solution to the spike of school fires.

“We are experiencing a spate of school fires across the country. You must move in and lead from the front in mitigating the trend. This looks like a cyclic thing that the Ministry of Education is investigating, and all we can do is to ensure we are as vigilant as we can get,” Kibicho said.

The PS who was addressing national government administrators from Kitui County on Tuesday stated that the intention is to ensure active consultations amongst stakeholders so that all existing and emerging issues are dealt with proactively. These include fatigue and stress among students.

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“As a Ministry responsible for ensuring that there is order, we have instructed our officers to ensure that the consultation systems within the schools are functional, and that the Committees that are supposed to ensure that the teachers, students and parents are talking are activated, ” said.

Last week, the government authorized local administration officers to make aggressive visitations in schools in bid to establish the cause of school fires.

Kibicho said the government is not limited to access schools in a mission to conduct investigations while at the same time initiate communication among all school stake holders which he says will be key in quelling the situation.

He noted that the government will not relent in it’s effort in establishing the causes and solutions.

“Schools are not embassies that local administrators can be limited to access. I want to authorize them to gain access to all schools and initiate talks among teachers, parents and students to establish the problems ailing our schools,” Kibicho said.

“Communication is what is lacking amongst all the stakeholders and continual failure to find the solution, we shall be jeopardizing the lives of our students and exposing our school infrastructure for continual destruction.”

The new classes, according to Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha and his Interior counterpart, Fred Matiang’i, will accommodate learners transiting from primary to junior secondary schools.

Dr Matiang’i tasked officers to start preparing for the projects as the classrooms should be ready to accommodate learners by 2023.

“Start pushing teams in the sub-county to start preparations. This is not the time to start saying you are waiting for circulars. Rally the troops to start preparations early, because if we do not do that we shall fail,” said Matiang’i.

He, at the same time, directed Regional Commissioners to take action against chiefs who fail to do what is expected of them.

What this means is that every chief must spend their time on projects supporting the contractors and coordinating them to ensure the projects move on smoothly.

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Matiang’i also cautioned contractors against inflating the cost of projects. “It’s not that we have a huge capital outlay to achieve this project. We are operating on a small budget. Cost-effectiveness is very important,” he said. Each of the classes will cost about Sh800,000 and the overall target is 20,000 of them.

These new classrooms will since the CBC task-force report estimated that the government needs to create 37,000 new ones nationally to cater for the anticipated double intake of form ones.

The Cabinet Secretaries were addressing a multi-agency team comprising Regional Commissioners, County Commissioners, Regional Director of Education, and County Director of Education from the 47 counties yesterday at Kenya School of Government in Lower Kabete, Nairobi.

President Uhuru Kenyatta has directed the National Treasury to release Sh8.1 billion for the project. “We have delivered before, so we are not reinventing the wheel. The government will do whatever it takes to ensure the officers deliver the projects by April,” said Prof Magoha.

He instructed Education officers to identify contractors that are competent and have adequate manpower to do the work in a professional way.

The CS said contractors would be paid via mobile money to avoid giving the officers the burden of handling cash.

“Please make sure the contractors give the right personal information to avoid issues of delay in payment. During the desks project, we had a lot of delays. When you meet the contractors, ensure they are well briefed in such aspects so that we don’t have problems in wiring the money because this may delay this project,” he said.

Hundreds of government administrative officials have received a pay rise after the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) approved extraneous allowances.

The payment, communicated yesterday by the Ministry of Interior, comes after two years of waiting.

Though Specific payment schedules have not been availed, sources indicated that the allowances, which were factored in this month’s salaries, range from Sh7,000 for assistant chiefs to Sh80,000 for regional commissioners. The allowances will be subject to taxation.

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“The available human resource capacity in the national government administration officers’ structure has been stretched, compelling the administrators to shoulder almost double the usual responsibilities,” said Interior Principal Secretary Karanja Kibicho.

Kenya is administratively split into eight regions, 47 counties, 290 sub-counties, 1,450 wards and hundreds of sub-locations and villages. Every unit is run by a national government administration officer. Additionally, a number of officers from the national administration are seconded to other government agencies.

It is these officers who will get the new extraneous allowance.“The Ministry of Interior gladly acknowledges this pertinent move geared towards motivating the officers with a view to improving services,” Dr Kibicho added.

The additional responsibilities on the shoulders of the officers include coordination, supervision and reporting of State development projects in their jurisdiction.

These changes came in January 2019 when President Uhuru Kenyatta transferred the powers of coordinating national development projects from Deputy President William Ruto’s office to Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i.

It meant that the roles played by Dr Matiang’i at national level were delegated all the way down the national government administrative structures, to the sub-chiefs.

There are six national government and coordination levels.

At the top is the regional commissioner, followed by the county commissioner, sub-county commissioner, assistant county commissioner, the chief and assistant chief.

They all ensure government presence is felt up to the grassroots. Their duties include preventing crime, arbitrating in disputes and sensitising residents on government programmes.

While acknowledging their new responsibilities, Mr Kenyatta directed the SRC to consider giving national government administrative officers field allowances.

“The authorisation of the extraneous allowance came after extensive deliberations on recompensing the administrators – from the assistant chief all the way up to the regional commissioner – commensurate with the nature of their work and the risks they face in the field,” Dr Kibicho said yesterday.

“In determining the allowances, the Public Service Commission and SRC also took into account the extra responsibilities, extraneous nature of their roles, fairness and equity relative to other public servants and broad implications on the fiscal sustainability of the wage bill in the entire public sector.” Next