Defence Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale says he will push for a well-integrated workforce with the military personnel through capacity building.
He said the military has a history of a strong culture of efficiency, result-driven and time-consciousness which he intends to see inculcated in all civilian staff across all cadres.
As it is now, he said, the civilian component is more of a support system.
He made the remarks when he hosted officials from the Kenya United States Liaison Office (KUSLO) led by Jessie Evans at his Defence Headquarters office.
The high-level meeting was a culmination of a week-long workshop for the Heads of Department in the ministry on the best practices for the civilian staff even as they offer their technical support and oversight service in the ministry.
He applauded the KUSLO delegation for the robust workshop saying the ministry was determined to motivate the civilian staff by ensuring their career progression and retention.
He hailed the cordial relations existing between the two countries that he said had made it possible for the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) to have joint training with the US Armed Forces adding that it is time to benchmark on the civilian component to enhance their skills and expertise.
Duale said the ministry shall budget for the training and benchmarking of the best practices from other nations especially the US on civilian support services and administrative roles saying the civilian component offered critical services to the Ministry.
“We are in the high stages of developing the Defence Civilian Policy which shall go to Parliament and later to the Cabinet for approval. We, therefore, want to entrench the best recommendations in the document to ensure that the Ministry becomes the best place for the civilian staff thus we are going to learn from the best to widen our experience,” said the CS.
Among the notable areas identified during the five-day workshop were Strategic Leadership, Ethics and Governance, Peace Support Operations, negotiation skills, and civilian oversight of Defence Forces among others.
Jessie expressed her gratitude for the support, saying Kenya is among a pool of other 65 countries KUSLO is partnering with to enable the effective and efficient service delivery of the civilians working in the Ministries of Defence.
“We are delighted for welcoming us even as we strive to share ideas on the best ways to support the civilian service providers. We are glad that you have robust military training and it is time we partner in training the civilian workforce to have polished professionals,” said Jessie.
The Director of Human Resource Management and Development Dr Lilian Nzavi who was also a participant and coordinator of the workshop applauded the CS for supporting capacity building in the Ministry’s staff saying it shall have a ripple effect of increasing productivity.
Dr Nzavi said the training enabled sharing of experience between the representatives of the two States adding that the deployment of civilian components in various units and formations aimed at assisting the military personnel to fulfil their Constitutional mandate and that every cadre was equally important.
Present during the meeting was the Vice Chief of Defence Forces Lt Gen Francis Ogolla.
