The imperative for Kenya to apply all of her resources to address the national development challenges is as important today as it was at independence. Today, we face increasing demands from our growing population, particularly from young people. There is a clear need to create employment and other opportunities for our people to lead decent and meaningful lives and for our country to trade and effectively tap the emerging resource boom. Mwongozo is my call to all public institutions to operate effectively and efficiently in order to assist our nation to realize our shared goals.
At Independence, we established State Corporations to implement government policies and execute programmes for economic and social development of our country. The Government at that time assumed a greater role in the development of critical sectors of our economy to enhance the participation of citizens in economic activities. However, it became clear over the years, and with new challenges, that State Corporations have not operated at expected levels due to weak governance structures as well as other external factors.
By adopting a transformational mindset in the way business is conducted, Government expects the entities it owns to promote and accelerate economic growth and development, and to drive
the social and economic transformation in Kenya. These State Corporations need to support our efforts by building the institutional and technical capacity of the state in facilitating and promoting national development; improving the delivery of public services to meet the basic needs of citizens; supporting the creation of employment opportunities in diverse sectors across the entire country and supporting the nation’s regional integration initiatives and international partnerships.
As a major milestone, the Constitution of Kenya 2010 has taken significant steps to address the question of leadership, governance and management of public resources. The success of State Corporations is premised on the Government’s role in ensuring that public institutions are effectively led and managed. To achieve these ends, we have developed Mwongozo, a Code of Governance for State Corporations aligned to the Constitution, that I am proud to issue. We need to implement Mwongozo in order to increase efficiency and accountability in the use and deployment of scarce public resources. Mwongozo allocates responsibilities for supervision, implementation and enforcement to different institutions while respecting the role of complementary agencies.
My Government is committed to the full implementation of all the provisions of Mwongozo and will accord the process all the support required to ensure that State Corporations deliver the expected outcomes that we all desire. I therefore call upon all of us in the public sector to adhere to Mwongozo. My issuance of Mwongozo should not be seen as an end in itself but as the first step towards propelling our governance ethos to the international arena. My Government is particularly eager to ensure that Kenya accedes to the Convention of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in the near future for purposes of entrenching corporate governance. In this regard, I will shortly be issuing Mwongozo as Regulations under section 30 of the State Corporations Act, Cap 446.
His Excellency Hon. Uhuru Kenyatta, C.G.H.,
President and Commander-in-Chief of the
Defence Forces of the Republic of Kenya
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| PSC-Mwongozo-Code-of-Governance-for-State-Corporation-January-2015.pdf | Download |