Public Service Cabinet Secretary Geoffrey Ruku has put government offices on notice, ordering ministries, departments and state agencies to make sure their communication channels are working and accessible to the public.
During an inspection of government offices in Kisumu on Thursday, January 29, Ruku said it was unacceptable for offices to publish email addresses and contacts that no one responds to. He noted that such gaps frustrate Kenyans seeking services and paint the public service in a bad light.
“If we have emails in our offices, those emails must be working. If they are not working, just remove those emails from our websites. Because they send information in some of those emails. But the response is not there,” he said.
Ruku stressed that citizens have a right to clear and timely communication from government offices. He said when official contacts go unanswered, people are forced to make unnecessary trips or remain in the dark about services they urgently need.
CS Ruku flags lateness among civil servants
The CS also took issue with lateness in public offices, saying officers must report to work on time to serve Kenyans efficiently.
“So the people of Kenya are demanding that we be in our offices at the right time. So that they can also save time and can be able to plan themselves properly. When we are not in our offices at the right time, we send a very wrong signal,” he said.
He cited the State Department for Immigration as a positive example, saying that in regional offices he visited in Mombasa, Nakuru, Nyeri and Embu, officers were already at their workstations by 8am. Ruku said this culture of punctuality and responsiveness should be adopted across the public service.
Human resource managers under the Ministry of Public Service were instructed to enforce discipline and accountability more firmly. Ruku emphasized that official email addresses listed on government platforms must be monitored and responded to, warning that inactive ones should be removed altogether.
His remarks come in the context of previous breakdowns in government communication systems that raised public concern. In 2018, a 24-hour toll-free hotline meant to handle gender-based violence cases was found to have been out of service for nearly two months, reportedly due to operational challenges and limited staffing.
There have also been cases where poor communication hampered emergency response. Studies on flood response in parts of Tana River County showed that crisis teams lacked reliable communication systems, leaving residents without timely updates or guidance.
Ruku said the new directive is part of broader efforts to improve efficiency, accountability and responsiveness in the public service, so that government offices can serve Kenyans in a more professional and dependable way.
