Remarks by the Director General, Prof. Ludeki Chweya, Ph.D., CBS, During the Second Graduation Ceremony for the Award of Diplomas at Lower Kabete on March 6, 2019

The Chief Guest,
Prof. Margaret Kobia, Cabinet Secretary for Public Service, Youth & Gender
Dr. Fred Matiang’i, Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Interior and Coordination
of National Government
Prof. Francis Kibera, Chairman, Kenya School of Government Council Members of the Council of the Kenya School of Government
Kenya School of Government Directors Government officers present Distinguished Graduands
Management and Staff of the Kenya School of Government
Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen
This day stands out prominently in the academic calendar of the
Kenya School of Government, for on this occasion, we take a break
from the very demanding and even depressing routine of lectures,
seminar presentations, group work, assignments and, what is more – examinations.

Today, we graduands receive the assurance that this rigor has come
to an end – at least for some time. Today, we assemble in this Great Hall to celebrate successful completion of a long process of learning.
Needless to say, many find learning that is realized spontaneously in the course of professional career or social life generally to be a lot
easier than the structured, compressed, and compulsory Diploma in Social Work and Diploma in Public Administration programs that have, moreover, taken you away from family, friends and the community for such a long period of time.

Congratulations therefore for successful completion of the programs of study and for the award of Diploma in your respective professional fields. Well done in the search for new knowledge and in sharing with others that which you already knew. Congratulations for the readiness you displayed to unlearn that which you erroneously believed to be the ultimate knowledge and your
readiness to supplant it with new, more current ideas and
perspectives on different aspects of your professional field.

I have been impressed by your quick appreciation that knowledge is truly transitory and that a learner is well advised to keep abreast with ever-shifting knowledge trends. Such shifts have become even more
routine in the face of the ever-increasing complexities in human
society, particularly in the Governance realm. Public servants are responsible for management of societal affairs, and they will
invariably find it compelling to run ahead of the population whom
they serve in respect of appreciation of societal phenomena and invocation of appropriate initiatives or responses as the case may be.

Couldn’t one say therefore with much certainty that a public servant who remains fixated in old knowledge and old workways thereby locks up oneself in a voluntary servitude of ignorance and irrelevance, inflicting much harm to one’s own professional
reputation and to citizens in their prospects for high-level delivery of public service.
But there is also the matter of where to excavate the new knowledge from, for we have to be weary of false prophets: one faces the
formidable risk of exposure to knowledge of tenuous credibility.

Thankfully, in this regard, the Kenya School of Government has
been and will remain on hand to fulfil its obligation to transform the Kenyan public service into the most efficient and capable engine for service delivery and implementation of Government agenda for social and economic transformation and progress. We have therefore realigned all our programs to match Government priorities defined in the Big 4 Agenda, the Kenya V2030, SDGs and Africa
Agenda 2063. Further, we have taken all necessary measures to
underwrite the quality standards of our skills and competency
development programs. We are now on the same.

In conclusion, I confirm that the graduands before you have
successfully completed the prescribed program and have the
necessary knowledge, skills, and competencies to discharge their
duties to the satisfaction of the expectations of their Ministries and the citizens.