SPEECH BY CABINET SECRETARY FOR DEVOLUTION AND

PLANNING, ANNE WAIGURU, OGW, DURING THE PRESENTATION

OF AAPAM HUDUMA AWARD, HELD AT STATE HOUSE ON 6TH
MARCH 2015
Your Excellency, the President and Commander in Chief of the
Defence Forces of the Republic of Kenya, Hon. Uhuru Kenyatta;
Cabinet Colleagues,
Principal Secretaries Present,
Heads of Departments and Agencies
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen;
Your Excellency,
Today, I am delighted to inform you that Huduma Kenya has been
declared the 2015 winner of the AAPAM gold medal on Innovative
Management in Africa at the awards ceremony held on 4th March
2015 at the 36th Annual Roundtable AAPAM conference in
Morocco. It is my distinct pleasure to present this award to you as the
Chair of the Summit for the Huduma Kenya Service Delivery Programme.
Your Excellency,
Allow me to give you a brief background on AAPAM and also take you
through the process that got us to this point.
The Africa Association for Public Administration and Management (AAPAM)
is an International professional organization that promotes Best practice,
Excellence and Professionalism in public administration and management in
Africa through; research, publications, training seminars, conferences and
awards. The Association was formed in 1971 in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
AAPAM has led efforts to strengthen the administrative and management
capacities of African public administration systems. These efforts date back
to 1962, when a group of Permanent Secretaries in charge of Public
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Services from several African countries, met to discuss and address the
issues facing the African Public Services. Currently, AAPAM has a
membership database of thirty six (36) African Member States, over five
hundred (500) top administrators and managers from African Nations and
fifty (50) corporate members; which include Institutions and Schools of
Public Administration and Management, as well as public sector institutions
in Africa.
Your Excellency,
The AAPAM continental Award recognizes Innovations that create
effectiveness in the performance of organizations in the public sector
through the introduction of new ideas and new operational and
management methods which have not been carried out anywhere in Africa.
As you will agree Your Excellency, the Huduma Kenya programme perfectly
fits this description.
The objectives of the Award are to:
1)
To recognize and publicize innovations in the public sector which are
worthy of emulation.
2)
To enhance the image of the public sector in Africa.
3)
To promote innovation in the public sector by encouraging and
recognizing organizations and people for creative and effective ways of
solving specific problems of administration and management.
4)
To facilitate the transfer of innovations and best practices as a way
of improving the quality of Public Administration and Management in Africa.
Your Excellency,
A Jury of five (5) distinguished and Eminent African Persons, who are
knowledgeable in public sector management, were involved in the Process.
The first stage involved the calling for submissions from Africa and the Jury
identified a shortlist of five finalists from all the entrants who made the
submissions. In 2014 after the calling for submissions, 30 entrants were
made amongst which the Huduma Kenya Programme was submitted.

The finalists were then invited to appear before the Jury to present and
defend their submissions. A team from the Huduma Secretariat travelled to
the 36th AAPAM Conference in Morocco as one of the five (5) finalists
shortlisted. The five finalists were Two (2) from South Africa, One (1) from
Zambia, One (1) from Tanzania and of course, the Huduma Kenya
Programme. It is important to note that the AAPAM Secretariat recognized
that since the commencement of the Innovative Management Awards in
2007, the submissions presented in 2014 were the most competitive.
Your Excellency,
The submissions were evaluated on a five point criteria that reviewed:
1. Innovativeness
Under this criterion, the entry needed to be genuinely innovative within the
public sector - Innovation in the form of a successful experiment, an
implemented effective organizational change, the transition of new ideas
into practice or the harnessing of new technology. The project should thus
not have been carried out anywhere in Africa.
2. Relevance
The innovation should have had relevance within the functions of the
organization and spelt out clearly the impetus for the change, purpose and
objectives of the change, positive outlook for the future and potential
implications for other organizations.
3. Significance
The benefits of the innovation, either actual or potential, needed to be
significant; significance from a local as well as national perspective and not
valued simply on the ground of size and scale of benefits.
4. Sustainability
The innovation needed to have been implemented for a considerable
period of time, and should have shown evidence of being institutionalized
and self-sustaining with local resources.
5. Replication
The innovation needed to show the potential of universal appeal,
replication and transfer. Similarly, the innovation should have contained
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elements that were adoptable elsewhere to solve similar problems in

organizations and country setups
Your Excellency,
After the defense of the submission, the jury, based on the 5 point
evaluation criteria, determined the top three (3) positions. That is, the
winner of the Gold Award (Highest Award), Silver and Bronze. The Huduma
Kenya Programme emerged the winner of the Gold Award.
The Gold Award was in recognition of addressing critical challenges that
were prevalent in the Kenyan Public Service and renewing confidence and
trust in the Public Service by citizens. Additionally, the recognition was for
creating a new culture of Service Excellence in the Public Service.
Finally Your Excellency,
Huduma Kenya has been a true collaborative effort by several government
ministries and agencies who I wish to sincerely thank. This award validates
our collective, joint efforts and symbolizes the benefits of a whole of
government approach to service delivery. It is our hope that the Kenyan
citizens will continue to experience the benefits of such collaborations
across other sectors.
On behalf of the technical committee and all the Huduma Kenya
stakeholders, I wish to thank Your Excellency for your leadership as the
overall service transformation vision bearer of the Huduma Kenya Service
Delivery programme.