The Public Service Fellowship – Emerging Leaders Foundation

Fifty-One Young Public Servants Join Inaugural Cohort of Public Service Emerging Leaders Fellowship

The Public Service Emerging Leaders Fellowship (PSELF) programme is an intergenerational effort to re-engage Kenya’s youth in public service and administration, by driving the recruitment of young, ethical talent into public service, to enhance government service delivery, citizen outcomes and influence long-term social policy and change.

The inauguration of the inaugural 51 Fellows was held at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre presided over by the former President of Liberia, H.E Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and the Head of Public Service, Dr. Joseph Kinyua. Also present were Ghana’s Head of Public Service, Mr. Nana Kwasi Agyekum Dwamena; Cabinet Secretary for Sports, Arts & Culture, Amb. Amina Mohammed; Founder of Emerging Public Leaders (USA), Betsy Williams; Founder and Executive Director of Emerging Public Leaders-Africa Caren Wakoli; Public Service Commission Chairperson Amb. Antony M. Muchiri and the Deputy Executive Director of the Chandler Institute of Governance (Singapore) Mr. Kenneth Sim among other local and international dignitaries.

In her address at the ceremony, President Sirleaf who is also the Co-Chair of Emerging Public Leaders’ global board noted that the organization was born out of the need to build a progressive and productive civil service for Liberia post-war. She said that as president, she began by inviting Liberian professionals living abroad to return home and join the public services, in what would become the Presidents Young Professionals Programme.

“…I challenge these inaugural Fellows to take advantage of every moment and opportunity the fellowship presents to them…I hope that seasoned public servants will provide this inaugural cohort every needed support, mentorship, coaching, and resources that will allow them to serve diligently.”
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

With the inauguration done, the 51 Fellows will spent one week at the Kenya School of Government for their residential orientation. during this orientation, the Fellows were taken through practical and experiential lessons focused on the essentials of keeping citizens at the heart of the public service, public service leadership and ethics. The Fellows also had an opportunity to discuss through their capstone projects that will be hinged on Kenya’s medium-term development plans and projects.

Over the course of the next one year, the fellowship will include responsive training focused on public-sector specific leadership development, ethics cultivation and citizen-centred government delivery, hands-on mentorship, community service engagement and continuous career development support, including networking opportunities among pan-African alumni. The Public Service Fellows will experience a specially designed curriculum, which incorporates learning, good practices, and knowledge from Kenya and around the world. Designed in collaboration with the Chandler Institute of Governance, an international non-profit organisation based in Singapore, the curriculum will be defined by its strong practitioner orientation.

“The rallying theme for this Fellowship Programme is “Nurturing value-driven leaders”. This theme was deliberately chosen to focus the programme on the goal of raising a new generation of young public servants imbued and teeming with high integrity, ethical and moral standards. These standards among others are the subject of the national values and principles of governance in Article 10 of the Constitution of Kenya, 2010 and the Public Service Commission Act, 2017.