| Summary/Abstract |
The need to create an efficient, nonpartisan public service that would reflect the population of African colonies approaching independence rather than the colonial rulers and meet the needs and aspirations of those people was one of several critical issues to emerge in the late 1950s. The article focuses on the issue in Kenya. The decolonization process created a need for change in the composition of the public service brought forth competing views as to the best way to achieve an inclusive and efficient civil service, particularly with regard to its structure. This became a subject of contention during the constitutional conferences held during the period 1960–1963 to plot the constitutional path to independence for the British colony. The nationalist political parties put forward contrasting visions for the public service in independent Kenya. The article details this as well as the attitude of the colonial power as Kenya sought the best way to establish a civil service that would provide service to the public from qualified individuals representing Kenya’s diverse population. While the self-government constitution (June 1, 1963) provided for eight public service commissions, this was drastically changed to a single public service commission in the independence constitution (December 12, 1963). The alteration was insisted upon by independent Kenya’s first government, but it came to be viewed as a disservice to the public through failure to produce a nonpartisan and inclusive public service.
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